by Phillip Obermiller
While listening to music or podcasts, concentrating on a workout, or chatting with companions, it’s easy to miss some of the trail’s more interesting features. Loren Long, however, keeps an artist’s eye out for striking images while on the trail. He found one in a retired school bus in the corner of a goat paddock. Intrigued, Long kept returning to the scene wondering if there was a story in the bus’s presence.
A professional illustrator living in Madeira, Long uses observation and imagination to develop drawings and stories that include a popular series featuring Otis, the red tractor. His discovery just south of mile marker 48.5 has resulted in another best-selling children’s book, The Yellow Bus. 
The Amazon description calls it “a modern classic about a forgotten school bus that finds happiness and purpose in the most unexpected places--and the journey along the way.”
Long’s book attracted the eye of reporter Elizabeth Egan who noted the role of the Little Miami Scenic Trail in her New York Times article covering his recent work. You can read about it here.
Or maybe get a copy of The Yellow Bus and read it with some three-to-six-year-olds first.
The yellow bus is near the Schoolhouse Restaurant on the far south end of the trail where Phil Obermiller serves as a FLMSP Sentinel.
by Erick Wikum
