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Steamboat Springs — When Connie Wagner pulls into the Steamboat Springs School District bus barn this evening, she'll be parking a 50-year family legacy along with school bus No. 12.

Wagner is retiring after about 30 years driving a country route south of Steamboat Springs. She took over the route from her parents, Bonnie and Perley Green, who started driving it in 1957.

"Is this all I get this afternoon?" Wagner asked as she picked up students from Strawberry Park Elementary School on Thursday. There weren't very many kids on the bus on the second-to-last day of school.

"No," third-grader Sam Shaffer said as he walked up the aisle to give "Ms. Connie" a big hug. "You get this, too."

In addition to developing warm relationships with the students on her route, Wagner also isn't afraid to put her foot down when need be. She didn't hesitate to confiscate a hacky sack being tossed around in the back of the bus or to tell a student to dismantle the makeshift punching bag he had created by suspending a balloon from a rack above his seat.

"She's not one that you pull a joke on," said retired bus driver Betsy Zimmerman, who drove buses with Wagner for decades and rode Wagner's father's bus when she was a student. "She was not an aggressive disciplinarian, but she just expected if you got on the bus you followed the rules because it was a safety issue. But she was a kind person. She treated everybody with respect unless somebody showed no respect for her."

Although her bus now is based out of the district's bus barn on 13th Street, Wagner and her parents used to drive the bus out of the family ranch on Trout Creek. She fondly recalled winter days when her father would hitch up a team of horses and sled to tow the bus out to the county road.

"When you grow up on a ranch, you learn how to drive," Wagner said.

Five members of Wagner's immediate family have driven a bus for the school district at one point or another. The job brought her great comfort when she lost her parents and husband within a few a years of each other earlier this decade.

"It's just been a real comfort to me to drive the bus and be with the kids. So I just kept doing it because it helped me out," Wagner said. "I haul the same kids every day. I get to know them real well. I haul them from when they are 5 years old until they start driving. : I get along with the kids great. I have a good bunch of kids. I've hauled some of their parents also. Now, I'm hauling them.

"But now, I'm kind of tired," Wagner continued. "I think I actually am going to miss driving them, but it's time for me to start seeing my own kids. : I'd like to spend a lot more time with my daughters and grandchildren."

Wagner will be missed by students and co-workers.

"I think she's really nice," Soda Creek Elementary School second-grader Caleb Heckler said. "She drives well. She's nice. And, most of the time, she's funny."

Ed Dingledine, director of transportation for the school district, said Wagner's knowledge and experience would be hard to replace. For years, Wagner also has been the one who trains new bus drivers. Bus driver Bethany Aurin was one of her students.

"Connie's kind of been a fixture," Aurin said. "She's the go-to person for most everything with the bus drivers. She'll be missed. She's going to leave a big hole in our little bus driver family."