"I used to sit on President Taft's grave," says Ackerson, who grew up in Virginia but came to Utah after high school.

Ackerson and his wife met 34 years ago at Brigham Young University. They raised nine children. One is an optometrist now, and another is a speech pathologist.

On the bus, Ackerson is generally quiet, but he responds pleasantly when talked to. One morning, when the bus is nearly empty, Ackerson begins humming the hymn "How Great Thou Art" to himself.

He says he doesn't remember names, but always faces.

A daily routine

About five minutes before the bus is scheduled to leave the TRAX station, Jennie Gerona has taken her seat, just behind the driver. She wears a lot of pink and red and usually carries a book. She doesn't talk to other passengers. She just smiles.

Ackerson greets Gerona, calling her "Smiles" or "Harry Potter," depending on the book she has.

For six hours each weekday, Gerona volunteers at the Murray Heritage Center, which provides socialization opportunities for the elderly.

She rides TRAX from her home in Draper to 6400 South, then takes the bus one stop to the Heritage Center, located around 6100 South.

Gerona, 31, lives with her parents. She has a learning disability, in addition to attention deficit disorder and a sensory impairment, she says. "My short-term memory is not good, and my long-term is better." She says she has a lot of friends with special needs like herself.

One day, Gerona wants to travel to Puerto Rico, where her grandfather was born. She wears an amethyst ring that her grandmother gave her two months before she died. "My dad said we could have been twins," Gerona says of her grandmother.

A kind of freedom

Tony Bodne is taking the bus this fall day because his car is in the shop, and he has to attend a heavy-duty mechanics class. Gerona is the only other person on the bus at this moment, but the two make no eye contact. She sits at the front, and Bodne finds a seat on the back row.

He spends much of the ride coloring designs on his baseball cap.

Bodne grew up on an Apache Indian reservation in Arizona that had only a post office and small Catholic school. He says he used to raise quarter horses and competed as a jockey in races. Adorning his blue jeans is a 4-inch wide silver belt buckle, outlined in gold, that says "top jockey."

From 1986 to 1989, Bodne served in the U.S. Navy. He was based in San Diego and shipped out to Hawaii then Florida.