Homesickness my freshman year of college found me longing for the opportunity to go home. Columbus Day Weekend was the first chance I had to escape campus and head back to the Garden State. Since I was four hours away, my parents were not offering to just drive up and transport me. Instead, my father suggested I take a bus. According to information he tracked down, it appeared the Continental Trailways Bus Company offered my best solution.
If I remember correctly, I walked down into the nearest town and boarded a bus for downtown Boston and the Trailways Bus Terminal.
So far, so good.
The bus station was a bit overwhelmingly, but I negotiated my way through the crowd and purchased my ticket for the NYC area. Finding the bus and boarding it on time was a challenge, but I met it.
After making sure my suitcase was safely stowed in the luggage compartment under the bus, I boarded and settled back in my window seat. While admiring the scenery and looking forward to seeing family and friends, I felt quite proud of myself for having managed the trip so far.
Until I started to notice we were exiting onto unfamiliar highways and signs for Yale University and New Haven, Connecticut were whizzing past my eyes. While it might be interesting to get a passing glimpse of Yale's campus, this was not a good sign! This bus trip was not proceeding as I had expected.
In addition, the bus was starting make numerous stops I hadn't anticipated. Each time we halted to let passengers depart, I watched in horror as my suitcase would be pulled out from under the carriage and placed on the sidewalk in order to access other ones. Oh no, I thought - what if they forget to put it back under? Or worse, what if someone simply picks it up and walks off with it?
Thankfully, my worries were unfounded and both my suitcase and I eventually arrived in NYC.
Six hours later.
Not the four hour trip I had anticipated.
Turns out, I had taken a "Local" instead of an "Express" bus route.
Vowing to never make that mistake again,
I became quite adept at reading bus schedules, making careful note of the symbols they used to denote times and destinations.
And more importantly,
whether it was the quickest route or the scenic one.
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