My winter came and went pretty much as usual.  Went up to Alaska in March to volunteer for the Iditarod again.  I’ve been doing that since 1995.  We’ve been continuing with the Friday homeschool program for three of our grand children.  They have learned a lot and have produced a couple videos for YouTube about current events.  You can check them out at YouTube.com.  We’ve also taught the kids to swim pretty well on Friday nights at the YMCA pool.

This spring we took a couple fun road trips with the grand kids.  First we went on a loop from Olympia, WA south to Vancouver, WA and then west to the Oregon coast to fly kites and wade in the ocean surf.  We spent the second night at Astoria, OR and toured the Lewis and Clark exhibits at Fort Clatsop National Park.  Last weekend we took a loop north to Steven’s Pass, Hwy 2 and east over the Cascade Mountains to Leavenworth and then south to Yakima and over Highway 410, Chinook Pass to return to western Washington.  The weather was beautiful as was the scenery.  We fit in a couple short hikes and lots of swimming time in the outdoor pool at our Leavenworth Hotel.  Temperatures climbed to 92 degrees in eastern Washington.

This week I’m leaving for my 16th summer as a tour guide in Alaska.  I was packing up my stuff today and came across something one of my tour members had shared with me last year.  It defines success based on age.  Hope you’ll enjoy it!  It sure gave me a chuckle!

Success is. . .

At age 4 success is not peeing in your pants.

At age 12 success is having friends.

At age 16 success is having a driver’s license.

At age 25 success is having sex when married.

At age 35 success is having money.

At age 50 success is having money.

At age 60 success is having sex when married.

At age 70 success is having a driver’s license.

At age 75 success is having friends.

At age 80 success is not peeing in your pants.

And so it is that life goes full circle!

I doubt I’ll find time during the tour season in Alaska to write any blog posts, but if anything really exciting happens, I’ll do my best!

Here are some pictures of our two oldest grand children enjoying our last road trip over the mountains to Leavenworth.

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

My work in Alaska goes back to 1993 when Dale and I took a bare bones tour to Alaska. We rode the Alaska ferry (known as the Alaska Marine Highway) as foot passengers from Bellingham, WA through the inside passage of Canada and Alaska to Skagway, AK. We spent time in each of the port cities where the ferry stopped; sometimes just for a few hours and sometimes for an overnight stay. When we were on the ferry at night, we slept in our backbacking tent on the upper deck, and when we overnighted over in port cities, we stayed in youth hostels. Now you can see why I call it a bare bones tour, but experiencing Alaska this way was the best introduction we could have hoped for to the 49th state. We got to see a lot of the “touristy” things, but also had the opportunity to meet many very interesting people and learn more about Alaskan culture than most tourists.

Once we got to the end of the water route, we boarded a bus and traveled the Alaska Highway (Alcan) for 2 days to get to Fairbanks, AK. We overnighted in a rustic hotel in Beaver Creek, Yukon. It was on that bus trip that I began to think what a fun job it would be to drive the highways of Alaska and the Yukon for a living. Little did I know that the very next year I’d be back in Alaska, doing just that. I ended up working for the same company as our bus driver from the previous year, so to this day I kid him about it being all his faulth that I’m working in Alaska!

The rest of our adventure took us by train from Fairbanks to Denali National Park for two nights. We went into the park on a backpacker shuttle bus the next day, and then finally on to Anchorage, again by train. All the while, we carried everything we needed for the 2 week trip in our backpacks. In Anchorage we rented a car for a drive down to Seward, AK for a sightseeing boat trip of Kenai Fjords National Park. Then it was back up to Anchorage, turn in the rental car, and head to the airport for our flight home.

Our trip was jam packed with activities, but even so, I felt like we had barely touched the tip of the iceberg when it came to seeing all there is to see in Alaska. I had fallen in love with the land, and I knew I’d be back. To this day, Dale and I both admit, this was the best vacation we’ve ever taken.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about my tour guide job – stay tuned!

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re adventurous, you can plan an independent trip to Alaska, but you’ll need to spend some serious time making all the arrangements. We depended very heavily on the Lonely Planet Guidebook for Alaska. You’ll also need copies of the Alaska Marine Highway ferry schedule, the Alaska Railroad schedule, and a bus company schedule like Gray Line of Alaska. If you are not interested in booking all your accommodations, transportation, and attractions, you might be better off booking a tour with an experienced tour company like the one I work for – John Hall’s Alaska.

Daniel Buckingham, age 16, is a young entrepreneur living in Palmer, Alaska with a unique idea for a home business. He builds and sells outhouses in Alaska!

Down here in the lower 48, that idea may sound absurd, but in Alaska, there is still a great need for the “little shack out back” since so many Alaskan’s are living off the grid or in “the bush”, as they say up there. Some urban Alaskan’s might even add a token outhouse to their landscaping just to give an Alaskana effect along with a dog sled and a cache (a little log cabin on stilts for storing food and supplies).

Daniel sells a standard 4′x 4′x 7′ high basic plywood design for $299. It comes with a hinged door, toilet box with hole and a toilet seat. But he’s more than willing to incorporate any custom features you might envision for an extra charge. One thing not available, however, is delivery. If you want one, you need to come and get it. At least for now.

According to the 2000 US census, one in four homes in Alaska is without indoor plumbing. It’s obvious Daniel had chosen a product that fills a need, and I can only guess that there is not a lot of competition. He seems to be willing and able to put the hard work required into building a quality product, so he could do well with this venture.

His next step will be marketing. Right now he’s only using Craigslist and word-of-mouth to promote his outhouses, which has yet to bring much success. What he needs now is a full blown web presence and a marketing campaign to get the word out in areas where indoor plumbing isn’t an option. The domain names he might choose from are probably endless! With over 10 years experience in Internet marketing, I’d love to talk to him about the possibilities. So Daniel, if you read this, shoot me an email!

Daniel’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. He received some great publicity today from an article in the Anchorage Daily News. So now it’s the time to capitalize on that and get to building for your future!

So What’s the Take Away?

My guess is that many of us wish we could come up with a great new idea or product that we could develop into a million dollar home business. I think the lesson learned from Daniel is that if a 16 year old, home schooled kid can come up with a unique idea like outhouses, we certainly should be able to think of something that can fill a need in our marketing radius. But conversely, if you think you’ll turn your product into a million dollar business overnight, it just isn’t going to happen. Daniel’s outhouse idea has still not really taken off, but he has his product and his goals in place. Now it’s time go to work on the marketing, and maybe someday he’ll have made enough to finance his college education. He says he’s not trying to make a career at it, but it’s sure good preparation for what ever he does decide to pursue in the future.