We waited in a queue with people who looked like they hadn't washed or changed their clothes for weeks, and mothers yelling at their crying children. About ten minutes before we boarded we found that for an extra $5 each you could get priority boarding and not have to queue. This allowed us to sit at the front of the bus and easily find room for our luggage without having to check any of it.
The trip to Las Vegas took 8 hours. Our meal breaks were at Subway and McDonalds. The cold spell continued and we travelled through snow, and at times it was snowing.
For most of the journey the bus driver and the guy in the front seat conversed. We found out, among other things, about the holiday the guy had in Houston with his brother, the three year Greyhound strike in the 90s, commentary on the exact number of miles to the next destination and everything that was wrong with the way President Obama was running the country.
At the same time the woman with the young child was causing far more fuss than her child, talking to anyone who would listen about her life, how her ex-husband had beat her up, how the police had beat up her son and she was on her way to his funeral, how she had been to New Zealand and loved the way people talked and how they said kangaroo, how they cremated her son with $190 Nikes on when she could have sold them... Hmmm... Apparently she had also dropped her phone down the toilet and it didn't work any more - miraculously she could still get phone numbers but had to borrow other people's phones to call or text, so she was frequently asking other passengers if she could borrow their phone! And the girl in front of us didn't have any money for lunch because she was meeting a girlfriend in Las Vegas who had all her money!
The bus depot was fairly dodgy as well, but we headed off down the street towards a hotel and found a taxi and sped off to a very different world!
Our next trip was a lot less eventful, once we made it onto the bus! There was one down and out druggy type lined up, but they didn't let him on. And the police came and pulled a guy out of the queue, made him get his luggage out of a locker, and had him handcuffed by the time we left. Then the bus driver decided to hassle us and send us to another queue before he finally let us on the bus, with a lame excuse about not understanding the Amtrak transfers. He drove like a maniac and probably left some passengers behind at the lunch stop, but we were wary of him and got on the bus to eat our McDonalds and didn't even dare go to the loo!
We almost felt at home back in LA and retracing our steps back to the hotel. Phase one of our holiday is over and what a great time we have had! But I can promise you this, we will NEVER take another ride on a Greyhound bus!
;-) Ann-a-Gram
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