End of the road trip, beginning of the journey!

So here I am, laying in bed at the hotel room in Seattle, WA. This is our last stop on our road trip, it's over =/ BUT, I will be in Alaska by tomorrow evening, so it's just the beginning! I am very excited to finally be there, but also nervous. It's getting closer and closer and starting to feel very real.
The road trip was fun, long, but fun. Poor Uncle Mike had to drive for hours and hours a day, but he's a trooper =) We had a good time on the party bus! The first day we picked up Rhonda and Todd in Vegas, then continued on to Mesquite, NV and stayed in a hotel there. We went to the casino to hang out and relax. Uncle Mike taught me how to play craps and blackjack. We won $18 =) Aunt Shari, however, started with $40, and walked out of the casino with $345!! Can you believe it?? She was getting so lucky at the blackjack table. So of course, she bought us all dinner! Anyways, it was a fun night, but the next day (Thursday) we were back on the road. That night we stopped in Jerome, ID. It was a tiny little town where they had a "derby" kind of contest thing to see who could shoot the most rock chucks (gopher-type animals). The winner of this derby got a gun as a prize! Yeah, it was a very hick town. But we hung out in the lobby of the hotel, had a beer, ate pizza and annoyed the front desk receptionist, Misti. Also, this young couple walked in with their 2-year-old daughter and checked in. While we're sitting there, Todd says hi to this little girl, then I said hi to her. After that she ran over to me on the couch, and jumped on my lap! It was so cute! Her mom kept apologizing but I didn't mind, I love kids. Well turns out, her name is Maysie, same as my dog! Weird, right? Anyways, that is the most interesting thing about Jerome, ID. Yesterday we left Jerome and continued on to Seattle. We were supposed to get to Seattle this morning around now (10am) but we decided to drive a little longer yesterday and got here last night around 7:30pm. We walked around, got some food and hung out in the hotel room. This morning Uncle Mike and Aunt Shari had to leave early to drop the motorcoach off at the docks. (The coach we used down in Phoenix for training is normally up in Skagway, but it was driven down for us students to use. Well, it had to be brought back up to Alaska for the summer, so that is why we drove it up here to Seattle, to return it. It will now go on a barge and get sent to Skagway, AK.) Anyways, now they are on their way to Skagway, in their pickup truck. They should be there on the night of May 2nd or morning of the 3rd. Todd left this morning to hang out with some friends for the day, but I'll see him tomorrow, because we are on the same flight to Juneau. Rhonda and Dan are in the hotel room next to me, probably hangin' around here somewhere. So I'm just being lazy this morning, and then this afternoon I'm going to hang out with one of my friends from the cosmetology school I used to work at. So I'll be able to walk around, relax, and see Seattle. Well, that's all I've got for now, I'll write more when I get to Alaska! Stay tuned...

Also, I uploaded a bunch of videos and pictures on my Facebook page, check 'em out!

The night before...

Alright, so welcome to my blog. I'm going to be writing about my summer in Skagway, Alaska. For those of you who don't know, I got a job as a driver/guide with Holland America-Princess. I will not be working on a cruise ship, just for the company. Pretty much I am going to be driving people around on tours, narrating, entertaining, and being oh so charming =) I'm going to be in Skagway (southeastern Alaska), which is the northernmost part of the inner passage. The town has around 800 residents year round, and many more in the summer because of all the tourism. It's a very small town, full of history and friendly people (or so I've heard). So anyways, I'm going to be driving around a huge bus, well technically it's called a motorcoach because it has a bathroom, yes a bathroom! It's that huge! I have been training since February, learning all about the coach and how to drive it. I never thought I would be able to do it in the beginning, but now it is really fun and believe it or not, I'm actually pretty good at it =) I took my road test to get my Commercial Driver License last week and passed! I never, in a million years, thought I would get a CDL. Crazy how my life is turning out.

So I am sitting here on my couch, 11:30pm, the night before I leave, watching one last show with my cousin/roommate, Lauren. (I know, I'm acting like I'm dying, when in reality, I'll be back in 6 months!) But it is still very sad, and I'm going to miss my friends and family very much. I'm sad, but of course I'm very excited too. It's going to be a great experience and I can't wait to get started. I will try and blog once a week, but we'll see if that actually happens.
Alaska here I come!

To be continued...