GRT Olympic Team Blog

Well, my new laptop adaptor finally arrived and the battery is fully charged; I was almost suffering PC withdrawls.  However, the internet connection at the hotel is garbage and I can’t seem to get my pictures to load successfully since the connection keeps dropping out.  The lobby computer, although a decent machine, is experiencing the same and the other drivers have been complaining about it since Day 1; no fix is in sight.  I have a feeling pics will have to wait until I get home, but I’ll keep trying.

I do not recommend the Sea to Sky Hotel if you need reliable web access. 

Outside of the hotel I’m still having a good time.

Warren – Operator #468

Well, finally I get a chance to post something from BC, the AC Adaptor for my laptop is dead (new one’s on the way from Dell, ASAP I’m told) so I’m using the lobby computer in my hotel to update everyone while I have the chance.

I flew out of Toronto on February 1st.  My flight was delayed out of Pearson for an hour while we waited for a connection from Zurich carrying the Swiss Biathlon Team.

It was raining on the west coast when I arrived and finally got a bus to Squamish and got to my hotel a little after midnight local time.  I was informed by Terry, who shuttled me from the bus stop in Squamish to my hotel, that my training would start at 7:30AM so I hit the hay right away, ripe with anticipation and really nervous after hearing the horror stories from the first drivers to arrive.

Well, on the first day of training for me, the bus was more than half an hour late, but otherwise the three days of traing went amazingly well.  I don’t regret coming a few days later at all; my training group was a mere 6 people and we did all our training during the day (when we could actually see everything); this is in stark contrast to the eariler arrivals who were in groups of 17 and did their training at night.

My trainers name was Ravi, a local driver and great trainer.  In my group were two drivers from Victoria division of BC Transit, one from Edmonton Transit, one from Mississauga Transit and a coach bus driver from Vancouver Island.  I’ve been able to drive pretty much everything out here during training from a Double-Decker Bus, Hydrogen Bus, Coach Bus and Shuttle Bus (similar to our MobilityPLUS buses), I’m hoping to get some in-service time behind the wheel of the double-deckers since I’ll be dring the Route 98 on Saturday and Sunday.

I had today (Friday off), but I’m ready to get into full gear on the 98 starting tomorrow.  The view up here are amazing and I’ve been getting lots of pictures with my new Digital SLR Camera whenever I’ve been able to get the chance so far,and I’ll try an upload them as soon as my new adaptor for my computer arrives (grrr!   ).

Well, until next time,

Warren Schnurr – Operator #468