let it ride -- on greyhound

This past week I was able to attend an event that I have wanted to attend for quite awhile – the Emergent Gathering. I will write a whole blog about the gathering later…but first I must reflect on how I got there.

Many people have commented on the fact that the Re:Imagine crew decided to take the Greyhound (see previous post) to the gathering. If you have never taken the Greyhound as a means of travel I highly recommend it…at least once. It is an interesting experience. Let me tell you about ours…

The Saturday of our departure (October 7) was a long day to begin with. One of the couples in the Re:Imagine community, Damen and Alice were getting married. All of us had to rise early that day and drive about an hour south to attend the wedding. The reception was at a really nice Chinese restaurant (for anyone who went to India, think of that restaurant we went to our first night in Hong Kong…if you can). After we left all the wedding festivities we returned back and I had a mental checklist to exhaust before we were to leave. All that to say the day never rested.

11:00pm was to be our departure time and Lisa took the four travelers (Mark, Nate, Adam and me) to the station in downtown San Francisco. The station in San Francisco is in a pretty large building and is located on the second floor of a parking garage-like structure that looks like a scene out of Fight Club once one enters. The building is public which allows many people on the street to find shelter for a night. Since it was so late we passed by many of San Francisco’s homeless who were looking for a windless piece of concrete to sleep on.

When we arrived at the ticketing counter the only agent available was busy. We stood around for awhile just laughing at the reality that we were about to spend thirty hours on a bus. And it was not like youth group trips were the stops are determined by the people traveling – no, we were going to be stopping when the driver had the desire.

As the ticketing agent was taking some time with her customers another agent named Ryan came to our rescue. Ryan was one of those employees that seemed to be doing his job for a long time. He approached the computer with a slightly arrogant air of confidence. His strong know-it-all voice asked, “What can I do for you fellas?” Mark stated that we were needing our tickets for the bus to Albuquerque. The process of getting one’s tickets at Greyhound is no different than getting them for a flight – except the fact that the Greyhound does not need any ID.

As Ryan was preparing our tickets Mark shared with him that none of us had ever traveled by Greyhound. Ryan let out a smirkish chuckle. Mark asked, “So, do you have any tips on how things work?”

Little did we know that this question would launch Ryan into a type of informational speech. “Well, you know, just find yourself a seat on the bus and enjoy the ride. Pay attention to when you have to get off, and when your connection is.” He pecked away at the keyboard a bit. “There’s no smoking on the bus, and there’s no drinking.” The tickets were being printed out. “But you know…if you’re sittin’ in the back of the bus and find some cute woman back there, there ain’t nothin’ sayin’ you can’t have a little fun. Ya know, just find yourself a seat and you two try not to bother no one else. But, don’t nothin’ say you can’t get ya some on the bus ride. The bus driver can’t say nothin’. He might look at ya strange…but it’s just ‘cause he’s jealous ya know.” All of us were looking at each other with looks that silently said, “Can you believe he’s saying this – but, Ryan was not done. He was putting the tickets together and said, “Oh yeah, and it’s you boys lucky night for that…you on a bus with strippers…it’s y’alls lucky night. Just remember to sit toward the back if you wanna do some of that. Here’s your tickets.”

Again, we all looked at each other in surprise and Ryan pointed us toward the direction of the bus. Mark then asked how many stops this bus would take. It was at this time we were introduced to the mysterious idea of the express bus. Ryan shared how if he could get 35 people on this bus he would make it an express bus. This meant that it made only one stop between San Francisco and L.A. instead of multiple. If that happened there was a chance that we could get on an earlier bus than the one scheduled.

Quite a few years back I rode Amtrak. One of the first things I noticed about that ride was the drastic difference in the socioeconomic strata of people who traveled Amtrak as opposed to flying. When we walked into the Greyhound seating area I saw it again…this time between Amtrak and Greyhound.

We did not have to wait long for the bus, and we were some of the first to board. The bus was not as full as Ryan would have liked it to be, so it was not made an express bus. We left San Francisco and headed south.

Riding on the bus is not that big of a deal. It is much like a plane. No one really says anything to you, and most people keep to themselves – unless something was happening in the back we did not know about??? At about 2 in the morning we stopped at some little town which had a 24hr Burger King – it was a 30 minute stop. Many people got some food. Mark, Nate, Adam and I just stood outside stretching our legs. I watched many of our fellow travelers and wondered what their stories were – why were they going to L.A., who were they seeing, was the end of their travel going to bring their life into something fulfilling, exploitive, or even abusive? Our stop ended up being 45 minutes.

