Share-Ride Saves My Life

I could not possibly commute every day between Wasilla and Anchorage (about 90 miles roundtrip) without my Share Ride van. The Municipality of Anchorage has a fleet of hundreds of passenger vans that travel between the Valley and Anchorage. Lots of people prefer living out of the City but the City has the jobs. So these vans save wear and tear on the Parks/Glenn Highway as well as the individual's car, reduces traffic, conserves gas consumption and helps the environment, and almost most importantly, saves my sanity and mental stress!

Here's the van picking me up one afternoon at my building door. Ardie is the driver and she's steadfast and my highway hero.

There's a waiting list to get in these vans so I was lucky to join 67042 within my first weeks of working. There's another woman at my office who rides and hooked me up. So what's the big deal about driving an hour each way every day? Well, this is Alaska and that highway gets icy, snowy, slushy, curvy and crazy. Every week during the winter we witness cars in the ditch, stuck in the snow, crashed for going too fast or hitting an ice patch, and law enforcement secures the scene. These accidents and poor stranded drivers slow us down all the time too. It's treacherous, but I usually end up driving myself at least once a week for whatever reason-a change in work hours for a meeting, seeing friends around Anchorage, etc. Slow and steady when needed is the key.

There is not ONE traffic light in Nome. Most essential driving can happen within several miles. That's what I knew for six years before me and the RAV4 (I had never driven a manual in traffic before moving down here) were thrown into pavement and more pavement. I was a bit rusty and hesitant when moving down.

So for a fee per month--much cheaper than buying gas--I load up with about 8 other people every morning and...sleep. It's a snooze cruise! I turn on my iPod and sleep until I'm dropped off at the office. We have a little route around downtown as we deliver other riders to their places of work. Sometimes I also write on my computer or read a book. The schedule isn't ideal but when you're devoting two hours of your day to driving, it's never perfect. I get to the Wasilla Wal*Mart parking lot at 6am to park the RAV4, we load up & leave within minutes, and I'm usually at work from 7am-4pm. During clear and clean road conditions, I'm home by 5:15pm, as is Andy.

Thank goodness for the vanpool! Here's my view as I wait for a 4pm pickup--the long building is a Post Office.

When the sun is out, the drive is incredibly gorgeous, I must add.

*Amy