Greyhound aka A Shitty way to travel....

At least you didn't end up sitting next to the person who receives radio signals from Pluto.

A few years back I took a short trip on the ol' Grayhound and was delightfully surprised at the lack of freaks. Nobody ever sat next to me and launched into a life story or demanded mine. The stops were always pleasant and other than their frequency I had nothing to complain about. Until the ride home.

This one guy gets on and he's got his trusty little discman and headphones. He sits down behind me and arranges himself. A few minutes later I realize he's a Sarah McLachlan when I hear the off-key, half-whispered, tuneless mumbling of "Building a Mystery". And I don't mean the whole song. Just the line itself, as it occurs in the song.

Hey, I'm not the greatest singer in the world, so I can't begrudge him trying to sing along with his favorite song.

A few minutes later, I hear it again.

Buildiiiinng a myystery. Buildiiiing a myystery. Buildiiing a myyystery.

For like an hour.

In the wise words of Zorak: Not goin' back there!

I've always had decent experiences with Greyhound. I haven't seen anyone travel with just plastic bags..but i see a hella lotta mexicans. The only bad parts are the bus stations. The local bus station, was run by this gay black guy who hit on me half the time i went to get a ticket. There was a weirdo redneck outside who told me where he lived, that he still lived with his mother, about his misadventure in the porno industry, and I suspect that he was drunk 24/7. He acted like a racist but he really wasn't. It was disturbing.

On the buses, everyone pretty much kept to themselves and it was a quiet ride and BO free.

At this other bus station, i was stuck there for 2 hours, and there was a guy, one of those life story guys. His story was interesting though. He was a traveling salesman and his company was sending him from place to place, bus to bus. He was a real nice guy and took the time to get to know me and all that before telling me all this stuff. He didn't even try to sell me anything.

I used Greyhound a couple of times before I realized it's not such a great way to get anywhere. the best part is when those scam artists go from line to line with the well-rehearsed stories about needing a little money to get to Idaho because XYZ is happening there. those are some creative people.

I've never travelled by bus, except for chartered trips. I do fly a lot, I got plently of stories there.

When I lived in Chicago, I took greyhund home to see family, when my dad picked me up at the station he told me he was sorry and that i'll be flying from here on out. a trip from Chicago to Indy takes about 3 hours to drive, with Greyhound it took 4.5 hours

holy shit... i'm no fool, but... i didn't realize this happened, often...

I work close to a bus station and parked really close to it... one day some guy asked me for some $$ to get a ride to a town about an hour away because his sister was in the hospital... that he had gone to some local churches and asked for $ but got turned down (bs, he had an arseload of baggage...)....

I didn't give him any cash ... since I was pretty certain he was FOS... but i did take a minute to feel bad afterward... no more!

I wouldn't say never give to anyone, I mean you might find someone genuinely in need. but use common sense and judgement, because there are a lot of fakers who congregate at Greyhound.

from personal experience- one guy I saw on two different occasions, with two different stories. then there was another guy who found his own story so ridiculous that he couldn't even keep a straight face while telling it (this one was on first name terms with the security guy who eventually ordered him to move along)

It has been my experience to never give money to anyone on the street asking for money. Instead I go and get them what they want. If they want money for food I offer to meet up with them at the nearest resteraunt (fast food or a deli) and i buy them what they want there.

More often then not they turn me down which leads me to believe that they want to spend the money on something other than what they said.

Everybody who has to take the bus is united by one factor: they all have to take the bus (even if for just that one time). I've been there, and I've had worse experiences with human beings whom I thought I was better than (not joking, just being honest-- I'm no saint) on inner-city routes.

I have also had to sit on long journeys in buses with uninteresting, unattractive, and malodorous folk. And I have thought, in my misery, "If I am deserving of better than this, then why did I not spring for an airline ticket?" Because the convenience of having to interact for less time with people who are likely to smell better (to my spoiled nostrils) was not worth the money.

People are smelly and sociable the world over, to no fault. That's the way people are. It's the rich and even (most of) the middle class Americans who are the weirdos: overly concerned with hygiene, privacy, and personal space, which they erroneously see as an inalienable right.

And I am one of those (to the degree that I realize what I am but remain somewhat of a hypocrite), so I blame myself, too. A bus ride is an eye-opener. Embrace the experience. Be happy that you've learned something, if only that there are people all around you that you'd prefer never to have to associate with.

If you ever find yourself wondering why such-and-such political debate has any relevance when we should all be able to agree to disagree, remember that we all really do have to live with eachother.