GRT Olympic Team Blog

Sunrise in a mountain valley is beautiful. I always start my shifts in the pitch black, but before long you start to see the outline of the mountains above. Then, about an hour or so into your shift, the sunlight hits the top of the snow covered mountains to the west, while you are still in the shadow. Passenger loads are light at this hour, so I find myself taking photos of the amazing scenery at time points. I’ve already heard drivers talking about moving back here later on.

Sunrise hits the top of the mountains in Whistler

The security around here is just amazing. For a week now there are two RCMP officers on every major intersection. There are brightly coloured crossing guards at the entrances to the main events. You’ve heard of Men in Black? Here we have the Men in Blue. Everywhere you look there are volunteers dressed completely in blue. These people have huge 10 inch ID cards on a necklace that let them onto transit free.

Olympic volunteer welcome everyone to the Athletes' village

And then there is the security at the Athletes’ Village. Right at the turn off there is a yellow clad crossing guard with an armed RCMP officer beside them. One bus length onto the road, two more officers look you over and another crossing guard with a baton waves you through. 1000 feet further another set of officers and crossing guards are where you turn right into the turnaround area.

Military blimp with surveilance gear behind Athletes' Village

We don’t go any further, but the athletes’ buses that have been hired from Washington State and the highway coaches go into the village through a huge tent where I heard dogs barking. I’ve seen officers with mirrors checking under the buses. On the way out I saw a dump truck with an officer on the running board grilling the driver and two other officers checking the vehicle out. Traffic was lined up a block behind the truck but they were not in a hurry.

If that wasn’t enough, I saw a blimp hovering about a kilometre away about two thousand feet in the air. This belongs to the army and has military grade optics and infrared sensors on it. It is so sensitive that the Whistler residents were concerned that if it was over the actual village it would be an invasion of privacy. Every day there seems to be more helicopters buzzing around too.

Controlled Access to the Athletes' Village

Another interesting thing is the different accents you hear here. I spoke to store clerk and she told me that Whistler is known as “Little Australia.” Work visa are very easy to obtain for a two year period, if you are under 30 years old. This girl was on her second visa and worked as a snow board instructor when the Olympics were not on. Now she had to make ends meet by working in the store. There are also a lot of Brits here, and everyone is so friendly.

Olympic Lanes on highway

Another day, another new route. Today I did the #10 Games Express for the first time. It goes to the Athletes’ Village, on Cheekamus Rd., south of Whistler. I had to reset my GPS a bit as we don’t actually go right into the village, but turn around at the security check out front.

After work I had thought of wandering around in the village, but I’m on day six of a seven day stretch, so I jumped on the 98 bus home. Once back in the hotel I crashed for a two hour nap. Then off to the pool to practice tsunami landings off the slide. Reto called home on my Skype account, watched a bit of TV, and then it was time to saw logs.

There is an old ditty that says, “Whistle while you work.” The sun was not yet up, the bus was empty, and I was heading out on the beautiful #3 route, which I now have memorized. I’d actually gotten a good night’s sleep for once, and I was feeling pretty good. Next thing you know, I’m whistling a tune and thinking how lucky I am to be here in God’s country. I think I’m finally getting into the groove here in Whistler.

Motorhome parked in our bus bay beside Green Lake

Sunday, I was on the 3 and 4 route in the morning. I love this #3 Emerald Estates route, as it goes the furthest north and has a 10 minute layover up there. If you have no one on board, you can park right on Green Lake and take in the scenery. This in fact happened early in the morning when I saw another bus pulled over at the bus stop in the pull off area right beside the rock face and the frozen lake, so I pulled in behind him. As they do here in BC, there is no idling for more than 3 minutes, so I just shut down right away. There was a motor home pulled over in our bus bay, and soon a dog started barking inside. The owner came out and luckily was in a good mood. He was looking for the Native Museum to deliver wood carvings. I pulled out my GPS and gave him directions.

Whistler Transit Bus Stop Paddle. Used at night to get noticed by the bus driver

The next run on the 3 was also interesting. I pulled over a bit further up and noticed a metal paddle hanging from a chain on the post. There was reflective tape on the paddle and a note said to hold it out in front of the bus so you will be noticed in the dark. Ingenious!

Terrance Kosikar, a very friendly customer who works as a medic on the ski hill

While I was taking a photo of this, a fellow walked up who wanted on the bus. He offered to take my picture beside the post. When we got under way we struck up a great conversation. It turns out he was a medic on his way to the ski slope for duty. I told him I was a “tourist driver” from Ontario and that I would be putting that photo in my blog. One thing led to another and Terrance offered to give me free tickets to the Victory Celebration on Feb. 22^nd which is a medal awards ceremony. He gets several tickets as part of his job, and wanted to share. I gave him my card and he gave me his email address. I’ll be picking up the cards in a couple of days. Sometimes Customer Service Excellence has its rewards.

