It all began back in March 2009 when I took Gabby in for Kindergarten registration. After speaking with the school Nurse and Principal, I made my way over to the table where the Director of Transportation was sitting. When I sat down he explained a few things about the schedules for Kindergarten and then mentioned that they were looking for school bus drivers and asked if I would be interested. Without hesitation I replied, "Sure, I could do that", and five months later, here I am.It was a lengthy process and a very hot one. You are required to complete 14 hours of class room training and 20 hours of in-bus training. By time I was ready to start the in-bus training, it was summer time and for those of you who haven't been on a school bus lately, there is no air conditioning.
The first day of in-bus training, my wonderful trainer Donna, put me behind the wheel of the 40', 14 1/2 ton bus and told me to drive. I had zero, zip, zilch, experience driving a bus with a manual transmission. The last time a drove a stick shift was probably about 20 years ago in a compact car that I taught myself how to drive. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous...okay, a lot nervous. Amazingly, I did it without taking out any street signs or hitting any curbs.
In the end, all of my training on those hot summer days paid off because I passed my test and now I'm ready to drive a bus. Maybe now I'll have more time to do what is most important...blog.
