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[jwormold]

Sad thing, after lots and lots of trips on the Chinatown bus, Greyhound starts to seem fancy by comparison.  (In the Northeast, at least, the other riders seem somehow less skeezy. Although most of the people on the Chinatown bus are college students. But skeezy-seeming students. Somehow.)  Coach class on Amtrak might as well be the freaking Concorde.  I can only dream what Acela first class must be like... Blissfully free of the smell of chicken from the Popeye's in Chinatown, at least.

I really, really need to make more money. Or get a job in the same time as the SO. Sigh.

[dr_dre]

Yeah, since Greyhound instituted those Big Apple fares to compete with the Chinatown buses, even I don't ride the Chinatown buses. My reasoning is that if the bus crashes, I would rather be suing Greyhound than Fung Wah.

[tee_bee]

Life is an adventure--go for it. And do report back.

Thank God I have already done a Greyhound adventure and will never have to do one again.

In the Pacific Northwest in the early 1980s, the Dog (we called it) was cheap and good for the day trip from Eugene to Seattle, or the short trips from Eugene to Corvallis or Portland. On one trip (Tacoma-Eugene) I sat next to a guy who claimed to have had his picture taken in front of all 50 state capitols, although in each shot he was standing on his head as a statement about capitol-building architecture. He hated it, and he was on the way to Salem for what would likely offend him terribly.

I think the bus is just as sketchy now as it was then, but our tolerance for sketchiness declines as our income increases. But when's the last time you had a good story about prisoners or failed marines geting on a plane? It's just not the same.

[avidreader]

On my one and only Greyhound trip, there were only eight travelers on the bus. My seatmate first propositioned me and then (in light of my rejection) proposed marriage. I should add that I was a college freshman, and said seatmate was at least forty. I spent my entire holiday dreading the (pre-paid) return trip, which was actually fine.