Megabus - Part II

We continue our story about our Megabus Adventure aka as "how a city girl finds himself on a big charter bus driving through the outlands of the United States."


To catch the first part of the Adventure check HERE

As you recall, our heroine (that would be me) had arrived at the appointed location outside Chicago's Union Station to find The Megabus and had already scoped out the perfect seat.


When people would ask me what I was doing for the weekend I would say "I'm taking the bus to Cleveland." At first I would get a blank stare which turned into a quizzical look and then morphed into laughter. Invariably, the next question out of their mouths was - "WHY?"

Well, why not!

Andi and I had been talking about Megabus for quite sometime and I had been quite intrigued about the whole concept of a bus ride that only costs $1.00 (+ $0.50 transaction fee) and I wanted to see what it was all about.

I really wasn’t too concerned about the bus….Megabus is owned by a British company and I was going to see my British friend and the British have always treated us American’s well, so I figured I had nothing to worry about….hmmmmm……maybe they’ll serve tea and biscuits?

The thing I was more concerned about was, well how do I put this gently……..my fellow passengers, I mean come on…it’s a $1.50 to go halfway across the country, who else (besides me) buys a dollar bus tickets?

While we were standing on the sidewalk (uhm, that's why the ticket was only a dollar), I looked at all the people standing with me, it hadn't hit me until then, but what if someone was actually going to sit next to me. I hadn’t really thought that there might be someone sitting next to me, well I guess I had thought a little bit about it but it involved this hot frat boy that was going to Cleveland to see his girlfriend and got a call halfway through the ride from his girlfriend telling him that she was breaking up with him and he needed a shoulder to cry on.....ok, back on track, I mean other than that I really hadn’t seriously thought that I would have to share THAT much space with someone else for 6 hours.

Fortunately, we were only at about ½ capacity, I think there were only 4 people that sat together and that was because they were traveling together, everyone else on the bus got to have two seats all to themselves.

Once I got settled I got my travel things in order: a book, a Sudoku book that The Boyfriend bought for me, some trail mix and my bottle of…..wait, where’s my water? Didn’t I buy a bottle of water? Oh fuck…I forgot to buy a bottle of water…..there is no way in hell I’m drinking the water in the bathroom – I’ve seen Dateline, thank you very much! Shit, I remembered everything except a bottle of water, I hope I didn’t get thirsty on the way, well at least now I wouldn’t have to worry about using the onboard facilities.

The seats were very comfortable, there was even a foot rest, which was amazing, why don’t they put foot rests on airplanes….oh they do, it’s called Business Class International Air Travel. I got everything settled and was ready to begin the adventure, but I still had my Xanax at close hand just in case things became too unbearable to handle.

Before I knew it the bus was pulling out and joining the Friday afternoon rush to get out of the city.

There was one big advantage to riding in a bus that I hadn't thought about - truckdrivers!

The Trip to Cleveland - Part I: The History of MegaBus

Several weeks ago, Andi-licious and I were talking about the lack of seeing each other since last year. We got a little crazy last year, in that we saw each other every month from August through October - it was Fabulous! But we hadn't seen each other in a while and we knew that a trip would soon be in our future.

Since I hadn't been to the great state of Ohio lately, I said that I would be the guinea pig and take Megabus to Cleveland. We have been talking about taking Megabus ever since we found out that you can get fares for as low as $1.00 + a $0.50 booking fee. We were intrigued yet repulsed at the same time - I mean after all, it's a trip to Cleveland.....on a bus.....for under $2.00. Expectations were, how shall I say, not that high.

I told Andrea that I loved her, and I love and adventure, but a girl can only commit to so much, and that committment didn't consist of a roundtrip $3.00 fare on Megabus - I would instead fly home, in style via, Southwest Airlines.

The dates were decided and tickets were procured, I ended up having to pay $15.50 for my bus trip and $65 for the return flight. Which in the grand scheme of things is pretty cheap for a weekend out of town.

As the date was drawing near I started to get nervous about the upcoming trip...had I made the wrong choice? Would our bus be blown over by a strong wind as we are crossing a bridge and we'd all end up in the bottom of the Mississippi? Would I be able to hold my water for 6 hours? What in the hell would I do for 6 hours?

