When I was at work the other day, (I work 3rd shift in a retail) my husband called. He was having an "ice emergency". (This is what I call it when he needs to be somewhere for a delivery.) It wasn't the ice sculpture that was having the emergency this time, it was my husband's PT Cruiser. It had broken down on the side of the road way outside of town. He had already arranged to have that driver picked up, but that left them one car short. The deliver they were making was near Detroit and it was a two day job, and Randy needed my car. It worried me a little to be stranded, but at the same time I was excited by the prospect of taking the bus.
Immediately I began looking up bus routes on my cell phone. I discovered the bus route was almost a mile from my store. I suddenly understood that, 1- the people working in my store would probably benefit having a bus route nearby and 2-my store would get better sales with a better placed bus route. The bus did have a drop off at my gym, if I could figure out how to get there I could take it from there.
A co worker offered to drive me home. Which I told him I really did want to ride the bus. So I asked him instead to drop me off at the gym I work out at. I usually go there in the morning after work so it worked out and I would just take the bus home.I worked out. I walked to the bus stop. I waited. I waited some more. I looked at my phone. Suddenly I realized, it was Sunday. This bus route doesn't run on Sunday. I laughed out loud, hysterically like a crazy person. I couldn't believe how silly it was. My house is about 4 miles away and I thought about walking, but it was raining and a little chilly, so I gave in and called a taxi.
*sigh*
That night my friend Susan gave me a ride to work and I asked my friendly co-worker for another drop off at the gym. I worked out again for about an hour, walked to the bus stop and waited. The bus sign, did not match the internet times. I had to wait 20 minutes. I realized how terrible I am at using public transportation, because I was on the Westbound side, times online were for the Eastbound side.
When the bus arrived there was a man talking about winning the lottery. How his girlfriend was so close, how he wanted to move back to Allendale, and I thought at first he was on the phone, because he was the only other person on the bus. Then I realized he was talking to the driver. He went on and on about winning the lottery and how nice his girlfriend's dad is and how he saw someone win 40,000 dollars once. He kept talking about taking her to the casino on New Year's Eve because she's so lucky.
We got near my neighborhood and I realized that I didn't know exactly where my stop was, or when to pull the cord, or if the driver was interested in this man's conversation. She was a very nice driver and listened intently to everything he was saying, but she could see that I was a little nervous and asked me where I wanted to stop. I told her. I made it to my stop and was relieved. Only a couple of blocks of walking and I would be home.
It was kind of exhilarating to try it out and it's super nice to know it's that close to my house and goes directly to the gym I use. I think I may take it from now on and save the gas. The bus was clean, the driver was nice, and the route was convenient for me to take home from the gym.
http://www.ridetherapid.org/
