Ben's Greyhound Experience

Once I got to San Francisco (21/7) started looking at options to get to Seattle by the 4th of August. My preferred option was to drive and stop and camp on the way to check out some of the countryside on the way (~1,000 mile trip). After a number of searches on the web the best I could do was ~$30 USD per day for a car. I booked this thinking it was OK. After my Hawaiian car experience (I still haven't seen the bill - fingers crossed) I decided to ring and check what insurance would cost. When I was told I almost fell down dead! Insurance would be around $50USD per day, then the one way surcharge of $200USD would also be added and thirdly tax. It basically ended up $140USD/day not including fuel. I promptly recovered from the shock and canceled the car!

Looking around for alternatives I ended up getting a Greyhound bus for a 20hour journey for $100. Flying was about three times this cost so I thought I'd go with Greyhound (being an ionic American thing to do). I called Jamie (my advisor on all things American) and asked if she'd ever been on a Greyhound - she replied that she hadn't cause a lot of dodgy people went on Greyhound buses and that she'd heard a number of horror stories. Great. Looking at my booking they didn't do cancellations and there wasn't any other reasonably priced transport option (I'm finally in cheap backpacker mode!), so I steeled myself and proceeded.

I woke up on the 31st and heard on the news that the night before a passenger on a Greyhound bus had been stabbed in the neck and then was decapitated by a fellow passenger - I couldn't believe it, the truth IS stranger than fiction. With this unsettling news and Jamie's comments ringing in my ears I made my way to the bus station wondering was I going to sleep at all on the trip.....

Anyway 23hours later (surprise, surprise there were delays) I did arrive in Seattle with my head intact. Though there were a number of interesting/scary things I saw on the way it was painfully long. These instances included;

• Bus driver getting lost for around 40 minutes in a town that probably only had 5,000 people and 10 streets somewhere near the Californian/Oregon boarder.
• The dude sitting behind me detoxing cold turkey on the bus from his two bottle of spirits a day alcohol addiction. It probably wouldn't have been so bad but at the security check in San Fran they confiscated his bottle of vodka. Him telling the guy next to him his life story, moaning about how s***e he felt and getting up every 30minutes to go and dry wretch in the bus toilet (we all heard this too).
• At one of the stops a pregnant 14 year old (approximate age) standing next to a petrol pump and smoking. Needless to say I moved as far away as possible.
• This sad 40+ dude wearing ACDC MCHammer pants breaking up with his Missus/Partner and her getting off early at Portland rather than in Seattle.
• A number of sad middle aged passive aggressive males wearing camo and winging about the bus driver having the aircon too high/too low.

Anyway I made it. I probably won't catch a Greyhound again and I wouldn't recommend it unless you are thinking of writing a book on the fringe of society.

By the way Seattle rocks.