Well I packed my bags and made sure I had snacks to eat and a bottle of water in case we crased on a deserted island somewhere, and several hours of diversions that included a book (The Magician's Assistant - I LOVED it), a couple of handheld games (Deal or No Deal) and just in case.....a Xanax.

I figured that if the trip were unbearable I could take the xanax, pass out for a few hours and magically appear in Ohio, just like when Dorothy landed in OZ - the only difference is I already have the ruby slippers.

I had to meet the Megabus downtown and fortunately my office is right next door to a Metra stop so I was able to get downtown in a matter of minutes, I found where Megabus was picking up and joined the throngs of others milling around on the sidewalk.

Megabus is cheap because they pick you up/drop you off at places that are not necessarily transportation hubs (i.e. we stopped in Toledo and dropped people off at the Mall) and therefore don't have to pay for that. I found the lady in charge, she checked my reciept and said the bus should be there momentarily. While I was waiting a few buses came and left - Cincinnati and Columbus, I was growing anxious.

Finally the bus arrived, it was a nice bus. It looked clean on the outside and it appeared to be in very good shape, I walked around and kicked the tires and asked the bus driver if he had made sure to top off the gas tank and when the last time he had flushed the radiator and coolant system - for some reason he just gave me a blank stare and took my ticket.......hmmmmmm

I found my seat, about halfway back and one seat removed from the little video monitor that I was hoping they were going to show a movie on - just not that freaking Happy Feet please dear God - I'm totally over that movie and I never even saw it!

I got settled in and made sure that I sat on the outside seat, just to let everyone know that I comfortable with them even thinking about sitting beside me for 6 hours.

After everyone got on the bus, the driver shut the door and we pulled out.......ok, now, there's no turning back...........

What will happen next?

Something's Coming

Oh my goodness, something truly exciting is coming.

No, it's not a new touring version of West Side Story - although I would love to see that. You know they should really bring back some of the good old musicals for tours, I would go see them. Like My Fair Lady and Brigadoon.

OMG - I have to tell you about this, when I was a freshman in High School, we did Brigadoon as our High School Musical (the world was not yet Disneyfied at that time - thank goodness) and we were authentic in our costumes - meaning the guys wore kilts.

Since I was only in 9th Grade I didn't have a "speaking" role - but I did have a solo in the opening number - I was Sandy and I sang some lyrics about enticing people over to my booth for some candy - heck I guess I as a pervert back then too huh?

I remember when we did our "review" for the school (now mind you there were only about 500 kids in 7th through 12th grades) and we were all so nervous about wearing kilts and getting laughed at....and when that curtain went up we all went out there with Gusto and gave it our all. Yeah some people laughed, I mean that's life right....but everyone was very receptive to our performance. I doubt that we got a standing ovation but I remember kids teasing me the next day for wearing a "skirt".

But the guys in the cast held our heads high and said that we were doing it for the Artistic Value and they could laugh if they wanted to, but who was up there on the stage, us or them?

Boy, I really got off track there didn't I?

So something exciting is happening at the end of this month, it's creeping up so quickly I can hardly contain myself.

As you may know, I've had the delicious opportunity to meet A Ropey Old Bird in real life many times and we always have a hoot when we're together. Well there's this bus service in the Midwest called MegaBus. Their big schtick is that you can get a bus ride for as little as$1.00 + .50 cent service fee to anywhere in the Midwest.

Well Andi and I have been joking since we met that we've got to try out this MegaBus thing.....so, in the pursuit of scientific advancement...I'm taking MegaBus from Chicago to Cleveland to visit Andilicious!

The ticket only cost me $15.50, can you believe that? To go all the way to Cleveland - now of course what that really doesn't tell you is that I leave Chicago at 3:30 in the afternoon and I don't get to Cleveland until 10:15 that evening, so what's 7 hours on a bus....oh shit, i just realized that all of my electronic devices batteries only last about 3 or 4 hours, what the hell am I going to do on a bus for 7 hours?

I'm sure I'll think of something.

Oh yeah, I'm flying home! I can only take so much excitement in one weekend.