The bus guide was off and old. I went to the metro station, where I expected to catch the #1 bus which is a straight shot to my work in another city. It was a hot Friday afternoon and the depot was empty except the guard who was probably 23 years old at most. I asked him about the bus and he said "this guide is the old guide...its all wrong". Unfortunately he did not have a new guide anywhere, but he was helpful in pointing me in the right direction. I left the depot for another stopping point. After I figured out a good starting point along the route, I parked my car by the library and waited for the bus.
There were no bus times for stops between major stopping points for the bus, so I calculated that I needed to be at this bus stop 10 minutes prior to when the bus left its last major stopping point. I believe the last starting point was Smith/6th on the west side of town.
The bus arrived and I paid the fare ($1.50/one way). It had been years since I had taken city transportation and a decade or so with this particular city. The bus looked relative clean and I took a seat mid way through the bus = mistake #1. I had forgotten the rules about taking the bus. First rule is always sit at the front or the back depending on who is on the bus. If you sit in the front, the bus driver is there and chances are you will not be bothered by shady characters. If you sit in the back (pending any elements in the back) you can see everything that is going on on the bus, which could be a good thing.
As I sat down the smell hit me pretty hard. It smelled like a combination of Broccoli, Underarm Sweet, Soup, Tires, Earwax, Nachos, and Cooked Halibut = (BUS STENCH). Granted I have a strong sense of smell, but these are just a few things that came to mind. It was hot out and thankfully the air conditioning was on blowing the bus stench around with a chill to it. I made note to put an extra splash of cologne on for Monday morning commute.
People started to board at different points along the way. One person that sat directly behind me looked like a retired aerospace outdoors man, hefty in build most likely in his 50's with a well trimmed gray mustache, a black baseball cap and dark 70's sunglasses on. He was well groomed and dressed for the season. He also incoherantly mumbled to himself and grunted loudly the entire time he was on the bus. Another person sat in front of me at one point. He was an older man of Indian ethnicity (Asian not American) and had huge earphones on attached to a very small MP3 player. He also had a paper with him and proceeded to glance through the whole thing. It did not look as though he was reading it, but went page by page and seemed to land in the Arts section where he seemed to be checking out local shows. At one point prior to his departure from the bus he whipped out a rather large wad of cash and proceeded to count it out in the open. Although I only saw 5's and 1's, it was a lot of them and I thought this was probably a mistake as he was opening himself up as a target of theft for sure. While the Indian was counting his money a younger Hispanic man sat next to me and proceeded to put his arm on rest behind me. At first I was thinking "dude are you kidding me? You have about 2 seconds to remove your arm from behind me!" I was very uncomfortable. Not because he had his arm on the rest behind me, but because I did not know him and he seemed to be watching my texts. I observed that his boots had cement on them and that he looked tired. I could relate for he was probably coming home from a construction job. I basically let his arm stay where it was and eventually he moved to another seat after one opened up. I also noticed that he was watching the Indian count his money. Hmmmmm
There were other things that happened on the way to and from my trial run, but they are saved for another time.
It took me an hour one way and I could tell it was not going to be a problem for me to take the bus for a while. If nothing else, it would get my creative juices flowing again.
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