My managers worked it out that I'd be able to go on this Prince William Sound Cruise if I would drive the guests down there with me. (Driving the guests to the tour sites is one of my many hats) Awesome. I hadn't driven any of the tours yet so I was really excited. Not to mention, I was finally getting to go on one of the tours. One problem...I didn't know where to go.
Now, you think that this is an easy fix. Just ask for directions you say? Alas, I did. Many times, to many people. And the answer was always the same. "Oh, it's SO easy. You just take the road straight through town to the docks.". Ok?!? The docks are in a little lovely town called Valdez. You may remember it from the headlines back in the 80's of "Exxon-Valdez oil spill". The town is 2 hours away on one of the two roads out here. So I knew you only took the ONE road all the way there, but shouldn't you have to turn at some point?
There was another employee, Megan, going as well, but not only had she never been there either, but we were driving 2 vans (due to the many guests going) and she already claimed the "following" van because I "knew what I was doing"...huh? Who said that?!?! So, ok. We load 14 paying guests into two vans and we're on our way, with me in the lead. Everyone says this is easy, so I'll just go with it. It must be well signed down there. (you see where this is going don't you).
The drive to Valdez is gorgeous! We go by the Worthington Glacier, over the Chugach mountain range, across Thompson pass, and through Keystone Canyon (which is one of my favorite places here) with it's many waterfalls. GORGEOUS! We make it to Valdez (which I am absolutely in love with) with plenty of time to spare. I follow everyone's advice and keep driving straight through town...until the road ends...and there's no Cruise. So here I am sitting, sitting at a stop sign at the end of the road. I can go left, towards the water (which is obviously where we want to be, but I can tell this is not the right place) or right, further into town. I sit there. My palms sweaty, my heart beating, embarassment creaping up to my cheeks. Finally, I admit to the guests that I'm lost and decide to pull across the street into a parking lot and go back to converse with Megan...this should be good. She was so funny. I walk back towards her van and she rolls her window down only 2 or 3 inches. I can see the fear in her face as well. I try to quietly ask if she knew where we should go, but because she wouldn't roll the window down, I had to be kind of loud, and I can hear a heavy sigh come from inside her van...ugh. She just shakes her head "no" and pretends to not even know me as she rolls the window back up...with ME STILL STANDING THERE! Just because you don't want this to be happening, doesn't mean it's going to go away. I lip the words "You're dead to me" and go back to my van.
We take the turn towards the water and I PRAY we happen upon the cruise ship. No such luck. We end up at the Ferry landing which has a huge sign in the window "CLOSED". Yahoo! I swing through the parking lot and take a left by the Ferry terminal trying to think fast. Meanwhile the guests are all asking me questions like "What time does the cruise leave? Are we going to make it in time? Why didn't anyone give me clear directions?". I see a man getting into a truck behind me. I beep my horn and back up...I roll down my window...he comes over to the van and I start with "Excuse me sir...Can you tell me where the Stan Stephens dock is"...mental gulp. Luckily he does, although I can see his utter disgust in me as the worst tour driver ever. Phew! We know where we're going. And we're close. I turn to give Megan the thumbs up of relief behind me, and she's not there. Gulp!
I do a quick sweep and see her across the way in the parking lot...parked...letting all of her guests out of the van. Everyone's putting their backpacks on for the day, stretching their legs, looking relieved that we made it. But we hadn't yet. My heart sinks and I throw up a little in my mouth. I casually drive across the street and pull into a parking spot next to her, trying to make a non panicky face at her while I park. Although, I find out later that my whole van of guests were shaking there heads no and swinging their arms at her, so, so much for being subtle. She gives a lighthearted "just kidding" to her guests, shoots me a look of utter terror, and climbs back in the van.
With the help of the guests that took notes on the directions (we like to give the guests a fully interactive experience), we make it to the dock. Whoohoo! Now what? Do we check all the guests in? I guess. It would help if Megan hadn't forgotten the manifest in her van. One of the guests asks me where we load for the cruise and I ask if they really want to keep following us. The one guest named us "right" and "left" because of the ferry dock when I went left and Megan went right into the parking lot. We get everyone checked in and Megan tells them that they have a whole 7 minutes to walk around town...double smirk.
The rest of the day was utterly amazing. We rode the boat around the Prince William Sound with Humpback whales, Minke whales, Otters, Porpoise, Puffins, Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles and icebergs. It was phenomenal!!!!! I love living in Alaska!!!
The trip home was uneventful and luckily the guests all had good humors about the days events.
Megan and I
I still haven't seen any Moose...ugh. Have had many more adventures, but will write about them later.
