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?