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!
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:
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!
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!
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:
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!
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 / NECT #1003
NECT #1003