Submitted by Whatcom Transportation Authority, written by Kevin Peterson
The call came in at 10:22 on a Tuesday morning. I put the phone to my ear and gave my usual greeting. The caller said, “Kevin, I have some really bad news.” I immediately recognized the voice on the other end. His mom had been going through treatment for cancer, so my first thoughts were that something was terribly wrong with her. I said, “Okay, Tanner, what’s the bad news?” He took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, it’s really bad, my family and I are leaving Bellingham and moving to Everett.” Well, I was very relieved that his mom was okay, but sad that one of my first trainees as a travel trainer was going to be leaving our city.
My name is Kevin Peterson. I work as a Travel Trainer for Whatcom Transportation Authority (WTA) in Bellingham. As a Travel Trainer, I work with people to help them learn how to travel independently using WTA’s fixed route buses.
I had the pleasure of having Tanner as one of my very first trainees. We spent several months in the fall of 2019 learning how to use our fixed route bus system. His enthusiasm for bus riding and the places it could take him was enormous. Seeing the excitement on his face as we travelled, you would have thought he was traveling to Disneyland instead of a simple trip to the mall.
He loves airplanes, so I taught him how to use the buses to travel to our airport. I will never forget his reaction as one of the jets took off. He let out a shout and started jumping up and down with a huge smile on his face. After he calmed down, he turned to me and said, “Sorry, Sorry, I get a little excited about planes.”
We had finished our training in December of 2019, and I had not had any contact with Tanner since. When things closed down because of COVID, he was laid off from his job at the mall and was not able to use the buses because his mom was immunocompromised.
As things began to open up and he received his vaccine shot, he contacted me and wanted to get some refresher training on a couple of routes he wanted to take. I was glad to take him out and retrain him on these routes. I finished training him and figured I would not hear from him for a while when I received the above call. He called because he wanted one last trip with me before he moved to Everett.
I told my boss I was going to take him out for one last trip because he was moving and, being the insightful person she is, she said, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could take him to Everett to meet the Travel Trainer down there?” I thought heck yeah, it would be great, so I contacted Ryan Bisson, Everett Transit’s Travel Trainer and we set up a time we could meet. I then got together with Tanner and we developed a travel plan.
The night before the trip, Tanner was so excited that he set his alarm at 5 a.m. for a 9 a.m. departure. He said he wanted to make sure he was not late. He came prepared, his backpack stuffed with two video cameras, two phones and a box of vegetable crackers for lunch. With the help of Skagit Transit, we were able to depart from Bellingham Station on the 80X to Mount Vernon, and then caught Skagit’s 90X to Everett Station.
We met up with Ryan at Everett Station. He took us on a tour of the station, and we were able to take a trip on a couple of their buses to get a look at parts of the city. Tanner asked a thousand questions. He wanted to know how to get to the airport, the ferry, the mall, the hospital, and—because he loves elevators—any building that might be tall enough to have one. Ryan answered all his questions very patiently and Tanner had a hard time containing his excitement at all the new places he would be able to explore.
We had to get back to Bellingham, so we said our goodbyes to Ryan and made our return trip. Back at Bellingham Station, as Tanner was getting ready to hop on Route 196 to head home he said, “Will I ever get to see you again?” I would like to say I came up with something heartfelt and meaningful, but instead I said, “Probably not, but hey, you’re moving to Everett and now you know someone there that can help you with the buses.” He looked at me and said “Yeah, I really think I am going to like it down there.”
WTA’s Travel Training program is made possible through a grant from the Washington State Department of Transportation. To learn more about travel training, call 360-676-7433.
