Posted by admin on Jun 8, 2009 in
Bus / Coach Had a super simple, easy run last night… pick up 180-some-odd students in Falmouth, ME and drive them 45 minutes north to Hallowell (Augusta), ME for thier project graduation party at a bowling alley / ice arena there. They had three local bands, fireworks, TONS of free food and actually some really decent coffee! Easy money!
Got to drive the old girl again… N38 the standard 49 PAX (passenger) bus… I was one of four and it was a nice easy, simple, quiet, almost boring evening… nice way to earn 13.5 hours! LMAO
Not much else to report… haven’t been notified of any other runs as of yet…
Posted by admin on Jun 7, 2009 in
Bus / Coach The last couple of days have been kinda crazy so I haven’t had a chance to post, so this will catch you up…
Let me start with Thursday…
There is no way in HELL I will go back to friggin’ New York friggin’ city EVER again… I mean OMFG x10… to say I had a bad experience Thusday in New York City would be a ginormous understatement. I know now (not condone!), why people from New York drive like such friggin assholes when they come to Maine. I pride myself in being able to drive pretty much anything, anywhere, anyplace and “survive”. The level of aggressive driving in NYC is behyond comprehension…. There were sooo many times that both taxis AND pedestrians would simply cut me off or just walk out in front of my bus boggles my mind to this day. One example, I was following the lead bus (he’s been to NYC before)… there wasn’t a full car-length between us so I didn’t lose him… from the FAR left lane of a four lane major street a flippin taxi comes… stuffs himself between us (how we never collided I don’t know), then… JAMS on his brakes and comes to a stop. Now mind you the traffic flow is around 40mph… so he being a Crown Vic stops in about half a car length to pick up a fare standing IN the road in the #1 lane outside of the parked cars. I can only say thank GOD I was empty… I KNOW, without a doubt that if I had been loaded with kids at the time… there was no way in hell I would have gotten stopped in time…and cleaned his friggin clock…BIG TIME. And the beauty of it? Yeah… my fault.
That kind of scenario happened so many times Thursday, that by the afternoon I was shaking mad! EVERYONE who drives there simply will NOT give you an inch…and will openly and actively antagonize you (being a bus especially)… you literally HAVE to drive so aggressive and just not look in your mirrors AT ALL. Wanna go left? Just turn the wheel and hope you don’t hear metal scraping. If you look in your mirror…too late, they’ve already fill any kind of gap available and while you’re eyes are diverted, managed to cut YOU off!! And the AMOUNT of traffic is simply ungodly… there’s four “lanes” painted… those are merely suggestions… five, six, even seven lanes of traffic is quite common… and it’s just as common to have anyone, stop anywhere, anytime for anything. Doesn’t matter the lane… I watched a cab stop IN THE MIDDLE LANE with traffic flying past at 40+mph to drop a fare off… and they just whip doors open… Forget trying to make any kind of right turn… especially on a green light as that’s when the crossing lights are on and there are SOOOO many people that you litterally have to stick your nose (of a BUS mind you!!) an INCH from thier face before they will even THINK about SLOWING down walking…never mind stopping to allow you to turn!!
Friday was more of the same simple insanity.. and I just cannot stress enough… it IS insanity at it’s purest. Traffic getting into the city was better as it was more than an hour later (we had gone into NYC Thursday during rush hour… not that it really slows down at all, but at least it was MOVING bumper to bumper)… so traffic flowed pretty good through the Lincoln tunnel. Getting OUT of the city Friday afternoon? Forgettaboutit…
Bottom line… to drive in New York city is gambling against the odds… the odds are VERY good that you WILL hit someone, or something sooner rather than later, and frankly, I will never “push” my luck like that again and go into that city. It’s just not worth the risk.
The trip home was pretty uneventful… and we arrived in Lewiston to do a driver swap around 2230hrs… by the time I got my paperwork done and got back home it was almost 0100. I have a run tonight, a project gradution thing from Falmouth to Hallowell so it’s a nice easy one… drop off at 2100 hours tonight, pick up around 0430 tomorrow morning.
(more pics after the jump)
Liberty Park view of NYC
(more pics after the jump)
Posted by admin on Jun 3, 2009 in
Bus / Coach Long day… first off, the “good”… took the groupd to Arlington National Cemetery today… was able to park right there which gave me time / ability to go in too… had really wanted and I’m so glad I did. I wish I had more time to visit more and pay my full respects to my fellow Veterans… but time was short… hiked the mile or so up to the Tomb Of The Unknowns…
(more pics after the jump)
Got done there… back to Union Station for lunch, then dropped them off at the Air & Space Museum… which I could have gone in there too…but parking is a bitch there…right on “The Mall” with Washington’s Monument so no go.
Picked them up at 1430 to head to New Jersey… was told it “should only be a couple of hours”… WRONG… Four and a half hours later…. On top of that… 30 minutes into the trip of the chaperone’s on-board plugged his laptop into my inverter…the one that runs the TV’s and DVD player? Yeah… I think he zapped it or something as it’s not working anymore… so NO MOVIE for that four and a half hours!!!
Got to the hotel here in Somerset, NJ… back my fucking bus into a goddamn pine tree!
Oh yeah… that was after I got black nasty grease on my good white shirt today friggin with the damn luggage compartment doors (underneath) that don’t work for shit!)…
Then for a little icing on the cake…this is damn smoke free hotel! No smoking rooms in the building… THAT pissed me off!
<sigh>
Anyways… check out the photos… going to NYC in the morning…wish me luck!