Even You Could be an Alaska Tour Guide

This post was written by Colleen Easley on February 9, 2008

Picture below: John Hall’s Alaska Tour group at Alaska/Yukon border. Dale and Colleen - front row, left.
I promised in my previous post that I’d tell you more about how I became a tour guide in Alaska. If you read that post, you know that Dale and I took a two week trip to Alaska in the summer of 1993. We were sitting in a pizza restaurant in Skagway, AK when it occurred to me to ask the waiter how young people got jobs like this in a seasonal town like Skagway. I was curious because our son, Kevin was going to be graduating from high school the following year and I was thinking a job like this might be a great experience for him. The young man replied that this restaurant was owned by the cruise line, Holland America, and he game me a phone number for a job hotline we could call to get information about seasonal job openings.

A couple months later I called the phone number. Not only did I learn about restaurant and hotel jobs all over Alaska, but also that Holland America owned the Gray Line of Alaska tour bus company. The recording spoke of the need for driver/guides for all their division in Alaska and listed where their training sessions would be held. Seattle was the primary location. That’s about a 1 1/2 driver from where we live in Olympia, but it caught my attention, because during our trip the previous summer, I had actually contemplated what a cool job it would be to drive a motorcoach up and down the Alaska highways.

I had never driven a large vehicle before, and frankly, I wasn’t sure if I was even remotely capable, but after contacting the human resources department, I was assured they could train just about anyone to drive a motorcoach. I went through the hiring process and by February 1994, I was enrolled in their 13 week training program. I completed my training with a class-B CDL and on June 6, 1994 flew to Anchorage for my first summer as a driver/guide with Gray Line of Alaska.

That first summer in Alaska was quite an experience. I spent a lot of time transferring people to and from the cruise ship port of Seward, AK. It’s a beautiful drive, but can get a little old when you sometimes have to drive the 127 miles a total of 4 times in one day! I also learned how to wash a bus as quickly as possible, get up a 2:00 am, dump the toilet holding tank, sleep in bunk beds with 4 other drivers to a room, and the list goes on. I can’t say it was any easy job, but I still managed to have a lot of fun. I was 44 years old and most of the other drivers were young college kids, so that alone kept me energized!

Holland America has an incentive program that awards a free cruise to seasonal employees who complete two summers in Alaska. I think when I first started I figured I’d do the two years and take my free cruise and that would be the end of it. That first year I shared a small room with a younger gal who was working her 5th summer in Alaska. I wondered how she could possible have done it that many years. When I came back for my second season in 1995, I really thought it would be my last, but Alaska had other ideas for me. I came back one more year to drive out of Anchorage, and on the fourth year, I switched divisions and began another three year stint working out of the Fairbanks division. This gave me the opportunity to drive different highways and to get into the Yukon Territory of Canada. I even got to drive the haul road up to Prudhoe Bay where the oil fields are. For my seventh year I went back to Anchorage to drive some longer charter tours that took me through the complete circuit - Anchorage all the way down to Skagway, up through Whitehorse and Dawson City, Yukon, and back up to Fairbanks, down through Denali Park and back to Anchorage. I also learned to fully narrate all the tour routes I drove; thus the title, Driver/Guide.

Picture below: John Hall’s Alaska tour bus at Matanuska River overlook with King Mountain in background.

By the year 2000 I felt I had gone about as far as I could expect to go with Gray Line. In August of 2000 I drove a couple charters for a small company out of Minnesota and that’s when I met John Hall for the first time. He ran one bus in Alaska and needed a second coach and driver to handle the large number of guests who were signed up for these two tours. An old Gray Line friend of mine was driving John’s single bus, and recommend that John request me to drive these two charters. By the end of the second tour, John had asked me to come to work with him the following year since he was adding a second motorcoach to his fleet. That was the beginning of what has now been a seven year run with John Hall’s Alaska Cruises and Tours. (John now has four motorcoaches in his fleet!)

Working for John has been a completely different experience than working for Gray Line. Instead of wondering day to what what I’d be doing the next day, I now know my schedule for the entire summer ahead of time. I have my own motorcoach (and the responsibility to keep it clean), I sleep in my own hotel room, and most of my meals are included as well. I also have a lot more independence when it comes to planning my tours. Of course I have to follow the published itinerary, but I have my choice of picture stops and any extra activities I can fit in along the way. My personal opinion is that John Hall tour members get a much better organized and comprehensive tour than with the larger companies like Holland or Princess.

