The Waiting Game

Happy New Year to everyone! Hopefully, it's going well for y'all.

My interview with Contiki Holidays in California seemed to have gone well. I learned quite a bit about the job and the training course required for it. One huge positive is I won't have to move out to California. This will allow me to save up a LOT more money, despite the fact I am financially responsible for paying my own way to the starting point of each tour I'm assigned to. While that might not seem like a fair deal, it's still much cheaper than moving, and, much of the time I will have about two days to a week off between tours, which will allow me to stay in L.A. instead of dropping the cash every time to return home. There may be a few instances where I will have several weeks off in a row. Depending on how much money is in the bank during those times, there's a strong possibility I will use this time for travel purposes. Where to, I don't know, but that's part of the fun!

Of course, I have to not only get invited to the training course and pay for it first, I have to then be offered a position after successfully completing training. I am confident I did well, but that will remain to be seen in about two weeks when I should hear back from them.

If I'm invited to train, I then fly back to L.A., and we begin a grueling eight-week training course February 14, and ending on April 7. It starts out in L.A. and we then head down to San Diego before punching east into Arizona. Phoenix, Sedona and the Grand Canyon will be visited before we head into Las Vegas. From Vegas, we head eastbound once again, through the four-corners into Santa Fe and Albuquerque, then into northern Texas and going through Little Rock, Memphis and New Orleans. From there, it's a one-week jaunt through Florida before heading northward through Savannah, Charleston and into Virginia, D.C., Philadelphia and finally ending in New York. At this point, we know if we're hired or not.

If they fly us back to L.A., we're in. If not, we must pay our own way back home from New York. After returning to California, we then participate in a welcome-back meeting with the returning Tour Managers, and finally a week of paperwork training before we're ready to go. New recruits won't start leading tours until June, so I'll have most of April and all of May before heading out. IF indeed this all comes to pass, I'm going to see if I can return to Skagway in late April and reprise my role as Moosejaw Dave for the month of May before flying back to California and preparing to embark on my first tour as a Tour Manager.

Unfortunately, there's virtually no chance for me to lead international tours for Contiki since all of their international tours are handled through their respected departments. But that's alright. I'm still pretty excited (and nervous) about what could possibly happen. I'll be leading tours with people in my age bracket, learning more about America and having a good ol' time in the process. It's a one-step-at-a-time sort of deal at the moment, so hopefully the next step of being invited to train will come to pass.