Modern Vespa

Getting paid for an all inclusive road trip, I don't feel sorry for you at all😂

Probably the same reason dogs want to stick their heads out of car windows when they ride in them. If I sit in an aisle seat, I MIGHT miss something interesting that's outside of the vehicle, and in western South Dakota in the dead of winter, that could be a cow standing in a prairie
pasture, perhaps several of them. Who would want to miss THAT?

I doubt if the busses used in the northern
American states (or Canada) are any different from busses used in the UK or other parts of Europe as far as cold weather capabilities are concerned, but I suppose that some may be built to different specifications depending on climate demands and buyer preferences.

It's ok, I'm not complaining about it...however!...

Regardless of the hours, I am considered a 'part time' employee of the bus company. I am paid only a straight hourly amount for my time in service to the company. There is no overtime, vacation, medical coverage, or retirement, only my hours.

The bus company can do this because the determination between full time and part time employment is based on an ANNUAL hourly average worked, which means that although a driver may log, legally, as many as seventy hours of service in a week's time during tbe busy summer tour charters and perhaps twenty-five hours in a two-day high school sporting event trip, the only thing that matters is that a driver's hours for the entire year fall beneath a certain number that disqualifies and prevents them from holding full time employee status, with the mandated associated benefits of being full time versus part time.

We drive school trips like crazy during the tourist 'off-season' from September through May, but for most drivers, myself included, the work does fall off during the summer months enough to keep those total annual hours-of-service-under that pesky part-time employee threshold.

But! It's not a stifling desk job, it gets one out of the house, it's a LOT of responsibility, what with transporting people rather than 40,000 pounds of cat food and all that good stuff.

Anyone can steer a 45 foot touring motorcoach down the highway, but snaking one of these vehicular Elephants through a crowded Wal-Mart or Pizza Ranch parking lot is a common challenge with these school trips, and for some silly reason, the bus company frowns upon crushing cars and shoppers with their 50,000 pound people movers..

Ah!.... it's all in fun.

There was actually a mention (and appropriately
relevant photo), of my GTS earlier in this thread, but it may have been buried in the tsunami of bussing bullsh#t that hence has ensued.

Yes, I take no small pride in my personal hygiene and timely fashion sense.

I sold one beer to "Too Slim" from Riders In The Sky. That was 35 years ago when I worked at a liquor store in Cozad, NE where I was born and raised.
Small world

Typical of rural England its very scenic, but when you get into the towns and cities its a different story due to congestion, in towns the roads are not big enough to take todays traffic.

Coddy, Artery clogging black pudding I would rather chew a piece of chipboard, Tomato's one of your five a day mate

Some coach driving along the Amalfi coast in Italy: &t=331s

Moderation my friend, I'm far more concerned with my alcohol consumption than I am about my saturated fats.

It does help being 10.5 stone and have a 32" waist

If only the rest of the UK was identical to the Yorkshire Dales eh?

This is obviously why God made Vespa scooters.

That's some crazy stuff.

I've been in some tight places with a bus, but definitely don't enjoy that aspect of it much. I've driven a bus into and through some large cities, Denver and St. Louis come to mind, but these days I won't accept those kinds of trips as a matter of personal policy. Some drivers love those big city runs, but I don't.

Being personally familiar with the skill and experience required to drive a vehicle of that size into a large, congested, urban area, I was highly impressed with the skill of our bus drivers who deal with places like London and Paris on a daily basis when we were there.

You noticed these coach drivers? They are not stressed. They don't argue. They mutually are figuring out what is the best way to solve the problem and they can ride their bus on the cm.

We were there in the summer of 2019. We did that road.

That's because it was snowing and uphill and you had no shoes.

Last bus I drove was this old Bedford PJK chassis, engine 330 ci 6 pot diesel Ex school bus from a local garage Meurigs. It first started life as a prison bus about 69.
I remember changing the engine in it, mending it on the roadside many times over the years. My eldest has it now and goes out rarely in it since his mum died 3 years ago. He went to a party recently in the pouring rain, had not run for a year and asked if I wanted to go with him but bring my tools incase it breaks down. I declined.
My past wife got given it in about 96 by her friend as she found it hard to drive. We used it mainly as a camper and to take giant puppets to events all over the UK when we run a puppet company, now I just do marionettes at events much lighter to use.

I can't get a specific image outta my head:

Both ways.

OFG

Well, I've recovered from that Sioux Falls bus ferry trip, so tomorrow morning I'm to drive up to Spearfish, grab a bus, then 'scoot' the 20 or so miles to Sturgis high school, pick up the boy's wrestling team and head 250 miles back east (again), this time to Mitchell, South Dakota (home of the world famous Mitchell Corn Palace, no less), stay the night there, then start back sometime on Saturday afternoon.

I know that almost all MV'ers are probably fascinated with the minute details and low-brow misadventures of my bus driver 'Tales-O-Th-Road' posts, and heaven knows, who could blame them?

UPDATE!!!!!

Oh, SNAP!...I was just sent a message saying that the Sturgis HS boy's wrestling trip to Mitchell has been cancelled for this weekend.

I suspect that it might have something to do with the forecasted low temps there on Saturday of MINUS EIGHTEEN BELOW ZERO (Fahrenheit).

Bunch of damn pussies.

Back in Minnesota, if it was anything 'warmer' than 20 below zero, us kids would grab our goggles, snorkels, and spearguns, then bicycle down to lake Milacs, chop a hole in the ice and dive in to see if we could get a big fat Carp to cook up for supper.

Heck, I was all ready to, as they say, gird my loins for a dangerously arctic wonderland road trip tomorrow, but noooooooooooo....now I have to stay at home and constructively work on something indoors...like maybe finish my Black Hills Vespa Rider Club logo design.

Would bet there's a collector/enthusiast out there would pay
serious money for that bus 😉👍

Back in Minnesota, if it was anything 'warmer' than 20 below zero, us kids would grab our goggles, snorkels, and spearguns, then bicycle down to lake Milacs, chop a hole in the ice and dive in to see if we could get a big fat Carp to cook up for supper.🤣

Give over beating you're chest JB you'll end up hurting yourself , at least you had the luxury of goggles, snorkels and spear guns, Us beer loving Brits after a night on the lash would find the nearest bridge strip down to our shreddies (underwear) tombstone off it straight through the ice catch two Carp on the way down come back up eat them raw then on the way home call in a the local dodgy kebab shop for second course and that my friend was just the women 😉👍

"shreddies"????

We wore only a cork and a rubber band when we went swimming. Afterward, we snorted room-temperature Ludefisk through a straw while baiting Wolverines with green bean casserole pinched from the Lutheran church ladies pot luck table down at the fire hall.

Got it, just read about lutefisk I have no argument, you are the man, just keep it over your side of the water 😂👍quote="JBacklund"]
"shreddies"????

We wore only a cork and a rubber band when we went swimming. Afterward, we snorted room-temperature Ludefisk through a straw while baiting Wolverines with green bean casserole pinched from the Lutheran church ladies pot luck table down at the fire hall.
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