The First Day Of School!!

This is the moment you all have been waiting for....what was the first day of school like as a bus driver?  Well it started out with “ what am I going to wear?”...lol! You see I planned on riding my motorcycle today because it is suppose to be in the 80’s! So I wanted to wear something warm this morning that still looked good. Ok I got that all picked out jumped on the motorcycle and headed 5 miles on the freeway to “the bus barn”.  I got off the bike, took off all of my gear and walked towards the front door. The first thing I noticed was some animal cut out pictures of a rabbit and such with some saying in quotes. I really didn’t pay a whole lot of attention. so I turned the handle and walked into the TWIIGHT ZONE! it was like I just went back into time and walked into my kindergarden room for the first time. There were “Alice in Wonderland” stuff everywhere!!! with quotes from the movie/book and pictures are all the creatures. so I stopped...went back out the door .... and look at the address. Yep I was in the right place...ok time to continue! From there I moved my blue dot to let everyone know that I had arrived...Yahoo! I then checked my box for any important route changes and notices....and nothing really great to right about. Then came the fun part....opening the driver lounge door! the next thing you hear “ good morning” “ how was your summer” “did they change your route?” “what bus are you in?” ...LOL! 

So from there I walk out to my 40 ft Thomas school bus and continue with my “pre-trip” inspection.  Factoids~ I have 28 seats that fit 3 elementary student at one time and 2 middle/high school students at another. I  will let you do the math on the one, just so you know that is a lot of kids!

After heading out in my bus on my route I pass a couple of my fellow drivers and wave. You see just like Jeep people & motorcycle riders we wave at all fellow bus drivers. the thing is everyone has different style of waves. You have the one finger shoot at you wave, the High Hitler wave and my favorite” clown hand on a spring” wave! you know the one....where the person or kid waves at you so hard that you think their wrist is going to break and that they haven’t seen another person in years. So yes I wave about 20 times  in a 2 hr period at fellow drivers. 

Well ,my high school route and students were about  the same as last year except a few kids that I haven’t seen in 3 years as the attended the wonderful middle school years. But when I got to my elementary route here are a couple of things the kids said as the got on.....” so you decided to take on other year, huh” “ I broke my foot” “ my little brother will be riding tomorrow” “ same seat policy as last year?” “what do you do when we are in school?”...they are so cute and funny! you just have to love them! 

Note to parents...We bus drivers understand your need and want to take your children to school in the first day BUT this makes the roads so clogged with traffic that we are all 5 to 10 minutes late to school for all the other children. Please use what you pay for and conserve energy by carpooling and having your child ride the school bus!

When returning to “the Barn” walk into the drivers lounge and what do I see? Bagels, donuts, cookies and brownies....how do you think we all get the “Bus Driver Butt?!” seriously?! UGH!!

Now to talk about adding heat to the first day of school...you see the bus is a tin can on wheels. Therefore the inside of  a bus is at least 10 degrees hotter than outside. So when your child asks me to turn on the air conditioner, I tell then to put down the window :) But what most new drivers don’t know is that our bus seat is a big sheet of vinyl and makes your legs and butt sweat. so after you have been sitting in the heated bus on vinyl for 2 to 4 hrs...you stand up and looks like you have just wet your pants! So a little tip for you newbies...sit on a bath towel, it works wonders. 

Well, all in all, the day went pretty good. Only 3 students ended up on my bus that were supposed to be on someone else's bus. So I had to make just a few extra stops to get them to the correct place plus my radio knob from up overhead keeps falling off while I was driving hitting me in the head. Yep, just another “first day of school” in the life of a school bus driver!