Posted on 12/12/2024 2:01:58 PM PST by DallasBiff
Thanks to The United States’ combination of lackluster train infrastructure and miserable flying experience, there often simply aren’t great choices to get places.
Is the Greyhound bus our savior? No, absolutely not. Yet, despite the Greyhound’s reputation as as a last resort option, I’ve taken it several times (not as a last resort!) over the last few years.
(Excerpt) Read more at davidwilliamrosales.com ...
I rode a Greyhound in 2019 to go from Lexington to Virgina to buy my Jag-u-ar.
The Lexington station was small, but OK and in a decent part of town.
I first went to Cincinnati to change busses, but it left Cincy about an hour late. The trouble is, because of that hour I missed my connection in Columbus for Pittsburg and Washington.
I ended up sitting in the Columbus station for about 10 hours while I waited for the next bus to Pittsburg and Washington. The station was clean but the seats were not comfortable. Like in the article, it was 80-90% black, but everyone was nice. The only food in the station was via vending machines, but I found a restaurant nearby and had a good hamburger.
The busses themselves were reasonably comfortable.
The cost was actually more than flying from Lexington to Washington (Baltimore actually), plus the flight was at 0500 and my wife is not a morning person.
In the 1950's as a preteen, I remember two summers where my mom put me on a Greyhound bus in Boyne Falls with my destination being Detroit because my dad couldn't drive up to pick me up.
There is no way anyone would do that to their kids today.
Two of my children were invited to my sister’s house in the summer of 91 or ‘92. My daughter was 16 and just received her drivers license my youngest son was 13. My sister lived In Montana and we live in Indiana. I honestly couldn’t afford to let them fly but my husband and I had both taken the bus for long distance travel when we were younger (in the 1950’s and 60’s) so we decided to let Greyhound do the driving. We had many conversations about what could go wrong and how to respond. My son was an avid map reader, so I knew he would be charting where they were and where they were headed.
They headed out on their adventure with journals and lots of quarters for vending machines and phone home calls. Adventure is what they got. At one point the driver decided he was done, pulled off to the side of the road and left bus and riders behind. There were many adults to keep an eye out for my young ones. Greyhound was very responsive in getting another bus there and caring for all passengers. I’m sure there were many sordid details I wasn’t aware of.
They made it to Montana and had a wonderful summer vacation with cousins that included Yellowstone, bears, mountain climbing, swimming, and many activities. None which would have been possible without Greyhound to do the driving. They safely returned returned them back to Indiana but with much less excitement than they had on their way out West. One of the highlights still recounted to those who listen was watching TV in the bus station by depositing quarters just like you would into a laundromat washing machine.
And there sure are a lot of Jordan Neely Juniors on planes these days.
I thought of that song too.
We have Vonlane here, I’d like to try it sometime.
Used to fly all the time for work and it is not bad when you are traveling alone but when you have an entire group it is cheaper and easier to go by van.
#17 learn to speak Jive
Hmmm...
If you ride the bus long enough, you’ll get to meet Reacher...
Be polite, or else...
Have you flown Spirit or Southwest lately? Greyhound couldn’t possibly be any worse.
LOL. Is that you, Dickie Betts?
I used to ride Greyhound or Trailways fairly often in the early and mid-70s, that and hitchhike. Last time I rode Greyhound was about 30 years ago, it was OK.
One of my brothers drove two Gray Rabbit SF-NYC round trips back in the day. He quit when he found out they carried no insurance whatsoever.
The two times I’ve driven a Greyhound it was to pick up a car I had bought online. Both were memorable experiences — fun in a certain way, interesting, and at times slightly scary. Bus terminals are weird places, especially the really old ones up in the Northeast, which you can tell were once quite nice but have gotten run down.
driven = ridden
Greyhound: Mass Transit for Mass Murderers!
That is a down side about half the time and a up side about half the time.
Or a train for that matter.
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