Miners Rock!

So, I haven't driven a bus this entire week because I've been taking people on a MINE TOUR for the past three days.  Sounds pretty cool, right?  Sort of.

Pros:
a) I get to drive up and down a private road in the pretty woods all day on my own radio channel where no one bothers me (I get back to base and every one looks frazzled because there are six ships in, they've probably been through heeeckkkk trying to get everyone where they're supposed to be and I just sit there peacefully and drink a bottle of orange juice like nothing is going on while they look at me enviously)
b) I take smaller groups, therefore I get to know my passengers better
c) I get to pan for gold with them
d) Free hot chocolate and cider
Cons: 
a) By the end of the day I am almost carsick from driving up and down this "private" road, which in other words means extremely bumpy, steep, and unmaintained. 
b) Small group = little tip (unless they're really impressed with my ability to drive the aforementioned road)
c) I give them the gold I find when I pan (which is kind of fun because it makes me look like I know what I'm doing)
d) There aren't any other drivers up there to hang out with

Another PRO/CON: I saw a bear!

 

Sorry if you were expecting to SEE the bear in this picture...but I'll help you imagine:

  Minding my own business I was eating my lunch in one of the back seats of my 21 seater van with the doors open so I could hear the wonderful sound of rain hitting the trees... all of a sudden a big black bear comes crawling out of that corner patch of trees that you can see between the building and the mirror.  Of course he is crawling toward my van (toward my food), AND I'm alone because all of my passengers are with the miner wayyy inside that tunnel.  So I duck down (as if he is watching me) and creep toward my door to close it.  As soon as he hears the sound of the door closing, he flips around and dashes back into the trees...and away he went before I could get a picture :(

The worst part was I had to pee really bad and I was too scared to go to the port-a-potties behind my van in fear that I'd come out and he'd be there again and perhaps in the way of me getting in my vehicle. 

I survived. I just don't want to think about what would have happened if he went IN the tunnel with them!

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