House decorated in the Olympic Spirit

Another interesting thing I witnessed was Kite Skiing on Green Lake. I couldn’t snap a picture, but it sure looked like fun. They have a small parachute that pulls them along the ice on skis. But I’m wondering how safe the ice is now that it hasn’t gone below freezing since we’ve been here.

On my split I had lunch at the White Spot Restaurant. On the way there I sent some Tweets of me beside the Inukshuk. See http://twitter.com/caw4304. Then I walked over to the Gondola Exchange and I did my first #1 Creekside Express. This is a nice run south down the Sea to Sky Highway and back again to the Ski hill. A lot of skiers ride this route to get to Creek side Ski area. About half our riders are now Olympic volunteers in their blue outfits.

Next I did the 77 Staff Housing run. This run is almost like a ski lift in that you drive several switchbacks right up the mountain to the apartment buildings for the Fairmont hotel staff. Almost all the workers are from Australia. They come here for cheap $10/day accommodations and a free season’s pass to the ski slopes.

Nice bus shelters up here in Whistler. Bear proof garbage cans at every stop

Then it was time to commute back to Squamish again. While the scenery is beautiful, the hour-plus trip each way is starting to wear thin. After a hurried supper, I was picked up by a gentleman from the Squamish Baptist Church. Steve Huebner had intended to come along, but he was still on the way back from Whistler. The service was just what the doctor ordered with several hymns and a great report from a mission’s trip to Peru. While I like singing choruses from an overhead, there is just something about the old hymns that warms my soul. Getting out to church was just the break I needed.

I’m actually blogging this on Monday as with doing the laundry and everything, there was just no time on Sunday. I talked to Debbie Elliott and she called my blog “John’s blog,” because I had way more posts than the other 17 members of Team GRT. So I guess I fail at inspiring others to blog, but what can I do? We all have the same access to this blog, so maybe some of us just need more encouragement from back home.

The Peak to Peak gondola, 1400 feet above the mountain

So, I’m now five days into my seven-day stretch. Reto and I have Thursday and Friday off and are planning to go for a ride on the Peak to Peak gondola. It actually runs between the peaks of two mountains. It is the longest of its type in the world, and is 1400 feet above the ground. Two of the cars have a glass bottom. Maybe Friday we will try the zip line ride. As they told us, do things you can only do in Whistler.

My third day behind the wheel almost didn’t begin. Here in Whistler they usually don’t tell you where your bus is, so you have to wander around the yard searching for your bus. The first bus wasn’t in the yard, so it was back to dispatch for another bus. That bus existed, but the other driver didn’t want to give it up, even thought it hadn’t been fuelled. So they finally sent me out with the HR fellow, Joel, who has been assigned temporarily to Whistler to try and get things organized, and he gave me a bus. Luckily I had arrived early for my shift, or I would have been very late.

Whistler Village

The adventure continued when I did my first #7 Tapley route that we had gotten lost on in training. My GPS wasn’t programmed just right, and I knew it. So I recruited my first passenger to help me find my way in the dark. Oddly enough, this neighbourhood doesn’t have street lights. Another odd thing here is how often they use turn around areas in the routing to make a U-turn. And backing up doesn’t seem to be against the rules here either, which is good because it took me two runs to figure out how to avoid backing up.

Snowy mountains surround Whistler

After reprogramming my GPS, the second route went perfectly. The 7 route is scheduled for 30 minutes, but it only took be about 20 minutes, so that was nice. The parking on Main Street is also not really designed for so many buses, so I learned to hang back until my departure time.

At around 7 in the morning we had the Main Street Terminal blocked by the Torch Run. I ran up and got a video of it leaving Whistler.

Video of Torch run leaving Whistler

I had a two hour lunch during which I had to make my way from Main Street Terminal to the Gondola Exchange Terminal. What a lovely place to have to kill time. I had a lovely breakfast in the village at the BREAD Garden Urban Cafe, and then strolled around snapping pictures. Today the weather was clear and sunny, which makes for beautiful mountain shots. Like Blue Mountain in Ontario, the ski lifts are right next to the village. The hotels are huge, and the shops are busy.

Prevost highway coach on the 99 Pemberton run

My second half was on the 99 Pemberton run, which runs 30 kilometres north to Pemberton. I lucked out and got the Prevost coach I was hoping for. Here again I’ve had zero seat time in this new vehicle, so I had to learn on the fly. The blinds are powered. The door handle is actually two buttons. The previous driver had turned off the retarder, so it wasn’t braking the way I it should in the mountains. Once I figured that out, it was much better. What a smooth ride and good hill climbing ability. This coach is 45 feet long.

