The bus journey from hell.........arghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As you all know, I have got an unlimited greyhound pass that allows me to get on and off the greyhound in the States and Canada. So to get the most out of it I have been using it to see all the places Ive ever wanted to see. However, when travelling in the States and Canada you have to take into consideration the size of the states/provinces and distance and time it takes to travel overland. Crossing one end of a states/province is a mission in itself as their states/provinces are bigger that Britain, including England, Scotland and Wales. Let alone travelling one end to the country to the other, as it my case I thought was a good idea-god was I wrong. Follow my journey overland on a map and compare it to the size of Britain and you will get a vage idea of the distance covered and the nightmare I endured. So here goes the bus journey from hell-arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! So I was conscious that I had limited time and finances, I thought it would be a good idea to travel from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Las Vegas in Nevada, despite knowing that it was an estimated journey time of 60 hrs=3 1/2 days on the bus, I still though it was a good idea-how wrong I was. So I got on the bus at Fort Lauderdale at 8.30pm on 8th Oct and was due to arrive in Vegas at 8.30am 11th Oct. So that you can truelly empathise with the journey I endured, imagine this.... The greyhound in the States is like the national express back at home except it 'REALLY' is the transport of the lower classes. The lower classes in the States are made up of, shall we call them 'Characters', well call a spade a spade, majority of them are 'NUTTERS'!!! Such a varied collection of 'characters' like something of the twilight zone. But once you get over the shock of it and get to know some of them it can be such a laugh as you can meet some fascinating people. So I have learnt on my journey not to close myself off to people just because of the way they look and also that through learning other peoples stories can open your eyes to so many different thing. So that the people you met, now for the bus company themselves. Ok, image the national express back at home, with comfy, clean seats, clean buses, clean toilets and operating tvs that play set movies and the ability to listen to the radio. Well reverse all that and you get the greyhound in the States. Relatively new buses but they are not well keep, meaning that they are not very clean, seats can be ripped and too close together, leaving no leg room, and as you have to nearly always sit next to some random 'character', can be very uncomfortable as limited movement and makes it very difficult to sleep. The buses do have tv screens and radios but the radios never work and the company refuses to play movies-so whats the point of having!!! Mix all this will the worse customer service you can image, accompanied with the worse organisation and management possible and you get a true sense of what it is like to travel on the greyhound in the States. However, despite all that my journeys on the greyhound so far have run relatively smoothly, and this journey as no exception. The first part of the journey was going relatively smoothly that was until I reached Colby, just outside Denver, Colorado, when the bus was forced to come to a stop as that was heavy snow storm in Colorado and the only road through Denver, road 70, was closed until the snow storm had passed. By this time I had been on the bus from 8.30pm 8th Oct and it was now 2pm 10th Oct (thats nearly 2days-42hrs) and the only information that bus driver could give was that we could be waiting on the bus for the road to clear anything from 2hrs to 2 days and the latter was the most likely. So I decided to catch the last bus headed back east to see if there was any other route I could take to Vegas. So I had to spent another 6 hrs going back the same way that I had just come from, headed back to Kansis City (so that was 12 hrs wasted journey). To my horror I discover that the whole road access surrounding Colorado, and Nevada was closed off till further notice so owing to limited time I decided to change my destination to Vancouver, the west of Canada, a 2 1/2 day (58hrs) journey. So after a 6 hr layover at kansis city I got on a bus headed for Vancouver, via Winnipeg (trace it on a map I dare). By the time I go to Winnipeg, I had been on the bus from the 8.30pm 8th Oct till and it was now 10pm 11th Oct, that makes it a whopping over 3 days on the bus, 74 hrs-arghhh). So with very little sleep, aching joints and shivering from the air conditioning, aswell as wearing the same clothes for the whole time (at least this time id learnt to take a change of undies with me, as the last time was not pleasant, so id learnt my lesson) I was in desperate need to getting my head down, so arranged to stay in winnipeg for just one night then carry out my journey to Vancouver early tomorrow, another whopping 35hr journey-so obviously I was really looking forward to that-NOT!!! So all being said and done, despite being on the bus for soooooo many days and feeling the effects of the long journey I was still smiling. The thought that keep me going was that I am living my dream. I may have been cold, tired, aching and physically knacked, but despite being sick of buses I was on a bus travelling across the States and Canada, seeing places ive always dreamed of seeing and doing so many really cool things and meeting so many amazing people-I AM LIVING MY DREAM!!! Upon joining me on my travels around the world, if there is one piece of advice I could give anyone is follow your dreams. No matter how big or small, follow them. Make the most of your life as life is a precise gift and live each day as the last and follow you heart and dreams, no matter how unattainable they may seem, with determination and imagination you can achieve your hearts desires.