Thursday, October 30, was a great day for "Firsts" for me. It was the first heavy snowfall of the year (about 5 cm), my first day ever driving a tour bus and picking people up from their hotels (in a snowstorm), and my first day driving our biggest buggy, the mammoth of all buggies, Buggy 8, fondly called Gabriel. I was scared stiff when I first picked up my assignment at 7:00 am. But, I knew my time would come...so I sucked in my gut and said "I can do it, no problemo". Yah! Sure!
So I actually found the 15 people at the various hotels and bed and breakfasts, managed not to get the bus stuck (a 24 seater), and was lucky enough to be able to follow another bus through the swirling whiteness of the morning darkness to the launch site. The other drivers always help get the bus driver's bus ready (lucky for me) and Marc, our Buggy Driver supervisor gave me a 3 minute seminar on how to start, how to stop, and how to put the beast "Gabriel" in gear. Now that I am well versed in the machine, I get to drive a 8 wheel drive Buggy that is about 50 feet long, 14 feet wide and about 18 feet tall with the front 4 wheels steering. The good news, I successfully drove the buggy, saw lots of bears, and made it home in one piece with happy passengers. Later we discovered (as I had mentioned at the meeting) that I was not really licenced to drive the 24 seat bus, but oh well! I guess I won't be bussing again.
The photos were great that day as the snow was coming down continually. I found the same mother and cubs as I saw the day before. I have added some photos (I will try again) to the blog. Note that the buggy in the picture is not Gabriel, but one of the smaller ones.
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