The alarm on my company cell went off at 2:30 am, and it time for day 2 of my active duty with Whistler Transit. Just before I left the room, I woke Reto up to say goodbye, which was a good thing, as his alarm had failed. The shuttle picked me up at the hotel at 3:30, but he missed the 98 bus to Whistler, so they put us on another shuttle straight to WTC, or Whistler Transit Centre.
Beautiful home at the turn around on Blackcomb, route 6
Today I brought my laptop with me so that the commute is not quite so frustrating. At his request, I sent an email to the President and CEO of BC Transit. This was a follow up to our conversation yesterday as to how they forgot to go for the GPS option in a 2.2 million dollar bus. I had shown him my Garmin Mobile XT and my Google Maps with Google Latitude GPS systems on my cell phone. My suggestion was to adapt Google cell phone technology for the buses. He emailed me back and asked if he could forward this to his boss, which I think is the minister of transportation for British Columbia. They seem very progressive out here, which is exciting.
Night driving is brightened by wonderful lighting. This is in the centre of Whistler, on Village Gate.
Upon arrival at the garage I picked up my “Paddle” and transfers. Out here, a paddle is not something you use in a canoe, but the bus itinerary. It is basically the day’s schedule for the bus and stays with the bus. So after firing up my GPS, I was off to do the #6 Village Shuttle. I love this route as it is not tight and goes through all the upscale resorts. This is where the RCMP are staying, and they were all over the place. 50% of my passengers got on with skis or show boards in their hands.
Doug Mills, local Whistler driver
Then I took the bus back to the garage and grabbed a bite to eat at Nestor’s market, near the garage. Then it was time to set up shop in the lunch room as I had a 2 ½ split. Here I finally met some local drivers. The one fellow had been there over 11 years, so I corralled him into helping me edit the Olympic Routing page on our Union website. Next thing I know he brought a bunch of new recruits over to learn the route 11. I was able to incorporate his notes into the page, which he liked. Then I set up a meeting with him and the chief trainer. Hopefully they will link my page to the corporate page so the homework I did back in Ontario can benefit more than just myself.
I traded transit ball caps with supervisor Steve Antil
Then it was off to catch the #4 bus back to Main Street to do my second half. Here I lucked out and convinced one of the chief supervisors to trade ball caps with me. He got our previous issue hat and I got his shiny white Whistler Transit hat. The problem is that now people are coming up to me and asking me all sorts of questions that I don’t have the answers for.
The route I was doing was the #9 Whister Cay, which winds thru the most beautiful neighbourhood. It runs every 15 minutes, but almost no one knows it is there as it is new for the Olympics. Nice work if you can get it.
Fernando reporting to dispatch for the night shift
Around 1:30 my trainer dropped by, and asked me if I had done a ride check. Since he was my trainer, it worked out very well. I scored 100%. Sweet!
At 2:15 I did my last run and dead headed back to the garage. I met Fernando in dispatch just starting his shift. I was thinking about attending the torch run, but it was scheduled for 7:00, which was my bed time on this crazy shift. I called Reto, and he was already back in Squamish, so I decided to not bother as I’m on seven days straight. After all, I saw it in Kitchener.
Having just missed the shuttle to the Gondola Exchange where the 98 bus to Squamish loads, I decided to walk there. The village of Whistler reminds me of some of the theme parks at Disney. Everything is upscale and brand new. The place was buzzing with activity, and I almost changed my mind about heading home. But I settled for a Twitter shot of me by the Blackcomb ski lift, by the Coke display. The amount of money floating around in Whistler is just mind boggling. This is definitely the playground of the rich.
I also got some exciting news today. The phone call I got from The Record Newspaper yesterday turned into an article on the front page of the Local section. They included the photo of my standing with the President of BC Transit. See article here: http://news.therecord.com/article/667012 I think this is the first time I have ever got in the paper. As Bob Arseneault likes to say, we are the lucky ones. I’m just so thankful to Paul Wagler and others who put the newspaper on to my blog.
Well, now I’m riding the bus by snow covered mountains heading to the hot tub back at the hotel. Our $30 per day meal allowance came through today, so I think I’ll spend some of that on a nice dinner at the hotel tonight.
Tough job, but someone has to do it.