About town.

I went to the Alaskan Brewery. It's an awesome operation. They've crammed a ton of stuff into their property to keep up with their production growth. The outside, however, is an awning. Humble chaps, and all that.
Went to the Mendenhall Glacier. I've never been here this early, so it was great to see the lake frozen over. Well, not completely frozen; a tourist decided to walk out on the lake and he fell in!

Also went to a cooking school here in town and learned how to make a couple of great seafood dishes. Chef cooked, we tasted. It was fun.

I found an animal head I would hang on my wall! This was here the last time I was in Juneau and I sort of fell in love with it. I won't bring it home, but maybe someday I'll try to make my own wicker moose head.

Revisited a favorite oddity. Pel Menis is a restaurant that serves one thing, Russian dumplings. The options are with hot sauce or without. Sour cream is optional, and they throw in some bread to calm the heat. When it's raining outside, and you're cold to the bone, this is a great way to warm up. And it's tasty!
The house was so cold I built a fire instead of huddled under layers of blankets. It smoked up the room until I got the flew and fan working properly. I don't know if Baxter was cold too, or just interested, but he hung out by the fire for a good hour. Maybe cats like ambiance. Or maybe he's critiquing my method.

I have my retraining today. 308 point inspection of the coach, followed by maneuvering the bus through an obstacle course. I hate those cones. If I haven't forgotten my pivot points and bus-geometry, I'll be driving for the next ship. And that is a very good thing.

Making use of my free time? Questionable.

Yes, I've been looking for housing. But there are only so many postings I can go through before I get some sort of response. With all this time, my mind has started to wonder again, and I'm getting ideas about my coffee shop, how I want to market it, icons, logos, etc. I've got octopus and ink on my brain!


This past weekend was the World Barista Championship, held in Atlanta, GA. Reading through the performances, and finding out that US champ, Mike Phillips, took 3rd (!!!), makes me want to run out of this semi-frozen tourist trap and get my hands on a good grinder and machine. I'll get a van and serve coffee out of the side! I'll travel the city/state/country to share coffee knowledge and good espresso to boot! It'll be small, but good, and eventually I'll get my shop, in a college town, with the ideas I've been jumbling about my head finally in real life!

Anyway. Until that happens, I'll keep growing my idea book, save my pennies, and survive this bus adventure.

If you want to read about it, Barista Magazine did some great work at the WBC and blogged about it.
Today I'm not driving, but instead, doing a ride-a-long. There is a new route and tour that I need to get acquainted with, and with the first cruise ship in port today (an early ship on an around the world cruise) I can do something work related. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be nice to listen to another driver's tour also. Hearing how others present information and which bits of information they choose to say when is always helpful.

I have a meeting with a landlord this afternoon to get an application and chat, and that may result in me moving into a house, on the top floor, with three over-30 men. I called about the room, and Bob, the owner says, "You know there's nothing but a bunch of guys in that house?" Yeah. Well, I'll take guys with running water over no guys and brushing my teeth in the coffee shop.

I knew I liked coffee shops for a reason!

House search continues. Some of the craigslist ads answered back, all nos. I'm making progress though. Of the four responses I got back from ads, two of them offered to meet up and grab a beer to lament my troubles, saying that it's better to know people in this town than not. It is one big clique.

I was surfing through more posting just now and a dude next to me in the coffee shop struck up conversation over the site. He says the house he's staying at has an opening in May. That he'll talk to his land lord and give me a call. Seems like a nice fellow. Name is Paul and he's a pilot for one of the companies I'll be taking tourist to. I'm not getting too excited, but it's nice to have a lead.

More folk fest tonight. Hopefully training tomorrow.

April 18th

I have a special place in my heart for April 18th. It involves Nick Africano's music and a parking lot.

This year's April 18th is less exciting than last. Some reading, coffee drinking, and prodding the Internet to unfold potential future places to live. I put out the lines, so hopefully I get a bite. I'm going to have to pay more than I'd hoped. But, there will be water! There will be heat!

Listened to some of the folk festival at the Silverbow Bakery. Met Melissa, a bartender who was happy to invite me out to enjoy more music tonight with her friends, and who, it turns out, knows some of the same people I do. My small world gets smaller.

No word on my drug test coming back, so I'm bus-free until Monday at least.

Miles for the trip - 5900! Now, lets go drive in circles.

Before I get too far into my life in Juneau, I'd like to pat myself on the back. I did the calculations, and my trip from Bloomington to Juneau, via visits to Dan, Sarah, Ciara and Adam, and the Spokane clan puts my mileage over 5,900 miles! There where hundreds of miles where I thought I heard little noises that made me rigid for hours, fearing I would be stuck in the middle of the ________ (you choose: Oklahoma/California/Oregon/B.C.) wilderness, but I made it. There were support phone calls, books on tape, and many cups of coffee. So, thanks to everyone, and nice job me.

