So Anyway

My bike is down for a tire, but that of course should never stop life. Anyway. I get myself in a situation where I decide to try the megabus. It was fun. A really different experience.

After I managed to backtrack to get to Union Station in Chicago, I purchased my ticket via my pda to STL. When I went to look around for the place to catch the bus I saw a sign that said:

Megabus does not have a cooperating agreement with AMTRAK. Unless you are using the services and businesses inside the terminal, please wait outside. Outside there are many people awaiting the megabus service. I laugh and go find a place to sit inside. There are a lot of spaces inside, I have never seen the Chicago Union Great Hall filled and well, it is quite a while before I am to leave. Besides, I need to charge my cell phone and play on the puter.

The megabus came on time, was clean, non-smelly and I was so happy to not be on a greyhound that life seemed really good. Up on the top deck there is a place where one can sit in the window and look out at the traffic. I really enjoy watching the traffic as we rolled down the road even though it took a bit of adjusting to see how close the bottom of the bridges were to the top of our bus. I am quite sure my eyes got big at that one.

I took a couple of tylenol pm as I was a little achy from all the stuff that I had done earlier in the day. Shouldn't have. The bus was thirty minutes early and dumped us out on a street corner in Downtown STL at 5 AM while I was still pretty much asleep.

I didn't feel unsafe, but it felt really strange to be sitting on a piece of concrete at 5AM not really knowing where I was. My first thought was to scream, find out a number for a cab to the Hilton and get the fuck out of there. I tried to berate myself a couple of times for what I had done, but decided to just breathe and assess my surroundings. I relaxed and waited while things got lighter as the sun slowly started to rise. I saw a bus stop and some buses. That was a good sign. The bus stop didn't have gang symbols printed on it. Another good sign. Snicker. Like it mattered as I was already there with no transportation.

They unlocked union station around 5:30 and I went inside to find a restroom and look for some transportation information. I found a place to go to pick up the metralink and bought a ticket. The first thing I did was to get on the damn thing going the wrong direction, then realized in another stop I would be under the arch and decided to ride by it. It is a great sight. In case you didn't know it the dimensions are 630' by 630'. Way cool.

I then got off, walked around a bit, but my luggage bummed me out, so I headed out to the airport so I could catch the shuttle for the Hilton.

We are now in meetings for the trainings.

BTW I did figure out a ten day travel and lodging included five city tour by megabus that will cost a total of $111.50 for two or $56 if i end up doing it by myself. Whoohoo, life can be a RIDE. We are looking at August. I am trying to keep lodging and sightseeing fees under $200 for the ten days. They should pay me to advertise for megabus. LOL

Actually, the best part about megabus is that the drivers don't mistreat you about the tickets. You just need to take reserv number. Way cool.

Happy trails, Marty