By TANYA CALDWELL, Times online writer
Published August 3, 2004
[Times photos: Tanya Caldwell]
A bus rumbles past a bus stop in Palm Harbor at 4:51 this morning, the first day of school in Pinellas County.
Bus driver Alberto Sandoval navigates through bus toward St. Petersburg.
Jeff Brown, 15, a sophomore at Lakewood High School's Center for Advanced Technology, plays a game of "13" at the back of the bus Tuesday morning as the bus finally gets to the St. Petersburg city limits.
Jeff Brown greets Ronnie Williams, also a sophomore at Lakewood, as Ronnie gets onboard the bus.
Curtis Gagne, 16, a junior at Lakewood, listed to The Postal Service on his headphones during the morning commute to school.
PALM HARBOR -- As Pinellas County slumbers in its last hours before the start of a typical Tuesday, hundreds of homes sprinkle their sleepy neighborhoods with lights, ready to start the day before its dawn even breaks.
Today is the first day of school, the one that kept kids up the night before, reluctant to hit the sack early but eager to sashay their new clothes on what could be their biggest fashion fanfare of the year.
It's all a matter of time, but if they're a student destined for bus route 67, that could take forever. It's the longest ride in the county this year, stationed in Palm Harbor and destined for Boca Ciega and Lakewood high schools, a product of the school choice program.
It's one thing to make a good first impression, to look the best and be alert for the first day of classes. It's another to have that act together by 4:56 in the morning, when the bus makes its first stop.
The St. Petersburg Times has decided to come along for the ride. Beginning the day at 4:30 a.m. at the Palm Harbor compound, where Tarpon Springs buses reside until construction is complete at their original homes, we will introduce you to the new routine to which young residents must now become acquainted: waking up in the wee hours of the morning to get a ride to school.
While it may not be the same as the stories of yesterday, when grandparents claimed to trek barefoot in the snow up calamitous Florida mountains for the sake of education, accompanying what could be the hardest working bus driver in the county should prove interesting enough.
4:53 a.m.
A photo of a bus rumbling by the Palm Harbor bus stop is transmitted via photo phone to the Times web department, itself just waking up. It's not my bus, but at 4:53 a.m., I finally board Bus 29425. The bus driver's name is Alberto Sandoval.
5:30 a.m.
The first attempt to file a report via cell phone is a bust. It's nearly impossible to talk and be heard back in the office in St. Petersburg. So the reporting continues as the bus heads south.
5:56 a.m.
So far, we have 10 boys on the bus. No girls. We're running 10 minutes late. On Belcher and NE Coachman, we still have a ways to go and about 20 more kids to pick up. Some kids are playing cards, others are getting acquainted. Only one has dozed off so far. It's the first day of school so most of the gang are too anxious to get any sleep.
6:34 a.m.
We're about 5 minutes away from Boca Ciega High School. We've hit all our stops and there are 22 students onboard. A card game of "13" continues in the back of the bus. They tried teaching me the rules, but I can't seem to catch on. Two girls will get off the bus at Boca Ciega and the rest will continue to Lakewood and the school's advanced technology magnet program. Light from the slowly rising sun is finally starting to creep into the bus windows.
6:50 a.m.
We dropped off the Boca Ciega kids at 6:44 p.m. -- five of them as it turns out -- and we're heading south on 34th Street on the way to Lakewood. There's a lot more traffic on the road now. After a 5-minute rain shower, a bad smell drifted through the bus -- a stench the kids could only describe as a dead cat. As the sun breaks through the clouds again, the smell thankfully disappears. It's been a long morning already, but I've had two cans of Pepsi so I'm good to go.
7:20 a.m.
We dropped off the last kids at 7:02 a.m. at Lakewood High. Afterward, the driver checked to make sure no one fell asleep on the bus or left any supplies behind. "Everything went really smooth," the driver said. "I'm nervous because it's the first day of school ... but nothing went wrong." Being behind schedule helped a little. "Today I was late because I wanted to make sure you guys were going to be there," he explained to the kids.
[Last modified August 3, 2004, 13:07:59]
