I decided to save money and take the
Greyhound bus to Austin and back for Christmas.
It was either a $68 bus ticket, $100 gas for my own car (plus wear & tear), or a $148 plane ticket.
Having never traveled through Texas by bus, I decided this was too good a
blogable adventure opportunity to pass up!
So, I told friends and family that I was going to
text them by phone LIVE my adventure.
and about 9 people were interested (my mom, two sisters, my 12 yr old and a few friends)
Here are my texts from the beginning of my journey, north of Dallas, all the way to Austin.
Enjoy!
9:45am
- On bus now & driver was surprised I had a ticket. Apparently most people dont.
9:53am
- I have two seats to myself but something smells funny and I dont see seatbelts.
10:03am
- looks like we are stopping in Richardson and that wasnt on the itinerary. crap wonder how many other stops we have.
10:15am
- I had to enlist the help of my neighbors to figure out how to adjust my seat.
10:27am
- should I be worried the driver sits in a bullet proof booth?!
10:30am
- if anything goes down, i am jumping in there with him.
10:42am
- in big bus station in dallas now to transfer buses. station packed but has gift shop cafe and potties and an arcade.
10:45am
- i want to take picutres but fear being mobbed.
(at this point, one of my sisters recommend I not use the toilets on the bus and not to make eye contact. And a friend told me to take secret photos with my camera phone, which I did, but have no idea how to get those to this blog.)
11:03am
- my arcade choices are house of dead, mrs pacman and cruisin exotica.
(my 12 yr old son texted me back saying "pacman" thank goodness)
11:08am
- now in line to get on next bus...at least i think its the right line.
11:29am
-an asian girl in line behind me told everyone this was her first bus ever. newbie.
11:36am
- hope the himalayan salt lamp in my suitcase isnt broken yet.
11:43am
- driver just told us that there is no smoking on the bus and that the bathroom is part of the bus. duh
11:48am
- this bus sounds like it is passing gas every 5 sec and i am not kidding its every 5 secs i timed it.
11:51am
- crap where are we stopping now?! oh, dallas south station.
12:13pm
- passenger behind me is snoring...that may be me in about an hour.
12:23pm
- update on annoying noise every 5 sec: i figured it out its the bus windshield wipers!
1:25pm
- made it to waco! nice station here with clean bathroom and the snow has followed me
2:57pm
- finally made it to austin
To sum things up...bus travel was OK. It was nice not to worry about traffic, and I was able to read, listen to my iPod, nap and text up a storm...but it has some disadvantages.
Half the time it wasn't clear which bus I was supposed to be on.
A lot of time was spent waiting.
But it was an interesting experience.