Now, on to the more recent past.

I met with Ron and saw the house today. To say the least, it is in a sad shape. The good news is Ron has agreed to not charge me rent while it is getting into the agreed upon condition. This gives me the time I need to 1) help get my areas into livable condition, or 2) look for a new place to live. Either way, I'll be ok. It's just the newest challenge I've been given.

I went to the bus yard to meet the people I've been talking with for months, fill out paperwork, and get an idea of what my next weeks will look like. I'm doing my refresher training tomorrow if my drug test results come back. The training will be reacquainting myself with the bus via pre-trip test and four hours of driving around a 25 mile loop of roads. The pre-trip will be me and my re-trainer, Mikey, walking around a coach while I point, feel, and visualize 308 points of inspection. I don't know how many I need to pass, but an 80% is 246 items. I would beat myself up if I got anything less.

That means I've been cramming. All the things I learned between February and May of 2004 need to be taken out of my cranial storage. Phrases like "the blower boxes are mounted and secure" and "The emergency engine shut off switch is in the off position" will be used again. I'll get intimate with u-bolts, push rods, brake drums, valves, and steering linkages. I'll be trying to remember the proper pressures and timing for the break test and emergency procedures. Radio checks. Fast idle. Various sight glasses containing various viscus materials used to keep the coach running. Lights! Camera! Action! And after all that I'll be ready to go back on my 53 foot stage to entertain tourists on those 25 miles of looped road.

Let's hope I didn't come all of those 5,900 miles just to fail now.

In Juneau

I made it. I'm here.

I got off the ferry tonight just before 9pm and called Ron, the dude I'm supposed to be staying with. I asked for directions and he said he had a really busy day, and could we talk tomorrow? I said I was taken by surprise, as I was under the impression that he would call me before getting on the ferry to make arrangements if there was a problem. I couldn't get a straight answer out of him. I hung up to call hotels, hopefully finding one that would be cat friendly, but instead I called Dan and fell apart. I just wanted to get to town and sleep in a place I wouldn't be moving from in 12 hours. I was already worried about the cats, who have been in the car for 46 hours. I didn't want to pay for a hotel room when I was expecting to be moving into my summer home. Ron was telling me things about his daughter's pipes freezing, needing to file an extension on his taxes, and feeling tonight wouldn't be good for him. I don't feel this is the right foot to be starting on in a professional relationship. Now I have second thoughts of staying there at all.

I tried to make plans to meet him tomorrow, as he suggested, then he didn't want to do that. I insisted and set the place, letting him set the time. He said "late morning." I said 10 or 10:30? "How about 11." he says. Dan was skeptical that he would show at all. I'm not going to hold my breath. I'll let you know how it goes.

How about some good news? The ferry ride was beautiful! Here are pictures from that, and the last leg of my drive. There were caribou! Mountains! Snow!








Skagway! It's a little town. Three serious blocks by about 13 blocks. Put an airstrip on one side, Mountains on two sides, and the harbor on the end, and that's it. Cute town, beautiful surrounding, and friendly folks. And a coffee shop!


This is the coffee shop. If you look at the counter, they are using half of a canoe for display space. Kitchy and fun.
This was all I saw of Baxter and Kodak near the end. That little white bit is Baxter's paw. The boys just couldn't take all of the new sounds, smells, and sights. They are in self preservation mode.
A backwards glance of Skagway's port.
More on my living situation when I know. For now I'm at a hotel in the heart of downtown. This week there is a folk music festival going on. I can hear it wafting up. Banjos, guitars, harmonicas, and maybe a wash board or two. I'm excited to check it out.

Day two in Canada

I left Spokane early Saturday, and made it to Bellingham by noon. Had a moment at the Bagelry and drove about to see the old spots. I was planning on staying for a few hours then moving on, but once I got there, I really wasn't interested in stopping anywhere. I pulled into a few places, but I felt too guilty about leaving the cats penned up to do more than buy a bagel and a cup of coffee. So I drove.

I stopped the first night at Williams Lake. Parked in a church parking lot and snoozed for the night. My headlight blew out in the morning after getting coffee from the most unpleasant man I've met in awhile. I had an extra in the trunk (in an easily accessible spot) and changed it under a street light.

Tonight I'm in Dease Lake, as the only guest in a huge hotel. They don't get many travelers this far north this time of year. If I keep up my pace I'll be in Skagway tomorrow, quite a bit a head of schedule. I'm just glad the passes are open and the weather looks clear.

Here are pictures from the car. Who knows where they were taken, specifically.

Also, I can recommend Anansi Boys and The Moment I First Believed. The miles are melting