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Published: September 23rd 2014
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The Kalamazoo Transportation Center. I woke at eight this morning, broke my fast, showered, dressed and made it out the door by nine as planned. The weather was quite nice as I walked to the bus stop; warm with a light mist. The ride up to the station was uneventful and I arrived at the ticket counter at 9:45as instructed. I presented the woman behind the counter with my ticket order number and confirmed my information. I was also asked for the password which I had created when ordering. Luckily I had I recorded it in my notebook but this seems like overkill to me. I think providing identification and the card used in the transaction makes rather more sense.
After receiving my tickets for both today and Monday my backpack was weighed and tagged. I then settled in for nearly an hour wait which unfortunately stretched into an hour and a half as the bus was late arriving in Kalamazoo due to Labor Day traffic. I didn’t want to wander around too much as my pack was quite massive, only hauling it down once to the men’s room. Unsurprisingly the toilet seat was covered in urine. As soon as I cleaned the seat and sat down a homeless fellow ran in yelling “Oh my god, I’m gonna **** my pants”. He proceeded to dance around repeating that statement until the man in the next stall graciously surrendered it. Needless to say this trip is off to a memorable start.
I finally boarded at 11:15 and found a seat by myself as there were relatively few passengers. After ten minutes everyone was aboard and the bus finally started to back out of the loading bay; maybe fifteen feet. At that point someone ran up waving their arms and the driver pulled back in. Apparently the man in question hadn’t a ticket and the driver spent another ten minutes on the phone in an attempt to decide whether he should let the man on or not. He was eventually allowed to board and pay his fare at some point down the line. Finally Chief Wa Kay Na was on its way north, only an hour behind schedule.
Once underway I fired up my laptop to test the Wi-Fi. The usual free access user agreement page popped up stating the service is as fast as broadband. Wow, is that not the case! It took approximately three minutes to load my home page. Most web pages loaded slower than normal with some not displaying images. Other pages refused to load at all. I also frequently lost the Wi-Fi signal all together. At first I had hoped it was simply a terrain issue and the service would improve yet it was equally poor the entire trip.
Fifteen minutes into the trip we made our first stop; in Galesburg, for lunch! I had hoped that due to our leaving Kalamazoo late the stop would be reduced from the scheduled 45 minutes but apparently McDonald’s is more important than making up time. I wandered around the parking lot a bit to stretch my legs and visited the lavatory. What do you know? Another pissy toilet seat! I managed to remain calm and was really in too good a mood to become overly upset, viewing the situation as inconvenient yet comical.
On the road for real this time I begin reading a book procured from the library last week: Soul Music, a disc world novel. I haven’t read Terry Pratchett in years but while browsing my eye happened to land on the shelf containing his paperbacks; the size and weight appealed to me for some reason. It was a happy coincidence that I had the book checked out which was a perfect choice for travel.
I alternated reading and napping until we arrived in Flint around 3:45. There, those of us heading north had to transfer to a bus from Detroit which was scheduled to arrive at 4:05 and leave at 4:15. Apparently the holiday traffic had really slowed things up in Detroit, because the coach didn’t roll in until 5:15. There seems no chance now of making up that lost hour, so if all goes well I’ll make Alpena by 10:15.
Not much of interest on the Flint to Saginaw leg of the trip other than a good deal more passengers. Saginaw to Bay City to AuGres was a slow ride and uneventful. We spent fifteen minutes in AuGres while several passengers purchased tickets. I’m not exactly sure what took so long, maybe they were bartering.
The rest of the trip occurred in the twilight and darkness of Northern Michigan forests. Lake Huron was scarcely visible due to the lack of light, yet one could still sense its presence. That being said, the views available were quite lovely. I felt overjoyed to be surrounded by such splendor. I’m always surprised to discover how much I miss nature and hope the people here appreciate the beauty around them.
We arrived in Oscoda at 8:45 and picked up one passenger. On the way out of town the bus pulled into a fast food joint. Really, another food stop? The last time I had ridden the Indian Trail there were no meal stops, so I was a bit annoyed; especially considering we were so close to my destination. With nothing better to do during the forty minute wait, I decided to order a soda, which I generally avoid. This particular shop had a soda fountain that allows for mixing of different flavors. Orange cola was the obvious choice; not a bad flavor, if a bit salty. With burgers in hand the rest of the passengers piled on and we began the final leg of our journey.
We arrived at the Alpena bus station at 10:45 PM, an hour and a half late. Overall it wasn’t a bad trip, if rather long. Counting the wait for a cab and the ride to my father’s house, it took thirteen hours door to door. I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing this entry, definitely glad to be home if only for a couple of days. The plan is to wake at eight for a run, then shower and breakfast prior to the draft at noon.
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