Category: The Bus

It’s been a strange day here in Teton Valley. As I drove past the Armory early this morning I saw a bunch of emergency vehicles there and proceeded to drive into a brown cloud that lasted about a hundred yards. I saw no fire and it cleared up immediately. Later I heard a call come over my scanner about an anti-government individual who was threatening the Mayors office about poisoning the Driggs city water, had been noticed by neighbors to have received large strange packages lately and was driving a seventies white Ford pickup with a snowplow on front and a sticker on the back that said “Smoke a pack a day!”, and a picture of a wolf.

A short while later I saw several very interesting heavily armored vehicles heading into town, stationing at the Mormon Church, with more hazmat units setting up at the armory. From the radio chatter, they appeared ready to lay siege to a house on First Ave. So, I drove over to First Ave and I saw nothing.

When they instructed dispatch to issue a simulated emergency beacon to the Valley, I knew what was going on, Training Exercise!

This event was big and it went on all day. I guess these guys need to practice…

Just another morning run at Hatches Corner:

It was a fine day in Victor, ID today as I cruised along the old Jackson Highway. Clear skies, moderate temperatures, and typical Teton Valley views…

We had a new client today that lives high in the Eastern foothills above 5000 South. Actually, the guy tried to ride with me in the dead of winter earlier but we are not 4-wheel drive (I turned him down) and I was in 2nd gear going up that mountain today.

It was worth the drive. The views in those hills are spectacular and I see why he built his home there back in the 90’s. He just never planned on his vision going bad and losing his driver’s license…

I was out at Hatch’s Corner bright and early this morning, picking up my first ride of the day, when I spotted this weird cloud off to the West. Just sharing…

Hansons farm off of N 500 W, north of Hatches Corner in Tetonia, is a casual working ranch. I drive by there three mornings a week and several cows are always in the road and he just lets them wander all over the property while munching on the hay. Most ranchers keep the two separate.

Here’s a map. (Drag the map to the right to see this spot…)

I’ve been using the busses cup holder for my scanner these days, with no place for my coffee. I’ve figured out a way to use the usb cables plugged into the charger to support the coffee cup. It works great!

… and the sun is coming up right behind the peaks lately:

Everything I do on my bus during the day is videotaped, in three dimensions. There’s a cam pointing toward the passenger door from above the drivers seat, a cam pointing back towards the entire seating area and one pointing directly at the lift.

I can’t pick my nose or scratch my crotch without running the risk that it might ultimately be on YouTube. Our safety and training guy was up here last week and showed me a video taken from these cams of a couple of ladies who weren’t wearing seatbelts when the bus they were riding in was broadsided. Not pretty, but the video quality was impressive…

The reason I mention YouTube is because it is what it is and video is just a file in a directory. I’m really not worried about my privacy being violated, as long as stuff doesn’t happen, since the camera hard drives roll over about every three days, but still…

It’s an interesting experience to know that your every move during the day, and everything you say, is being recorded. If some fool came across the line and killed me, the way I spent my final hours, and what I said, would be my video legacy.

I like moose, they’ve got attitude and a temper, and it seems everytime I get a photo of them, they’re walking away and all I see is moose butt. I heard these guys were wondering around in Driggs over my scanner. I also found out cop info that somebody in town is feeding them. Not good…

For all my whining and complaining about the commercialization of holidays, especially Valentines Day, all it takes is one little girl and a handmade card, to melt this grouchy old bus driver’s heart.

I spotted a strange contrail this morning south of Victor. It had a very Columbiaish look about it with the sharp diagonal to the left. I really don’t have any idea how this was created. As I finished up my day around 1600 it was still in the sky, a bit diluted and it had floated east over the Teton foothills.

Hatches Corner keeps serving up nice sunrises, and I keep consuming them.

I love old Fords. I had three 1951 Fords in my early years, two flathead eights and a six. I was dropping off a client in Victor today and spotted this. It’s pretty close to a 51 and sitting on a mound of snow. Go figure…

Just another pretty morning in my neck of the woods.

Every afternoon, Monday through Friday at precisely 15:03, I make a left hand turn off of Main Street in Victor onto Birch Street. My elementary kids are on board and I’m heading down to the Community school to pick up my next batch. There are always a couple of small groups of Com School kids who have walked up to the highway to cross at the crosswalk by the city park and often times I wait for them to cross in front of me from the left.

Yesterday, just as the kids stepped off the curb and entered the crosswalk a small white sedan came flying by me on the right. Instead of stopping behind me all they saw was a big white bus making a left turn and perhaps didn’t know that there was an intersection, much less kids crossing, and passed me (illegally) on the inside, right through the reverse parking spots.

If the kids were in front of me I may have been able to get their attention by honking, or maybe not, it could have been a major tragedy!

As I’ve pondered about it since, my first thought was that swerving my bus to the right and taking out the car by knocking it into the park might be effective, but I had kids on board, so not an option. I realized I had to be proactive so I talked to Laurel, the head of the school, about it this morning.

I know they worry about those kids crossing a busy highway with a 35 mph speed, but we need to do more. Get the city involved, move the sheriff’s school patrol from the Elementary to this intersection, get some large poles with red flags for the kids to carry, or install a crossing light! Most of those kids have ridden my bus at one time or another and my continued protectiveness has made me angry. Something must be done!