Replies

A lull time here, so I shall continue on with the Greyhound Bus tale....a day or so ago, I explained how and why I began to ride the Greyhound Bus, while having to travel between home in Washington with BigDom and Andy, and my parents home in Redwood Valley, California...

Today, I think I will talk about why various persons travel Greyhound, and can there be generalizations made about who travels on Greyhound, and why...I think there are many answers...

First off, travel by Greyhound is incredibly cheap...so for many folks who might want to do some traveling, but dont have a lot of money, Greyhound is certainly the way to go...another reason people use Greyhound is that Greyhound goes off the beaten track at times, going through little towns and villages, places which really have no easy access to either Amtrack and even less easy access to airports...But Greyhound does make a point of going through so many of the little, smaller places in America, in addition to the large metropolitan area, and big cities...Most areas are within some sort of easy access to a Greyhound Bus Stop...

Some people, such as myself, will travel Greyhound for a few days, if need be, rather than go up in a plane...I am terrified of flying, the last time I flew being for Andys college graduation, and it was a necessity...but given ample time, I would travel anywhere by Bus, rather than by plane...

So Greyhound has cheap fares, goes just about anywhere, and helps those who wont fly...these characteristics naturally attract certain type of folks....

I have noticed on Greyhound, I have met many people who are on either welfare, or social security, or disability...or are just people who do not have a lot of money, but still want to travel...and there are many people who live in small towns, have friends or family in other small towns, and dont drive...so Greyhound allows easy travel between small towns so that friends and families can visit regularly and not have to depend on having a car....And then there are those such as myself, who will not fly, unless forced to...

I also noticed on my Greyhound Bus travels, a lot of people from other countries using the Greyhound Bus...for many of them, who may come over to America for an extended period of time, like several weeks, often riding Greyhound, allows them to see a great deal of the USA, for a very reasonable price...they can buy a pass for a certain length of time, and can and do travel the whole of America...many of them get off the bus at night, in a small town, get their ticket punched and get it back to use the next day...they can spend the night more comfy in a motel, and catch a later Greyhound the next day...

I met many people from various countries who were doing this, and having a fine time doing it as well...young people, middle age people, and even some older people, all from other countries, were actually seeing America in this way....they got to see the scenery, meet and interact with a huge number of Americans, and got to sample lots of American foodstuffs, which most of them found to be delicious and fun...

So, when you travel on Greyhound, you meet a really quite interesting mix of folks, from different countries, different economic levels, and people from small town USA, and folks from the big cities...

Being that you all get to spend so much time together, and wind up eating in the same places together, eventually, unless you chose not to, you wind up talking to each other, and perhaps learning a thing or two...

So, in spite of some of the financial problems Greyhound has had, and in spite of sometimes hearing about a busload of Greyhounders being in an accident, where some are hurt or killed, still I see where Greyhound is really a wonderful and often necessary means of transport for those who use it...

Next time I will talk about some of the characters, I have met on board Greyhound(and some of them are real doozies)...