Yosemite 1 The day that wouldn't end

From here on out I'm going to number the trips so I can remember how many I did throughout the summer. It is now Thursday April 14th. I'm finally sitting down to write out what's been happening. I hate doing the catch up because it gets fuzzier as I get further from the events but yesterday was too big to forget really!
I had a 1 Day Yosemite trip to lead. I sort of knew the routine. Get up early, pick up the van, pick up the people, drive to park, drive home.

I got up Wednesday morning and walked to the bus stop only to realize I'd missed the 5am bus, so I had to wait for another one which was 20 minutes down the road. Ugh! So much for a leisurely start to my day. ( I had planned to go in early and eat breakfast and relax) So I got on the bus and go to my stop without too much trouble and walked up to the office.

I was to take Van #9, big red. It needed fuel, which I already knew. I assumed since Zach was coming in at 5:45am I'd have access to the pumps and get myself set up for the day. So I waited and waited and waited and no Zach! After a little while I decided he may not be coming and how do I get fuel?? I had only seen Jessa do the opening rounds once and not committed the alarm to memory yet. So I started texting and calling the managers so I could get into the building to turn the pumps on...By this time I knew that I'd have to hurry up so I'm finally fueling, trying to clean up the van which was filthy and getting my log book set up etc. At this point I remember I have to do my pre trip inspection! Wow, been a while! And I didn't have paper towels and where was the old check (in the dark)
I'm supposed to pick up my first guests at 6:30am. Its now 6:25am and I'm just pulling out of the station. Wow!

I had mapped out my stops the night before (part of why I didn't fully blog) so I knew roughly where I was headed. And at that hour the city is still pretty quiet with traffic so I made good time!

From the moment I picked my guests up the trip went smoothly! I got them to Yosemite and we saw the great views and then I dropped them off and they explored. I got to go see Andy and his friends. They were getting ready to climb El Capitan. They went up today in fact and will come back down and sleep then commit for the next few days! I can't wait to hear how it went!
They were a little surprised to see me in their camp too, it was pretty funny. I just asked the ranger if she'd checked in any boys from Idaho and she had and she remember which camp site too so off I went. You should have seen the gear they had, wow!! I can't imagine doing that climb, pretty amazing!

I went to the Awahnee Hotel because it had started to snow really hard and I thought sitting by the fireplace would be a good relaxing thing to do. All the fires were lit and the place was toasty for sure but there was a crew of people working on the outside of the great hall with jackhammers. No joke, it was so loud! The great hall echos as it is so having that noise bouncing around in there only intensified the whole experience. I was too tired and cold at that point to care so I sat down on the couch by the fire and fell fast asleep. I slept for about an hour, I couldn't believe it!

This post has gotten really long and  I haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet!

I'll fast forward, now its late and I am tired! Plus my new darling roommates are here and are so funny I don't want to miss anything. All three from Ireland. Counties Cork and Kerry.

I got the passengers dropped off without any trouble and was back to the office by 10:30pm. About that time I was really wondering if I should even bother to go back to the hostel. By the time I got there I'd be getting up and turning around to come back to work (why not sleep at the office). I was scheduled to work at 5:45am. I decided to go and try to catch the bus. I went to the bus stop and waited a bit, then decided to look up on my phone the stop ID so I could see when the bus was coming. About that time the T Train came by and I was busy looking at my phone and monitoring the man in the dark beside me, thinking I'd catch the next train. About that time I discovered there would be no buses, that was a little disheartening. Then I got up on the train platform and realized the next train was not for another 40 minutes. Oh man! By that time I decided just to forget the whole thing, frustration and loneliness had set in and I walked back up to the office, went upstairs and made a bed on the floor. I had my sleeping bag there and all the camping stuff was stored there so I had sleeping pads etc. Not that it mattered I fell asleep straight away once i laid down! Phew! What a long day. That was about midnight.
This morning I woke up about 6am. Brian was already downstairs hard at work. I didn't hear him come in the office below and turn off the alarm. So I went to work learning how to put reservations into the computer, which was a challenge because I had to fight to stay awake, luckily Brian does impressions and accents and he entertained me most of the day.
Tomorrow (in a few short hours now) I'm off to shadow a driver to Muir Woods and Wine Country because I'll be leading the tour on Sunday by myself! Trial by fire!!