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Some background info: As some of you may know, I take the bus to and from my uni. There are three buses that go along this route from the school to the nearby train station. Bus Driver A drives in the morning to evening, Bus Driver B drives in the afternoon to night (last time I checked) and Bus Driver C drives at evening to night.

Since I got out of my interdisciplinary art class at 5:45, both Bus Drivers B and C were out, and B was the one that picked us up at the bus stop at the school. Except he wasn’t driving his usual bus, because it squeaked occasionally. Since thy couldn’t find any problems, they ended up taking it apart and sprayed everything with WD-40, which made it smell really bad. And since Bus Driver A gets off of work at 5, B asked her if he could drive her bus. She replied no (apparently, I guess she’s kind of protective of her bus or something). So he called up the dispatcher and asked if he could drive said bus, who said yes (Bus Driver A wasn’t too happy about it).

So once you exit the university from the front and turn right, there’s a long road that goes through farming fields. At the end, is an intersection with a signal, and once you cross that, you’re within the city limits. A few minutes before we hit the intersection, there was a strange smell. At first we ignored it, probably thinking it had nothing to do with us (I blamed it in the fields ._.;), until it got worse when we stopped at the signal. The driver started to get concerned, thinking it might lead to an electrical fire, so he got out and took a look. Turns out, it was a flat tire. >8D So the smell was burning rubber, huh?

At first, he thought he could make it back to the station and radioed the dispatcher, asking for them to send a mechanic over, since he had a flat tire. But then, he decided not to chance it, and pulled over, and then radioed Bus Driver C (who was still at the uni), asking him to come over and pick us up. The dispatcher also contacted him about it, and he asked if they could have a mechanic look at his bus too.

Once we crossed the intersection, we pulled over and waited for Bus Driver C to show up. Bus Driver B got out to take a look at the tire again, and as it turns out, there was no air left in it.

Then his cellphone rang, and he stepped outside the bus and answered it. Turns out it was Bus Driver A (remember, the regular driver of the bus we were on?). So, how was she doing? Flaming pissed. “I LET YOU BORROW MY BUS FOR FIVE MINUTES AND YOU GO AND GET IT F–ED UP!!!” (She was driving B’s bus back to wherever they keep the buses and happened to hear B contact the dispatcher over the radio.)

It took quite a while for Bus Driver C to show up, and eventually B turned off the engine, and we just sat there in the dark, waiting… The other passengers were probably irritated or fidgety, thinking ‘I could be at the station by now…’, but as for me, I could not be more excited. I’ve always seen rides and attractions break down at Disneyland (i.e. the one time were a roller coaster broke down right when it reached the top of the slope before the big drop. And yes, there were people on it.), but I’ve never been on one. But I guess this is the closest I’ll get to experience that. ^_^;

And yes, Bus Driver C did show up, and when he did, we all marched out of the current bus to C’s bus (actually, it wasn’t his bus. It was someone else’s bus, but I didn’t know what happened to his). And when we headed toward C’s bus behind A’s bus, I got a pretty good look at the flat tire, and decided “Yup, it’s pretty flat all right.”

We actually weren’t that far away from the station. We could’ve easily walked, but apparently, the drivers aren’t allowed to pick us up or drop us off at non-bus stop locations (liability issues–something about how the bus stops are insured, and so if a passenger were injured getting off or on one of the buses at a non-bus stop location…).

And that’s why I was late coming home. :3

Modified: June 28th, 2008