On the Road

As part of the two-week training course, we all participate in a two-day overnight "on the road." The principal purpose is to provide the experiential experience of tour directing: "Count the people; count the bags. Count the bags; count the people." However, the motor coach trip to San Simeon also provided two days of sightseeing and fun.

I have the advantage of having traveled on over-the-road tours; actually, I am a bit surprised by how many of the student in the ITMI course have never taken an organized tour. This trip would give us a brief glimpse into the experience, but after taking tours with Globus, Collette, CIE, and Olympia, I had a relatively good idea of what to expect. Count the bags; count the people. Rotate the seats. It's amazing how challenging it is for a group of intelligent people to rotate two seats back on the right and two seats forward on the left. We couldn't do it; of course, it was complicated by the fact that Joemy, one of our teachers who was evaluating our commentary, wasn’t moving and a few of the ITMI graduates who joined our tour weren’t rotating either. I think I will try a seating chart each morning; it seems to me that 5 minutes of my time might save 10 minutes of frustration on the bus.

A few days before our departure each of us chose a commentary subject: either a site we were going to pass on the road, visit, or a related topic such as earthquakes or people. I chose Mark Twain; okay, that might have been a little “unfair” on my part. I have been teaching Twain for over 30 years. But that was Twain the writer and Twain of Hannibal, Missouri, not Twain of San Francisco or Twain, the tour director. It turns out that Twain was one of the first tour directors, sailing the Quaker City to Europe and the Holy Land. Book to read as soon as I get home: Innocents Abroad. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” -- Mark Tawin. I did well.

Our sightseeing trip included the magnificent castle on the hill – San Simeon. We had learned that the motorcoach should stop about every hour to hour and a half, so our trip included a few “rest stops,” some combined with sightseeing or pictures. We had our technical – the detailed itinerary from which tour directors work – and we noted how close we followed (exactly). After a brief rest/picture stop in Santa Barbara, we continued to San Simeon where we enjoyed a typical tour lunch, although it was a la carte – off the menu, not typical of the trips I have taken (obviously, they were not deluxe), and our table took advantage, ordering appetizers and the salmon. The Hearst Castle was breath-taking, and we had nothing to do but enjoy the visit. The prospect of tour directing with a deluxe company such as Tauck is intriguing!

Our arrival at the hotel included the essential welcome reception. This hotel, however, wasn’t terribly welcoming: it was an old-fashioned motel with bedspreads and less than first-class lodging. When it was clear that most of us, the clients, were not very satisfied, Ted explained that the owners of the hotel have always been good to him. Unfortunately, once the California government prohibited coaches over 45 feet on the coastal highway, the motel had lost a great deal of business, and he wanted to give back. We dealt. I thought at least it was clean, but not everyone in the group agreed. The almost unlimited wine pouring at the reception and a relatively good dinner followed by a cappella singing made up for everything in my book.

The following day was more of the same: we practiced our commentary, made rest stops and picture stops, did some sightseeing, and had a smorgasbord lunch in the Danish town of Solvang. Amazingly, as I walked around the quaint in Solvang was one of my IB colleagues from Minnesota! Okay, it’s a cliché, but it is a small world.

What did I learn? Clients complain, even if they are aspiring or working tour guides. I overheard one of the graduates complain that she couldn’t sleep on the bus because everyone was talking. I couldn’t figure out why she came along! The importance of counting the people was reinforced when we almost took off without Rachid, who was talking on his cell and lost track of time. I learned that rotating seats is more complicated than I realized. Tour directing is very much like teaching, just on the road, and the teacher better have done all of her homework!