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Mr. Wong Goes To Washington – 1521hrs

Posted by admin on May 31, 2009 in Bus / Coach

Started this week’s run yesterday late… the other driver and I were scheduled to meet the pre-loaded buses at the Kennebec Service Center at 2130 hours.  We got there at 2050hrs and they were already there!  Been there about ten minutes it turns out… apparently the kids got the bus loaded in like 3 minutes flat and off they went, but it really screwed me up as it didn’t give me a chance to check all the controls and switches of R6 even though I’d drove it before.  So we blasted outta there right away and drove stright through the night to Washington DC.  We stopped about every two hours which was nice, but it was still a long night!

Arrived in DC this morning right on schedule… stopping for breakfast about an hour out at a Mc Donalds (drivers eat free!), then took them into the “malls” of DC.  So far today I’ve seen the Washington Monument, The Jefferson Monument, The Licoln Monument, the WWII Monument, the Vietnam Monument, and the White House (from a slight distance).  How many pictures did Mr. Wong take?  Not a frickin’ one!  Was too busy being white-knuckled on the wheel, not to mention having 52 people staring at the back of my head!

Oh well… at least *I* got to see them right?  LOL

The other driver and I headed to the hotel about 0830 to check-in.  Of course the hotel had no clue we were coming that early, so they had to zig and zag to find us two rooms so we could get some sleep!  To their credit they did… and man what a room!

(more images after the jump)

So I crashed for a few hours to take the edge off… we have to pick the kids (all Jr. High Schoolers) at 1930hours tonight to bring them back here, then we’re off for the night, so I didn’t want to sleep too much today.

Tomorrow we have a full schedule… drive them here… drop them off for an hour… then drive them to the next place so I want to get a good night’s sleep tonight.

That’s about all for now… more later from the Nation’s capitol!

 
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On The Road Again – 0149hrs

Posted by admin on May 30, 2009 in Bus / Coach

First… I forgot to post a trip I took Saturday night the 24th.

I had 803 again, one of the newer / nicer Setra’s… had to get into the shop at Midnight to get the bus, then had to drive the 4 hours for a pickup at 0430 in Machias, ME (far east coast of Maine), then did a driver swap in Topsham where that driver took the crew to Fenway for a Redsox game.  a third driver swapped again in Topsham to take them back.  Nothing much to report on the trip… other than that’s a long boring-ass trip to the left edge of Maine!

Had another run today… Auburn Middle School.. pickup at 0830 yesterday morning going to North Andover, MA (I495) so they could some band concert thing, then 20 minutes up the road (and I93) into Salem, NH to hit Canobie Lake Park until 2100 hours.  Brought them back to Auburn for a 2330 drop off, back to the shop to post-trip the bus and finish paperwork.  Just getting home now…  by the way.. this is a 5 speed MANUAL bus!

This was MY office for the day:

N38 Office

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As I was saying… got back without incident.  She’s an older standard transmission bus, with no pull left in her… but once you wind her up and get to rolling, she’ll hum along sweetly as long as you please!

Gonna be gone all this coming week… have a trip to DC starting tonight (Sat 31st)… will be gone until Friday night… I should have internet from the hotels we stay at, so hopefully I’ll keep you posted as we go.  Two busses of students doing the whole visit DC thing… lots of moves and waits…but might give Mr. Wong a chance to rear his ugly head!

 
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Partying with the class of 2009 in the Old Port

Posted by admin on May 19, 2009 in Bus / Coach

Had a nice run last night.  I say last night because it didn’t start until 1700hrs.  Had to drive up to Waterville (about an hour + North) to get roughly 400 Colby College graduates and take them down to Portland into the Old Port for a pub crawl.   There were 8 busses total and I have to say I had a pretty good night.  Had yet another unit I’d never driven before (pictures below).  One of the newer Setra’s and man did she drive nice!

I had done up a “party mix” CD before I left, and we cranked the tunes on the way down with literally the whole bus singing along!  We dropped them off in the Old Port just about 2100hrs, then the boss (owner of Northeast) who was driving last night as well, decided to take us all out to dinner at Texas Steakhouse in Scarborough.  Had an awesome meal of Prime Rib and steak fries and we had a roucus good time!

Got done with the meal and headed back to the Old Port… we were supposed to start picking them up at 2330 as they got ready to leave / filling busses as needed, but it was 0100 before they even called for the first bus.  I ended up being second in line to fill, and had to immediately call the boss for backup as I filled up in about 2 minutes flat with easily another 2 busses worth of people waiting at the pick-up point.

Drive them back to Waterville… only had two “poppers”… one at least made it into the provided air sickness bags!  The other one… well not so luckily for the cleaning crew this morning!  ROFLMAO

Got back to the barn at 0400 this morning from a pleasant uneventful run… even on the way back the drunks….err college graduates were singing and in good spirits / not causing any problems!

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