From LA to Phoenix: Greyhound-style

I've become accustomed to taking Greyhound rather than a plane, as long as the bus ride is shorter than a day. It's not without unpleasantness, but it's been a while since I heard an airline travel story entirely comprised of happiness.To recount this most recent trip: My plan yesterday was to take public transportation to the bus station. My roommate offered to take me as far as the subway station, from which I would need to catch a connecting bus. First, my roommate, a guest and I went for pizza. By the time the pizza arrived, I really needed to get going, so they took me to the subway and I got on it with my pizza. Having food on trains and buses has yet to be a problem for me.

The subway was fine; it was uneventful, really. I had neglected to properly thank my roommate, so I wrote a text that I sent after I got out of the subway. Now, I had to get off at the MacArthur park station, which is something of a rough area. It has more than its share of police squad cars patrolling it. I figure, though, that it can't be too bad as long as Langer's Deli is still there. I caught the connecting bus, but hit a snag after that. The metro website claimed that I should get off at 6th street and Kohler. I never saw such a street as the latter, and the driver didn't know of it. I ended up going some eight minutes past sixth and central, where I really should have gotten off. I got off, crossed the street, and waited for the next bus going back the other way. It turned out to be the same bus and driver making the return trip. He was awfully kind, and I expressed my appreciation. I think I may have gotten to the station some 30 minutes after I intended to.

They tell you to be there an hour early, but I was there just half an hour early- 20 minutes by the time I got to the front of the line in. I was annoyed, because some old Latino man in a cowboy hat was monopolizing the will-call window, where I was supposed to get my ticket after paying online. I ended up getting taken in a different line. Anything can aggravate you if you're behind schedule. I went through security, which did exactly nothing but stand around as I went by. I went over to the line formed behind door 14. This was the line for my bus, and it was as long as it seemed it could possibly be. I really wasn't sure I would get on the bus. I did, but it totally filled up, and as I speak, one person is sitting in the aisle for lack of an actual seat. I'm surprised they even allowed that, but I'd rather be in that position than wait in LA for a bus with a vacant seat.
From there, I had seven hours or so on the bus and at stopping points in between LA and Phoenix ahead of me. I had meant to read, so I pressed the button for my overhead light. It didn't respond, so I held up my lit cell phone to discover that there were no bulbs in the light sockets. Nice.

First half of trip marked by a few things. A guy and three girls, none of whom knew each other, clustered up and talked loud and long enough to draw two loud complaints from a woman a couple rows up. I was concerned that there might be reprisals of some kind. One of the group got off at the halfway point, I turned off a light that had been on for a while, and the remainders of the group were sufficiently quiet not to provoke anything further. I read some, and tried to sleep, but had little success either early or later. I bought a jug of water at one stopping point. It was a combination of two fast food places plus a gas station and convenience store. Had a lot of camping stuff- was just missing a little post office and selection of video rentals. The rest of the trip was uneventful. I've made the bus ride from LA to phoenix and back along I-10 enough times that I know it pretty well. As I write this I'm out in front of the station waiting for my ride. At this point I'm in pretty good shape.

That's all for now. I'll have more to say after the commencement and President Obama's speech tonight.