Category: The Bus

I was given a Vacation gift today from my buddy Liam and my buddy, his mom, Karen.

Have you ever encountered words that seem to have never been combined in the history of the English language. I do all the time. If you run Granola and Bubbles through a Google search now, it will arrive here at this post.

I also received this great card from the Ockander family today and I was able to tell the kids mom Summer to Have a great Summer, Summer. Planned it all week :-)

I pulled up behind this very cool vehicle today in the Brolums parking lot. It was gathering a lot of attention, along with me and my camera.

I’d never heard of this vehicle before, so I looked it up Here.

Sometimes the smallest gesture can make your day. I dropped off my Tanner girl today, out in the Tetonia sticks. This was her graduation day and her last day of high school…

I’ve been transporting this young lady for about six years now and I’ve become friends with her parents. Mom gave me this great little notebook today for my trip (along with a gift certificate to Cocoa Grove). Thanks guys! Have a great summer :-)

Humm… The sights I see from my perch in the Broulims parking lot!

Riley called me from Seattle and demanded that I drive to Broulims, buy a can of black olives (which I despise) and consume them. My son is an Old Soul, so I obeyed him.

Then, my guardian angel snapped a picture of me driving, from the floor of my bus. Not sure what he’s trying to tell me but it’s an interesting shot, that I didn’t take :-)

And finally, here I am trying to take out a lopsided potato truck, with my laser gun…

SlideShow (Bus Eclectic)

Tom works at ACE and when he’s not riding with me to Victor, he’s hitchhiking home. This morning he whizzed by me in the Brolums parking lot on his new electric bike.

Very sweet ride, cost over a grand and tops out at 27 mph. There’s a great bike path between Driggs and Victor so he hardly hits the highway at all.

And he still gets to travel home with me occasionally, thanks to my fine rack!

I created this great little 8.5 x 11 sheet for my kids tonight. I’m going to teach them the alphabet backwards by singing it on my buses internal sound system while we drive down the road. They can sing along and it will be much fun! Sample. (Click the Ear :-)

I just faced an interesting dilemma. I love promoting my blog and I originally put a busdriverjim.com link on the sheet. I thought about it for a bit and realized my blog is a bit too edgy for kids to be crawling around it. I want to be able to be myself here, not filter it for kids, so I replaced it with a generic link to the source.

We’ve got a lot of cottonwood trees around here. They’re members of the willow family, not a very long-lived tree (70 years average) and they’re very fast growing.

Also kind of gnarly in the spring as the winter beats them up pretty good.

I shot this coming into the Tanners ranch last Tuesday. There used to be a giant set of antlers in the middle of that entrance, hmmm…

The road looks fine now but it is The Road From Hell in the winter. You should see the curve up ahead, around the corner. Truly the hardest place for us to get to!

Due to a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Grand Valley Fault between Madison and Teton counties today, Homeland Security directed our buses to evacuate Basin High School, our alternative school here.

We took the kids to a Red Cross base established at the fair grounds. You know what the worst part was? Mike and I got no lunch! And I realize now, I work for the government.

I know that my employer is federally funded but the fact that the government can tell us what to do, whenever they want, just kind of blows my mind a little…

Anyway, the whole thing was a simulation, part of a statewide emergency preparedness exercise. There was supposed to be some fake blood but I didn’t see any.

Mike is our new Safety and Training guy who drove up with a bus from Idaho Falls to help out. We were supposed to get lunch as part of the deal. I ended up buying him a burger at the new Basin Burgers place, where the old Burger King used to be. Not bad…

Sometimes the accumulation of snow and ice on a dirty vehicle can be kind of artsy…

Karen commented yesterday that I never see her wave when we pass each other on the road, and it got me to thinking about why that is.

I’ve attended several defensive driving courses over the years and most of them were based on the five rules of the Smith System. I incorporate these techniques into my driving now, without consciously being aware that I am. Here are the five rules:

• Aim high in steering.
  • This means to look far down the road for any possible issues. It really applies on the wide open spaces of Hwy 33, and it’s easier for me because I’m higher off the ground.
• Get the big picture.
  • I do this constantly while driving around town. I use my peripheral vision to identify vehicles and pedestrians as objects of possible contention. This is why I don’t see people wave as my brain is processing the moving vehicle (speed and direction) and not the person operating the vehicle.
• Keep your eyes moving.
  • For a commercial driver this really means checking your mirrors every few seconds. It also improves your alertness.
• Make sure they see you.
  • This is when I make eye contact. If someone is making a move that requires that they know I’m there, I make sure we lock eyes before I move.
• Leave yourself an out.
  • My standard plan of action on 33 is to head for the right side ditch (snow bank now) if anyone veers across the lane at me. I actually expect every vehicle coming at me to do just that, and I’m ready to act.

There you go… I hope you derived some knowledge from this little synopsis!

Busy day today and about 1430 I thought “Well, all I’ve got left is Kids and Tonks“. The phrase cracked me up and I realized: blog post!

Kids refers to my Community School run from Victor to Driggs at 1500, and then I needed to pick up this really old guy named Cleon Tonks at the clinic.

Cleon has been in the Valley forever. When he showed up on our schedule my fellow driver, a Valley native herself, said “He’s still alive?” As I was walking him to the bus I tried to find out how long he’d been here. It must have been his bad ear because all he talked about was the weather, diesel fuel and tractors. He didn’t hear a word… :-)

I was heading to the Tanners house this morning and a young buck moose darted in front of me. He stopped and let me take this shot.

I told Tim about the moose on his property and he said this guy’s been hanging around for a few days. The dogs try to chase him off but the moose knows who’s bigger.

I had a funny moment at the Victor Community School today. A bunch of kids were on board and I’m trying to figure out where I’m taking them. I’d just gotten off the phone with the Russell kids mom and I told them I’m dropping you off at the TVR Grill.

The kids said no, it’s W not V. I said no, it’s the Teton Valley Ranch Grill (it’s a relatively new place…). Again they insisted it was W. Then I realized who I was talking to and said wait a minute, you guys… and Ann the older sister smiled coyly and said own it?

Ok, it’s been a long week. I forgot that the Russell’s own the Teton Waters Ranch and the TWR Grill!

tgif :-)

Update: It’s Saturday morning and while working on this post I noticed they have homemade corned beef hash. I think it’s time to check this place out! I’ll grab pictures…

I believe this is the third resturant in this location since I’ve lived here.

The meal was served up quickly enough.

I flipped the eggs back to show the hash.

I was heading out of the Broulims parking lot today when I spotted this cool snow blower clearing out the build-up, so I snapped a quick shot from my window.

I then moved around to the other side to try and capture it.

So, it scoops up the snow…

And then blasts it into the sky!