This time of year is rodeo season in Texas. But this one's not what you might think. For KWBU, Michael Incavo has more.
For one thing, it's Roadeo, as in road, the thing you drive on, and instead of horses and bucking broncos you'll find, well, buses.
Lots and lots of buses.
Once a year, some of the best bus operators all across Texas get together for a competition. This year, it’s Waco’s turn to host. So this past Saturday, about 90 competing operators and maintenance workers brought out their families and friends to Heritage Square to watch and support other transit drivers as each of them worked their way through a winding driving course peppered with bright orange traffic cones and10 obstacles which tested the drivers’ skills.
While the event serves as a competition of driving skills, but also doubles – according to the Texas Transit Association’s website – as a “training and networking opportunity.”
Waco Transit Management Assistant Joseph Dvorsky says the crowd favorite is the last stage.
“The big finish is the diminishing clearance where they get up to 15, 20 miles an hour and they drive through about 10 water barrels, try not to hit any of them, and then stop at this little 18-inch cone without touching the cone and coming in within 6 inches,” Dvorsky explained. “When they hit the barrels they go everywhere— that’s what everyone likes to see.”
Winners from the statewide competition will advance to the International Bus Roadeo in Charlotte, North Carolina. Overall, Dvorsky says the roadeo is great for the morale of the industry,
“It’s for their families to come out and see what [drivers] do; these guys work hard all year long and it’s a good way to recognize them and I think it’s well deserved.”
On the course, wheel wranglers from across the state are showing their maneuvering prowess. The right wheels of a San Antonio bus come impossibly close to a row of tennis balls placed meticulously in a row on the pavement. The driver brings the 35-foot bus backwards to a tight position between two lines of pylons and neatly stops right before one placed in the middle. He finishes with a quick and orderly pass between water barrels, coming to a halt right in front of an18-inch cone.
After this nervy run, the bus’ operator steps off.
His name is Rogelio Dominguez and he’s competed in the roadeo for 8 years (and even made it all the way to the international level).
“It’s always nerve-racking”, Dominguez said. “It only gets tougher the higher you go. I’ve done it eight times— you would think it would get easier but it doesn’t.”
Dominguez says these obstacles are a lot more difficult than what he encounters on the streets in San Antonio.
“We’re only talking about an inch of air on each side of the bus. There is no wiggle room, and the cones are set up where you lose them, you’re standing so high.”
The transit industry isn’t what Dominguez originally planned to do with his life—never in a million years, he says. Dominguez spent 20 years in the military, and then he became a bus operator. He’s been doing that for about 20 years too.
“I’ve loved every minute of it— it’s always a plus when you enjoy what you’re doing,” Dominguez says. “I’m here to stay. It’s always nice to get together and for us who’ve been here time and time again it’s like a reunion every year. Every now and then somebody gets knocked off, but it’s mostly the same drivers out here.”
While everybody in the running wants to move forward to internationals, the annual Texas Roadeo is a morale booster for transit workers all across the state, bringing in families and kids who don't always fully understand their parents' jobs.
Whether it's bulls or buses, this rodeo, like any other, brings people together.
