The Wheels on the Bus

I am finally home.  After 31 hours of travel, I finally made it to Carroll.  Traveling from Cincinnati to Iowa is a lesson in inconvenience.  It appears that no one from Cincinnati wants to travel to Iowa and no one from Iowa wants to travel to Cincinnati.  I don’t blame either party.  However, this makes it rather difficult for me to trek home.  I usually fly, but due to my current unemployed student status, I cannot afford that.  Instead I took the Megabus.  This required me to take a six hour bus ride from Cincinnati to Chicago.  Then I spent the evening in the Windy City, only to hop on another but for another six hours the next morning.  It didn't end there, my friends.  After I got off the bus in Des Moines, Iowa’s fair capital city, I had to be retrieved by someone with a motorized vehicle and ride another two hours to my home town.  To be honest, flying isn’t much easier.  There’s almost always a layover somewhere, and I still have to drive two hours from either Omaha or Des Moines.  Dear Western Iowa, why must you be so inconveniently located?  Dear Cincinnati, Why do you suck? Love, Carolyne

Despite having to conduct my travels over two days, I actually enjoy the Megabus.  It’s warm, clean, cheap, and has free Wifi when the satellites are working.  My two bus tickets combined cost me $70, which is less than a third of what it would cost me to fly.  I also don’t have to worry about keeping my liquids in one travel size bag or security patting me down.  If I had to name the best reason to travel via Megabus, I would say are less likely to strike up a conversation with you than if you were flying.  You also don’t generally have share a seat with anyone.  Megabus is meant for people who don’t like people, like me.  You show up.  You put your luggage on the bus. You get on the bus. Driver drives. Simple.

After I got off the bus yesterday, I had explicit instructions to get in a cab and go to my aunt and uncle’s apartment.  Hailing a cab was going to be the highlight of my day.  I like to celebrate the little things in like.  At any rate, I ended up not taking a cab because it was going to cost me $40 to get from Union Station to Lakeview.  According to the fare finder website I looked up the night before, it should have only cost me $15-20 with tax.  I thought maybe the first cabbie was trying to scam, seeing as I definitely looked like an out of towner (damn you winter coat.).  So I walked about four blocks out of my way to find another cabbie.  He too said it would cost $35 - $40.  Not cool, cabbies.  Not cool.  I thanked the cabbie and proceeded to walk away from him.  He then rolled down his window and shouted profanities at me.  At which point, this became one of my highlights of the evening.  The other highlight was navigating myself from Union Station to Michigan Ave. to take a bus to my aunt and uncle’s house, saving myself $40 and bring the circulation back to my feet.  As I mentioned before, I like to celebrate the little things.

Dear Readers, I have done something stupid.  I promised my mother a 90% sarcasm free holiday.  For those of you who know me personally, this estimate was exuberantly enthusiastic.  I should have aimed for a more realistic number such as 65%.  However, I will do my best to keep my promise.  As a result from this very trying experience, there will be an increase in snarky blogs.  Stay tuned.  I won’t disappoint.