Monday, February 11, 2008

Riding the bus

I was supposed to be working on historical society stuff today. I had an "almost fainting" spell this am, took a couple of nitro tabs for the accompanying chest pain, then cleared my calendar for today and tomorrow.

I've thought about taking mass transit when I go to see my grandchildren in March due to my inability to predict the above. I love to take the train, but there is no passenger train service at all in South Dakota. There are planes, of course, but they are hugely expensive.

The bus never occurred to me until I read today's Daily eMo by Barbara Crafton. I checked the price and if I get the ticket 2 weeks in advance, it will cost only $108 round trip. That is much cheaper than driving the car and staying in hotels. And I remember journaling about a long city bus ride while in DC--all the interesting and delightful people I saw. Of course, having someone else drive while I rest is very appealing.

Of course if I don't drive, it saves on pollution as well. After all, the bus will go whether I'm on it or not. Save money and care for Creation...hmmm. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Taciturn is concerned that something could happen to me, and Mother Crafton points out in her eMo that folks voiced similar concerns. I used to take the bus a lot when I was a teen. I had no car so that was the only way I could travel. I remember some persistent guy coming onto me on one very short trip and nothing horrible at all about the very long trip I took when I was 18 (Hot Springs Ark to Sedalia MO via St. Louis).
I got tired but driving 12 hours in the car is also tiring. There is only one bus station that might be in a horrible neighborhood that I would be in, that is the one in Kansas City.

The biggest draw back I can see would be that the bus to Only Son's town gets in at 2:30 am. If there is no taxi, then OS would have to come get me and then get up again to go to work a few hours later. I hate to inconvenience him like that!

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