I did it. I pulled it off. What an amazing day I had. Amazing and exhausting and scary and fun and all sorts of things.
My day started at 4:30 am. I got up and got ready and was picked up by Erika from Incredible Adventures. She drove me to the van I'd be driving, gave me my manifest and the van keys and off I was sent. Luckily I'd had the manifest emailed the night before and was able to map out my hotels. I just didn't map out how to get from the office to the downtown area(hmmm). Then after I successfully picked everyone up (full van 13 people) I didn't know how to get out of the city and onto the bridge. (Hmm~beginning to sound like a typical travel day for Karen isn't it?!) And I had kind of looked over the route to Yosemite but that was a little iffy for sure. I did manage to find all the right stops on the way there and the actual park, phew! and I beat the train in Escalon and got to the fruit stand again. Thank goodness. I love that place!
Its amazing how much ITMI was made relevant today. I mean, it all came together. You just keep smiling and learn their names for sure, that really makes a difference. I totally blanked on anything to say for miles and miles, the poor people were probably thinking I had no clue (they had no idea).
I got them to the photo stops and talked them through the options in the park. I taught them how to identify some of the trees in the Sierras (thank goodness for those reference cards) They had 3 1/2 hours to explore the park. Its really just enough time to see the highlights, nothing else. They seemed happy and they had shopped when I picked them up. I was unsuccessful pretty much. Teresa wasn't working at the ice cream shop and I'd left my wallet in the van after having traveled all the way from Yosemite Lodge to Curry Village. (like 20 minutes by shuttle~boo)
On the way back to SF I didn't have any concept of how long the driving took and the 1-1 1/2 hours to Oakdale was actually 2 1/2 Ouch! That was their first pit stop (on the way out of the park)
I had quite a time getting them dropped of in the city. Talk about the blind leading the blind. I don't know the streets well enough to get onto the right one ways that don't dead end at Market St so I managed to circle very little but it seemed to take forever. One of the ladies I had is running the half marathon this Sunday. She and her husband are here from Nova Scotia! They were great.
After my last passengers got out I had a good laugh because once again I didn't know where the office was. I mean, how to get there from downtown. (of all the times I've done it, none have been the same~ and I usually wasn't driving in the dark)
It just kept getting better when I finally got to the office and it was past 10pm, which is when most buses stop running. I didn't know what to do with my stuff, with the van, with the keys, how to get home and I had no one to call and ask. I need a smart phone. I could have answered almost all those questions.
So it occurred to me I had Brian's cell number (my manager) and that was helpful. Apparently one of the buses runs late at night so I walked up the hill, found the stop and here came the bus. It was a great relief as the streets are not lit up. So that was about 10:30 pm and I got back to the hostel at 11:15pm Its quite an interesting bus. I was the only white girl on there. It runs through the Mission district and then up Fillmore, which is a cute neighborhood. I got off and walked back to the hostel through the Fort Mason park (in the dark)
Lets see, what did I learn today? Oh yeah, I'm not very organized...I should have had a map...I'm not very timely...hmmm all of these qualities do NOT a good tour guide make!
But I did it hahaha!! I picked up and dropped off a van full of people today and they had a great day in Yosemite! Wow!
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