Stuck Bus

It's been an interesting morning around here! We have had quite a bit of rain here the last few days (and it is still raining ths morning -- plus it's getting cold!). When it rains, the dirt road up to our house gets pretty muddy in a few spots. We generally try to pick our route around the bad spots, often driving clear on the other side of the road (since there's basically no traffic).

This morning the kids were watching for the bus as usual about 6:50am. It is dark outside, so we just open the door and watch for the headlights coming down the driveway. The bus didn't come and didn't come and I started to wonder if our muddy road had something to do with it.

About 7:10am my friend (who lives just down the hill) called and wondered if the bus had come yet. She tried calling the bus driver's cell phone and got no answer, but the driver called her back a little bit later and told her the bus was stuck on our hill. So we loaded up in the truck (glad we got one with 4WD!) and headed down to check it out.

Brian talked to the driver and apparently she got up close to our driveway but then the bus started sinking and sliding, so she decided she couldn't make it any further. She started to back down, but it was dark and she missed the corner, ending up off the road stuck in the mud. She had called for a back-up bus (there were probably 10-15 kids already on the bus).

Brian got out to see what he could do to help and we sat and watched for a bit. A district pick-up truck had come and was trying to pull the bus out with a chain but not having much luck. A couple of parents were also there to see if they could help and brought some boards to try putting under the tires (their kids were already on the bus).

We ended up taking our 3 kids down to our friend's house so they could get on the back-up bus when it got there. Hayley was still in her PJs and stayed with us in the truck.


We went back up to our house briefly to see if Brian could find our nylon strap (he couldn't) and so I could grab the camera (of course). It ended up that a second bus came up (it backed all the way up the hill to where we were) and picked up the kids (and driver) who were already there, then left to finish it's route. This was about 8:20am (school starts at 8:00), so I don't know how long it took the bus to finish the route and get all the kids to school.

They brought a bigger tow rope on the replacement bus and ended up using both the district pick-up and one of the other parent's pick-ups to pull out the bus.


Then the bus tried to go up the hill a little bit farther to turn around near our driveway, but it couldn't make it so it had to just back down the hill.

Obviously the bus won't be able to bring the kids back up to the house after school today, so they are just going to get off at our friend's house and we'll drive down to pick them up. The driver said we'll just need to communicate with her and on days when the road is bad (as I'm sure it will be tomorrow as well), we'll have to drive them down the hill in the morning to get picked up on the pavement.

Winter could prove to be a big adventure around here!