Story of the Day 8/11/2008

At 12:44 Am, Monday morning, Sarah and I boarded the Greyhound bus for King of Prussia.
We had checked our two large suitcases- the rolling kind that were bright red and which we had stolen from Aaron's room- for King of Prussia, and, since we were told that the bus went straight there, we kind of figured that, at least, there was very little chance that the two bags would end up in some other city.

It had been 25 years since I'd ridden Greyhound and Trail ways, and I had forgotten some of the small details of the bus-riding experience.
I had forgotten how dirty most of the stations are. Well, the one in Columbus wasn’t too bad, except, there was no toilet paper in any of the stall in the ladies' restroom.
But the restroom wasn't very dirty!
Of course, it doesn't mean that we didn't miss having toilet paper.

I had also forgotten how they required the riders to get off the bus at each station while they serviced the bus.
Oh wait! I didn’t' forget that, they didn’t' used to do that. I know because I would sometimes manage to sleep through some of those stops.
This must be a new security thing- like the big plastic divider they swing into place between the passengers and the driver, to prevent us from stabbing him while he is driving.
They didn’t' used to have one of those...
Maybe , next time I ride3, they will have dividers between passengers, too, to prevent beheadings….or maybe only in Canada.

They also didn’t used to have the skinny lady who went from passenger to passenger in the Columbus station saying, "Jesus loves you. Have a safe trip!"
With a big smile. They must have imported her from an Amtrak station.
Or maybe from the New York subway system.

I do not share her belief system, but she must have had some kind of premonition about the Columbus experience, and I am not referring to the dearth of toilet paper.
It was at the Columbus station that the first part of the series of events that lead to us being separated from our luggage occurred.

When we re-boarded the bus, the new driver, relieving the one who had taken us there from Indianapolis, took our re-board pass and tore off our tickets.

He did this for us, and for the other passengers.

None of us knew that this was important, until our next stop and that re-board.
You see, it was discovered, upon re-board, that he had torn off our destination tickets- which we supposed to keep till the last leg- and the new bus driver didn’t' want us to re-board, since now all we had were our receipts- which looked a bit like tickets, but showed the series of stops the bus made, include the final stop on our leg, Philadelphia- but were not tickets.

This might not have created a problem, except that by now our bus was almost 2 hours late, and when we reached Pittsburgh, the bus that arrived in the station just before us, and was also headed to Philadelphia, and they were over 4 hours late.
So, a decision was made by Greyhound to divide up the smaller stops.

There was some sort of announcement made on the overhead - and I caught the words "King of Prussia".
Now, I struggle to ever hear anything from the overhead (PA system), other than noise, but, thinking it might be important, I went up to one of the Greyhound workers, and asked him, and he told me to go stand in line 7. So, Sarah and I went o stand in line 7.
And, when we got to the doorway, the driver who was checking the tickets looked at ours and sent us to board the same bus we had gotten off of-, which should have been fine. Since we knew, when we boarded in Indianapolis, that our bus stopped at King of Prussia.

But it wasn't. And we didn’t' realize this until we were almost in Philadelphia.

Okay, that was my fault, you see, I get hideously motion sick, so I travel with my eyes closed.
Well, unless I am driving.
Wait, I don’t mean that I don’t get motion sick when I drive- I do, just usually less often, but I do keep my eyes open…..just in case you were wondering……
But Lynne, hoping to keep us from waiting too long at the station, told me to give her a call when we hit mile 290, so that he could leave home and meet us there when we arrived.

So, every few minutes I would open my eyes and check.
And, when the driver pulled off at what looked to be the correct exit, I closed my eyes again- and didn’t' reopen them for a bit- a bit being when it was clear that we were past King of Prussia.... but going where???




Then my cell phone went off. I could feel it vibrating.
Unfortunately, it was under Sarah, and Sarah was asleep. I got it, but just late enough to have missed Lynne's call.
So, I started to call her back, and lost service.

Several minutes later, service was resumed.... but it was already too late, between reading mile markers, and hunting for cell phones and looking to dial her number, I was hideously carsick.

You should be proud of me. I managed to not puke until we were off the bus.
Of course, off the bus includes being on the steps coming off the bus.


Of course, not puking didn't mean I wasn't heaving - I was just keeping my mouth closed and forcing it in- until after I got off the bus.
According to Sarah's description, ALL of the other passengers (who had disembarked) were staring at me as I puked into one of the bags I carry with me on trips for just this purpose...
It is always good to plan ahead.

After I had finished with that bag, I asked what had happened.
Oh, okay, I waited a couple of minutes to make sure I didn’t' puke on the front of the person I was asking.
The bus driver wasn’t' very helpful.
Fortunately, the other passengers were.
Turns out, when the guy steered me back on the bus we had gotten off of, at that station- he sent me to the wrong bus- because my ticket saying "King of Prussia" had been taken, and he had only seen that it was the Philadelphia bus.
And this bus SHOULD have stopped there, but they had split the stops between the two buses, trying to make up some time...
So here we were in Philly.

Okay, I thought, let's get our luggage and then we'll get to Lynne.

But our luggage wasn’t there. A thorough search of the underbelly of the bus showed that the suitcases were.... gone.

Gone where? Well, the tags on them said King of Prussia, so they had been put on the other bus.

I called Lynne with this new information.
Of course, I had to interrupt the call to puke into a new bag.
My third.

Yeah, I know I only left home with two, but one of the Greyhound workers gave me a new plastic garbage bag to use, after I had yucked up bag number 2.

.So, Lynne knows we are in Philly, and our bags are supposedly in King of Prussia, with her- or near her- but, on inquiry, Tasha- who later becomes a friend- tells her- "Oh no, the bags aren't here, They must have gone on to New York." If we're lucky, they'll come back on the 8 am bus & arrive by 11 am. Then a miracle happened - Tasha called us at 8 PM to say they arrived, but the office was closed, so we could get them at 5:15 am.
We waited till 8. That decision didn’t even require a vote.


Oh joy. So, back to when we are at the Philly Amtrak Station, and I am on the phone with Lynne.
Lynne gives us directions on how to catch a commuter train to a stop near her home. Hey, this part goes very smoothly I don’t' even have to go into the station to ask where to find the commuter station- I can see it, since I am already outside, hoping that the fresh air will end my queasiness...

About 80 minutes later, we are safely back at Lynne's home, having been picked up by her hubby, Joe.
Heck, he even took us to Wal-Greens to buy toothbrushes and boy's boxers and tees to sleep in. I am sure Aaron and Esther will love these only slightly used souvenirs we bought for them.
Not sure who will get the "Hawaiian Tropic" boxers I am currently wearing....

And Lynne, when she arrives, shows us what she brought with her to the station to meet us...you know, the Greyhound trip to King of Prussia that never happened.... chilled water bottles, and a carefully bagged wet towel for me to clean up. You see, she knew in advance I would have puked!

So, at 12:44 Am on Monday morning, we boarded a Greyhound for King of Prussia. We just never arrived.

Lynne 's comment on this? "I learned that busses are not more reliable than airplanes at delivering luggage.”
And passengers.