The ride was pretty easy…we got into L.A. at about 4:30am. Our next bus did not leave until 7:15am, so we had some time to kill. Mark was desiring to see the city, so we starting walking toward the “big buildings.” The L.A. Greyhound station is located on 7th St. and Decatur, and walking around L.A. at 5:00am with luggage and a backpack was not exactly how I thought we would spend our time between busses. We walked down to the Wilshire building and then turned around – L.A. is pretty dead on a Sunday morning.

When we got back to the station there was a long line of luggage behind one particular door. We learned that Greyhound etiquette allows people to line their luggage up in order to hold one’s place in line when you’re early. We waited until people were allowed to board. The line started moving. The four of us got up to the front and the ticketing agent said, “We’re sorry, but this bus is full.” We slightly protested that we had tickets for the 7:15am bus, and so did many people behind us. She stated, “I’m sorry.” Mark protested a bit more then the woman stated how the next but going to Phoenix (9:15am) was going to be an express bus and that we would get there before the 7:15am bus. She gave us some food vouchers and we left our stuff at the door.

We turned around and say a large number of people waiting on this same bus. The ticketing agent said that the bus was full and the people just put their heads down and went to find a seat in the station. There was no protest from them, no attempting to get any kind of food voucher, nothing – many just seemed to be used to this treatment.

Mark and Adam went and got breakfast while Nate and I watched the luggage, then upon their return we went to get food. The Greyhound diner was not too bad – nothing great, and by the way, if you ever ride Greyhound do not have the patty sausage – they’re terrible! But, it was a free breakfast.

When Nate and I returned from the diner we found Mark curled up on the floor behind some chairs trying to sleep. Adam was across the room curled up trying to get some sleep as well. Nate and I sat to watch luggage and to chat. I turned to Nate and shared how I noticed that in this Greyhound station no one was talking on a cell phone – I mean no one. There were at least 100 plus people there, and no one was talking on a cell. I was commenting on how in an airport it seemed that half the people traveling alone were on a phone – but not on the Greyhound.

Nate and I got into a discussion about an article he had read stating that many times the poor end up paying more money for poorer service. This ends up happening for many reasons but one is because they do not know that there is a better and cheaper service. For instance, in our case, Nate and I were talking about how our Greyhound trip from San Francisco to Albuquerque was $78. By contrast Nate and my flight from Albuquerque to San Francisco was only $94 dollars. It was more expensive…but not by much. We were also noticing how many of the workers for Greyhound were somewhat rude, and would speak very sternly (almost yelling) at the customers, and many of the riders just took it. Mark said, “The poor are treated like crap.”

We finally got on our ride to Phoenix and found out quickly that it would not be an express bus. We were beginning to see that this bus might just be a wonderful Greyhound myth. The ride was fine. I slept for some of it, and read for the rest. We stopped for lunch in west Arizona in a cluster of fast food restaurants. Mark had made some grain salad for the trip so the four of us sat down at one of the outside tables and enjoyed the grain salad out of some cups we had brought. After we were done Mark took the cups into the McDonald’s bathroom and washed them for later use. This 30 minute break also turned into a 45+ break.

We got to the Phoenix station twenty minutes after our bus to Albuquerque left. The driver, however, seemed to think that there would be another bus leaving soon in that direction – at this point it was 4:35. Mark went to ask when the next bus to Albuquerque was leaving. As he was doing that Nate, Adam and I noticed our next exit gate – on the gate was the postings for the bus schedule. Our next bus would not leave until 11:00pm! Over six hours from then. We put our luggage down by the door and noticed a grandmother and her grandson had come and put luggage behind us. We asked her where she was headed. She told us, and we stated that we thought there was a bus going in that direction at another gate. She said one of the agents told her to stand at that gate and wait. We told her this one was not leaving till 11pm. She got a frustrated look on her face and said that the agent had said the bus would be leaving shortly. Well, the bus had left, but it was a different gate. By this point we were getting frustrated with Greyhound altogether. Again, we got some food vouchers and stayed in the Phoenix station for six hours.

We were suppose to arrive in Albuquerque at 2:30/3:00am. Instead we were leaving Phoenix at 11:00pm. I slept most of the night, and we arrived in Albuquerque at 10:00am (or so). We walked to our hotel and crashed. We took much needed showers and relaxed before our busy week. After all of that we experienced how so many people are treated simply because of socioeconomic status or maybe because they do not have a United States ID. We felt lied to [no strippers! -- just joking], there was no express bus, customer service was terrible, one is at the mercy of the Greyhound workers, and they do not really seem to care. They kinda have this attitude that says, "Well, if you're traveling Greyhound you won't mind being treated like crap." Again, if you ever want to have an interesting and learning experience, or if you want to have solidarity with lower income peoples – ride Greyhound.