Friday the 13th

Jean and Alf. My whopping two and only passengers that I had all day today. These two 80's- something London natives were adorable, let me tell you. Alf was in a wheelchair (which forced me to get handy with our wheelchair lifts on the bus) and couldn't really speak. Occasionally he would mumble something utterly incomprehensible and then his wife, Jean, would translate for me. I really had no idea how she understood him--it honestly would just be a groan or moan, but always with a big,toothless smile and twinkly eyes. He would just sit there, mouth open, lips curled under, grinning at me as I helped him in and out of his wheelchair lift. When I picked them up from their first stop, the wildlife boat tour, Jean said they were tired and wanted to skip the glacier and head straight back to their ship. Since they were my only passengers, not a problem. But as I was getting ready to pull out she called up, "Alf says he wants to see the glacier after all." How did she get that? All I heard was an extended moan. She must be a wizard. Harry Potter has ruined me. Now I find myself assuming anyone with a British accent is a witch or wizard. And we get a lot of people from England here.

Anyway, I drove them over to the glacier and when we were about a minute away, I told them to watch out the right side of the bus since we were approaching. As we drove by, I slowed down so Jean could snap a couple photos. She ooohed and aaahed and I told her a little bit about the glacier as we drove off. We got right outside the park and I asked Alf how he had liked it. Well, according to Jean's translation he had fallen asleep just as we passed by! HAHA. So I turned around and took them by again so Alf could get a peek. It was hilarious, as we were passing by for the second time, I told them to watch out the right side again and then watched Alf in my passenger mirror to make sure he wasn't asleep. He had a content grin on his face, but was looking in the total wrong direction. Jean noticed and kept saying, "Not there. Look over here." He would move his head in the wrong direction again and she'd say "No, no. Look right here. It's right here." (It was pretty much taking up the entire view from the right side of the bus.) Well, finally he got his head pointed in the right direction and Jean was satisfied. Pretty funny. I was cracking up inside.

I wish I had the energy to write about life here so far, but after my first huge post got erased I just can't bring myself to write it again. I kept putting off posting because I didn't want to write it all again and finally realized I'll just have to start with the present or else I'll never post again. So hopefully past experiences will come in the future. But I just had to write about Jean and Alf today; they tickled me so.