John with one of his trainers in Pemberton

Of course, this route was messed up too, with the map indicating that we should be going around the block the opposite way to the correct one. Plus, they have added a jog down Nestor road by the garage on the return trip, which is also not noted. Nor is the stop in the Meadow Park Sports Centre mentioned either. Luckily, I befriended a bunch of the passengers and they helped me out so that I never missed a turn. All part of the adventure.

When I got back to the garage, I met Steve Huebner, who was just completing his day of training. They had a bus lined up to travel back to Squamish in, so I tagged along with them. John Livingstone was just leaving the garage in a double decker bus as I parked my coach. Now I’m jealous. I’m not scheduled to drive the 98 route, which is the only route they are allowed on. I may have to switch shifts or do some OT, because I can’t  return to Ontario without having driven a double decker. All the drivers rave about them after drive them.

Steve Huebner, on left, arrives for training

They are now hiring more drivers to replace the many who never showed up or quite. People who missed the cut off date for the hiring are being called back and hired. Two of the people on my bus right now were hired this week, and started their training today. So that is interesting.

Well, I’m almost back to Squamish, and have found that writing this blog makes the trip go a whole lot faster. So maybe I’ll have to call this the Bus Blog.

Tomorrow evening Steve and I will be attending the evening service at Squamish Baptist Church. I got a phone call from one of the members last night who offered to pick us up at the hotel. It sure makes you feel welcome here.

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.

Having a blast in Tofino, BC. They surf all year round here. I’ll post more later, but it is getting late, so I’ll just throw the video up.

Here is our take off from Tofino, BC. Tofino Air runs a 1953 Beaver float plane. The pilot was very good and the takeoff and landing very smooth. See http://www.tofinoair.ca/

Video of takeoff from Tofino harbour

About to fly out to Hot Springs in a 1953 Beaver float plane

We then went to Cox Cove beach and watched the surfers. Check out this video of the waves and surfers.

Video of Surf at Cox Bay, BC

We ended the day with a Salmon meal at the Black Rock resort.

BC Salmon dinner at the Black Rock Ocean Resort

I’m out of time, so I’ll just throw every photo I took today on my Google Photo account. Go to http://picasaweb.google.ca/SirJohnAMcDonald

Well, that’s enough blogging for tonight. Tomorrow we head back to the mainland.

Bob Arseneault and myself headed off to horseshoe Bay at the crack of dawn, and caught the 830 ferry across to Nanaimo. The ride over was perfectly smooth, and it was an absolute delight to be at sea once again.

BC Ferrie

We arrived at 1030 and rented a budget rent a car. We selected a red Toyota Yaris, and headed North on Hwy. 19. Bob told me he figured it was time to buy a digital camera so we stopped in a Future Shop. Now Bob has a Pentax Optio, 10 megapixel point-and-shoot camera. Immediately, he started shooting everything in sight.

On Board the Queen of Cowichan

BC is just full of spectacular scenery

We headed across the Island on Hwy., #4, and stopped at QUALCOMM falls. The scenery was beautiful with a roaring mountain river going under the foot bridge. Next we stopped at coombs, where we saw various shops with thatched roofs with grass on top.

Coombs

The next stop was the spectacular Cathedral Grove where 7 to 900-year-old Douglas firs grow. We hiked about a kilometer into the woods taking pictures of these magnificent giants. It was about 10° and raining off and on. Everything was green with firs and mosque running everywhere. It sure makes you look small beside these massive trucks.

Bob is wondering how high this Douglas fir is

After about three hours of driving we reach the far side and stopped at Long Beach. Bob calls this his happy place, because it reminds him of the various camp outs and bonfires he had when he lived in this area. The tide was going out at the time that we were able to walk about 100 feet out across the sand to the Pacific Ocean. For me it is almost a ceremony to be able to walk to the water’s edge on the far side of the continent.

Finally arrived at Long Beach on the west coast of Vancouver Island

We arrived at the Weigh West marine resort at about five o’clock and checked in. Bob used to work in the restaurant here about 25 years ago. They had a great deal on which included two dinners and two breakfasts. Our hotel room overlooks the marina and is on the top floor facing the ocean. The blue Heron restaurant where we had supper is built on stilts and extends over the inlet. Our meal was free because of our hotel discount, and so we ordered Dungeness crab. The meat was sweet and was probably the best meal I’ve had in ages. We put the flesh into separated butter, which made it even better.

Dungeness crab dinner. Life is good!

After a drive around Bob’s old town, we retired to the hotel room, and I taught Bob to publish his first blog.

What a way to spend our days off!