In June of this year, I’ll be heading back to Alaska for my 15th season. Who would have guessed in 1994 that this seasonal career would have lasted this long? I’ve also spent just about every March in Alaska working a volunteer position for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. (more on that in another article.) I guess you could say, “Alaska has a hold on me.”

As for our son Kevin; in 1994 he ended up working for Holland America’s Westmark Hotel in Skagway and continued to work several more summers in Skagway after that. He now lives in Anchorage, AK and manages a tire store.

So what’s the take away?

I guess the take away is that you’re never too old or too young to find new adventures in your life. Prior to my time in Alaska I had a pretty normal life; raising a couple kids and working some very ordinary jobs. But once the youngest child was out of high school, I seized the opportunity to do something extraordinary and it changed my life completely. I’ll be 58 years old this summer as I drive my motorcoach thousands of miles around the northland. I figure I have a couple more good years in me and maybe then I will retire. But I can guarantee you that I’ll never leave Alaska for good.

If you’re interested in Alaska motorcoach driving jobs, I recommend you start with a company like Holland America Tours or Princess Tours. They will train you to drive and you’ll have the opportunity to learn the tour material for the routes you drive. Both companies have non-driving seasonal job opportunities available as well. Visit their web sites for more details.

If you’d like to see more pictures from my Alaska tours, check out my web site: MooseAndBears.com

The Chinese Bamboo Tree and Other Lessons on Patience

This post was written by A Guest Contributor on January 28, 2008

by Charlie Dexter

Do you remember back in the 60’s when Simon and Garfunkel sang the 59th Street Bridge song? ( if you remember the 60’s you probably weren’t there…) The duo advised us to “slow down, we move too fast…” What a laugh thinking about the speed of the 60’s compared with how fast we are actually moving today! We live today in an instant results - or else - world. If a politician doesn’t produce instant results to our liking we boot the bum out and vote in some other bum. If a corporate CEO doesn’t produce an instant turnaround, then that bum is on unemployment too. If the drive through on Airport Way doesn’t give us fast - fast food we get testy and swear to never go back there again, until next time. It’s a fast pace world we’ve created for ourselves.

Unfortunately, we are trying to live our fast paced lifestyle in what is naturally a slow paced world. Zig Ziglar, the famous motivational speaker, once told the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree. It seems that this tree when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season doesn’t outwardly grow as much as an inch. Then, after the second growing season, a season in which the farmer takes extra care to water, fertilize and care for the bamboo tree, the tree still hasn’t sprouted. So it goes as the sun rises and sets for four solid years. The farmer and his wife have nothing tangible to show for all of their labor trying to grow the tree.

Then, along comes year five.

In the fifth year that Chinese bamboo tree seed finally sprouts and the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet in just one growing season! Or so it seems….

Did the little tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth? Or, was the little tree growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond? The answer is, of course, obvious. Had the tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew. The same principle is true for people. People, who patiently toil towards worthwhile dreams and goals, building strong character while overcoming adversity and challenge, grow the strong internal foundation to handle success, while get-rich- quickers and lottery winners usually are unable to sustain unearned sudden wealth.

Had the Chinese bamboo farmer dug up his little seed every year to see if it was growing, he would have stunted the tree’s growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly, just as tension against muscles as we exercise strengthen our muscles, while muscles left alone will soon atrophy. My problem with exercise is not getting instantly stronger after each work out! I pray for more patience every day and I pray to get it right now!

We live in a quick-fix society. We get frustrated if we have to wait more than 2 minutes for service or a stop light to change. We want instant solutions to every complex problem and every fractured relationship. In short – we want it all now! Maybe its time to reflect on an old, old poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that is as true today as it was when he wrote it over 100 years ago:

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.”

Charlie Dexter is a professor of applied business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Tanana Valley Campus. He can be reached at 455-2837 or ffcnd@uaf.edu. This column is provided as a public service of the TVC Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.CharlieDexter.com.