WEST VALLEY, NY (WKBW-TV) — Ruth Ann Courtney got attached to her school bus. The 29-year veteran school bus driver had been driving bus #88 for six years until it got decommissioned in 2021.
Ruth Ann drives for West Valley Central School and says, "I just absolutely loved bus eighty-eight. It's crazy to get attached to a bus."
The bus was sent down state to a used bus company in Albany. That made Ruth Ann sad. She says, "I shed some tears because I didn't want to see that bus leave."
The bus was sold to Steve and Joanne Rowe in the quaint seaside town of Torquay in Devon, England. They had it shipped to the U.K. and they plan to turn it into a mobile home. That made Ruth Ann happy.
Ruth Ann says, "[I was] just amazed, all the miles that bus and I put on and all the kids that went through 88 and now she's retired and she's going to be a motor-home in England."
She wants to send the Rowe's a magnetic happy face like the one she had on bus #88 and adds, jokingly, "and I'd also like all the lunch money back that they found in the seats."
