Tuesday and a new driver

"Mornin'"
"Mornin'"
"New driver today"
"Oh, reeeaaaly...and just how do YOU know THAT?". I'm cocky, expecting the first of many April Fools pranks.
"Because she was on the bus yesterday learning the route...THAT's how"
"oh...". I was out sick yesterday. All of a sudden it's not so cold out here any more...especially around my face.

So...new bus driver this morning. That can be good or bad. Our regular driver is the BEST! She's not in any big hurry to get us anywhere...she's set-your-watch punctual...she has zero road rage (unlike a lot of other drivers, believe me)...she knows all of our names...did I say she was the BEST?

For some reason, they (the bus company) sent our new driver on the bus yesterday to get familiar with the route. It's not rocket-science but drivers have been known to get COMPLETELY lost on our route. There's a map and everything that shows the route and stops, but that must be confusing or wrong because it happens all the time. Maybe bus drivers are auditory learners and not visual learners...anyway...I digress.

Typically we find out we have a new driver when the bus shows up 15 minutes late in the morning because they couldn't find the first stop (granted it's DARK but it is a hotel parking lot, after all). Then that night...wow, it can be really bad. Some times they are over an hour late picking us up. We had one driver (I laugh in hind site) who, after an hour overdue, was so lost that they just accidentally happened to drive by our stop...and we're like FOURTH on the list. We were all jumping up and down and yelling! She was so relieved to find SOMEONE who she was supposed to pick up that we just couldn't be mad at her...OK, maybe a little. After we all got on, we helped her find the first stop and the second stop and the third stop, then we skipped our stop and on to the fifth stop. Outrageous. Pitch dark when we got home.

Don't get me wrong...we're not always nice. We can be brutal at times. It's deserved, of course. We once had a bus driver just stop the bus half way home at a park-n-ride and call in and say they couldn't drive the bus any more (it might have been because we were not as nice as we could have been...not sure exactly). Can you imagine? We're about half of the way home and we stop and wait for a replacement driver to come drive us the rest of the way home. OK, THAT took an hour minimum. So we all went out to eat while we waited. Wendy's. It wasn't fancy.

The worst "new-driver-torture" that they ever put us through was when our regular driver was on vacation for two weeks. I kid you not, we had a DIFFERENT driver EVERY day both in the morning and in the evening. NONE of them had the slight clue where to go, or how to get there. The "union" told them not to listen to directions from the "passengers". I guess we can't be trusted (like we'd send them to Reno or something...Hmmm...well...oh never mind). That was the worst...legendary. 20 different drivers in two weeks. 20.

Oh...and by the way?...today's driver was AWESOME. She took forEVER to come to a stop...drove in the slow lane all the way, AND even went really slowly around corners. Seat 5B had to wake me up when we got there. Thanks, by the way...I owe you one.