A Morning Adventure

Somehow my bus this morning was on time. It was right behind the sortie that was running about 15 minutes late. There weren't many brave souls aboard so I presume that it had made up the time lost because of the bad roads by not having to stop very often to pick up passengers. Things were going well until we got to Jenifer & Ingersoll. A bus was stuck on the west side of the street. The late-runner in front of us stopped next to it to grab passengers and we pulled in right behind to get a couple ourselves. After the bus in front of us takes off, our driver firmly put the pedal down but only managed to move forward a couple inches and spin a few feet along its X axis.

Our driver backs up a bit and makes another go but to no avail. I can hear the voice of a Metro dispatcher on the radio clearly saying "…bus stuck…" and thought that we'd be next. Another attempt to traverse the snow proves equally futile. The intersection is beginning to look like Donner Pass and I begin eying up my fellow passengers should I have to break my fast on long pig. The bus starts moving in reverse once more. I was unsure if we were going to pull over and wait for help or if the driver was looking to get a bit farther away from the intersection to make another attempt to plow through it. It soon became obvious that submitting to the snow was not in the cards. The bus kept going and going and going…

I must admit to being extremely impressed by our driver as he backed up a 40' box on wheels down a slick street covered with 7 + inches of snow and cars parked on both sides. He laid on the horn as the bus lumbered into the intersection with the snow loudly grinding beneath and finally came to a halt. He was most decidedly not messing around. A brief pause ensued before my ears were engulfed by the roar of the engine - he had gunned it.

OK, putting the pedal of a bus to the metal in several inches of snow doesn't exactly build up a large head of steam but it proved large enough. We made it through the seemingly impassible intersection handily and left the snowbound behemoth at the side of the street behind.

I ended up getting to work only about 6-7 minutes later than usual despite having to reenact a scene from The Gauntlet. So many hearty thanks and a garland of Martian fire flowers to the gentleman who proved himself no mere mortal bus driver this morning.