We survived our day trip retrieving the bus.  I think I did pretty well, considering.  I even drove over a bridge – no easy feat given my phobia.

It was a long, long day, though.  It’s about 3 hours out to where we picked up the bus, then 3 hours back plus all the various meal and potty breaks (Oona, Neve and Maddie came with us; Emily stayed with her grandma and grandpa).

I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely it all came back to me once  I was on the road.  Kind of like riding a bicycle.  I do still think I may kill my husband for making me pull a U-Turn on a 4 lane highway right off the bat, though.

Neve loved it.  Maddie felt like we were breaking the law since there are no seat belts.  Other than the heat not working (we were popsicles by the time we made it home) the ride was nice. I am mad at the governor for shutting down all the rest areas, though – there’s just no way to get a bus this big into a Starbucks parking lot.  At least not on my first day back to this kind of thing.

Once the sun set I kind of felt like there should have been dozens of inebriated frat boys and sorostitutes causing all kinds of commotion behind me.  Too many late night weekend runs while at the university.  I was already a mother at that point, and I cringed seeing the make-up and the scanty clothes on those young girls as they headed out into the night.  Oh, if their mothers only knew.  And then there was the drunk boy that asked if he could kiss me as he stumbled his way onto my bus.  He got rather persistent.  I happened to be holding a long “poking stick” (to change the overhead route sign) and I waved it in his face and told him he could either sit down and shut up or get off and walk.  He fell down instead.

Nothing beats the night my bus caught fire.  It was almost midnight and the back end just started spewing flames.  I pulled over and got everyone off safely and calmly and shut the engine down……….just in time for another bus driver to run from down the road bellowing OH my GOD!  Your bus is on FIRE!!!!” Now that I think about it, I am not sure I really miss those days.

See?  Bridge?  The worst kind, too.  It’s like the Tappan Zee in New York state – kind of a highway low to the water.  *Shudders*.  This one happened to have a tunnel at the end of it.  But, I have to say that if I wasn’t white – knuckling it all the way across I could have admitted the water looked pretty.

And now, for your amusement……my first nervous moments on the road, from Maddie’s perspective.

Hopefully that works……..and I love how Neve says she’s scared.  That’s a great vote of confidence there! Also, though no one’s going to believe me, I did not tell Neve to call her father a “poopoo – head”.  I swear.