The Great Bus Trip

---

Tanya took me to the Greyhound Bus station in Pensacola. When I found out the station itself wasn't even open, I should have known I was in for a weird trip to Greenville, SC. Leaviing at 6:40pm, I arrived in Mobile to await my bus to Atlanta... at 11:35pm! At least this bus station was open, even the snack bar... all night! At this point, I started to discover the, shall we say variety of people that use Greyhound. All ages, sexes, and races, with a larger than normal dose of weird. Between a lady that chatted with me, then asked me to watch her bags while she went to the bathroom, then when asked where she was going, responded in all seriousness that "she shouldn't talk to strangers"! To the drunk that pulled up in a rickety old car with power steering squeal and a cloud of smoke then he turned it off. He proceeded to call the fire department, telling them his car was "on fire". When the fire truck showed up, he was leaving. They stopped him on the way out of the parking lot long enough for the two police cars to arrive, having been called by the driver of a taxi he had beaten on (the car, not the driver). To the onlooking crowd's amazement, the police talked to him, long enough I'm sure to ascertain how drunk he was, then just let him drive away.. going the wrong way on a one-way street, while they sat in the parking lot next door and watched! He even passed back by a few minutes later going the right way. After a small salad and milk from the snack bar, I boarded the bus to Atlanta. We stopped briefly in Montgomery, then at a rest stop on I-85, arriving in Atlanta at 7am. It was almost impossible to get comfortable on the bus, but I think I did sleep an hour or so each time between stops. By the time we reached Atlanta, I was pretty toasted, sleepy, tired and getting a bit of a headache. Atlanta had a much larger and fancier bus station, with all sorts of machines, including a media download machine where you could download music and video to memory cards, mp3 players, or even burn a CD/DVD. My 45 minute stay there was uneventful, except for the bums aksing for cigarettes and the15 or 20 mexican-looking young men that one of the helpful Greyhound employees directed to the right gates, often having to write the gate number on their ticket stubs, for the next leg of their journies. Finally, I boarded my last bus, this time for Greenville, South Carolina. Although Greenville is only 150 miles from Atlanta, the trip took over 4 hours, stopping in several small towns along the way. I was so glad to reach the end of my journey. This was a once in a liftetime experience... I hope! After eating lunch at a wing place in Greenville with my wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandson, we went to their house for a pleasant evening and a good night's sleep.

---