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Senior Degenerates

Posted by admin on May 14, 2009 in Bus / Coach

Had a load of Senior Degenerates today… picked them up in Lewiston, took them to Wrentham, MA… about a 3 hour trip.  They were going to some “Four Aces” big band type of luncheon / concernt.  The nice thing was that all of us drivers (about a dozen from different charter companies) were given our own table and treated to a very nice meal along with the “guests”.  I had the stuffed chicken breast with mashed and green beans (no I DIDN’T eat them 😛 ).  Good cup of coffee and wonderful slice of Black Forest cake for desert.

All in all, it was a good trip… had a couple of “Senior Degenerates” on the bus that liked to cause trouble, but generally they were just having a great time and thier tip from the group was nice enough.  Not enough to pay the bills mind you, but nice none-the-less.  Certainly the 12.5hrs of straight time today doesn’t hurt either!

Got to drive a different unit again today.. the Ford mini-bus.  Pretty nice ride, drove about like a one-ton pickup with a load in it, so not bad.  Of course fuel mileage sucked big time, had to do my first on-the-road fueling.  Not a big deal.

Here’s what I had for an “office” today:

101_Cockpit

101

101_Seating

Might have another run lining up for Saturday… DO have one lined up for Monday NIGHT… should be interesting… Colby College pub crawl in the Old Port!

 
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A Little Music, Then Some Flags

Posted by admin on May 10, 2009 in Bus / Coach

Had my second run Friday, here’s the run-down.

0400 wake-up

0530  Arrive at terminal

0600 Meet pre-loaded bus of Jay School Dept Band members

0630  Transfer “command” from current driver (who loaded) and head south-bound

Took the load of 53 students to Holyoke, MA for some kind of band competition.  The students were made up of elementary through high-school.  Got them there in time for thier 1030hrs appointment time without much of an incident.

The one “minor” snafu along the way… the bathroom on the bus wasn’t flushing, so we needed to stop at a rest area along the way.  Hit the NH border and began looking for the next available stop…  of course the teacher / chaperon and I laughed our asses off when the next bathroom break was none other than the NH State Liqeur store!  ROFLMAO  And of course they weren’t open yet… so the teacher and I were joking that maybe we could find a fireworks place… or better yet just take them down to Foxwoods to complete thier “education”!!

Once they got finished with that, it was just a short hop down to Agawam, MA and Six Flags New England.  While they enjoyed about six hours of fun in the sun and roller coasters… I enjoyed a rather hot, sweaty nap in the 70 – 80 degree heat!  Of course the park as a “no idle” policy so I couldn’t run the bus / AC until the passengers were boarding.

Have to remember to pack LUNCH and WATER next time that’s for sure!

Obviously I survive, and I got them back to Jay High School around 0030 hours Saturday morning without incident.  By the time I parked the bus, did my post-trip and finished the paper work it was at least 0130hrs.  Got home around 0200, more than 22 hours after I had started the previous morning.

All in all, it was a good (albiet LONG) trip… and it WAS nice seeing my first paycheck in my “bin” at work when I got back.  I was told by Mike in dispatch that we’re still in the “slow” spring season and that things should be picking up in a couple more weeks.  Then I’ll have more steady runs if / when I want them.  That’s the biggest beauty of working at Northeast Charter & Tour (NECT), I can work as many or as few hours (runs) as I want.

That’s all for now… more after the next run!

PS… here’s some pics of the bus I was driving Friday, a nice, newer Setra 417.

Setra 417 Cockpit

Setra 417 Cockpit

Setra 417 / NECT #1003

Setra 417 / NECT #1003

NECT #1003

NECT #1003

 
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The First Run – All Round The Mulberry Bush

Posted by admin on May 3, 2009 in Bus / Coach

Well, got up at oh-dark-thirty this morning as I posted earlier.  Arrived at the terminal at the scheduled 0315hrs for a 0330 departure.  I was instructed to drive a new-ish Setra:

NECTA pretty decent ride… about what you’d expect from a mid-class coach.  Had a nice ride up into Gorham, NH and across Rt. 2 to I89.  From there we took 89 North to Exit 11, Jericho, VT and the Underhill Artillery Range.

There I had to pick up my bus of the day, an older Setra S215:

setra215The one I drove is actually brown and is showing it’s age, however, it still drove fairly decently.  Loaded with 24 Weekend Warriors and thier M16’s and 50 Cal’s… not to mention all thier gear and packs made for a pretty smooth ride down I89 to I93, then Rt. 4 out of Concord to Portsmouth where we (there was another bus with me) caught I95 North to the Portland armory on Steven’s Avenue.

5429-a

Made some decent time and all in all a decent day.  I used every minute of my legally allowable drive time (10 hours) so it all worked very well.

Bottom line, it was a long day of driving… it felt good to be behind the wheel again… I got to see some nice scenery that I would never had seen from a rig… there are things I miss about OTR, but definitely things I prefer about being a bus driver (please, no Ralph Cramden jokes!)… probably the biggest thing I enjoy about this new direction in my driving career… at the end of the day, I get to be HOME!  I could get used to that!

That’s all for now folks… I’ll find out tomorrow what the rest of the week’s schedule is… hopefully a couple of shorter runs to “break me in” more!  LOL

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