Family Search's question for August 19th was: What are all the different modes of transport you've used?
I've been on practically everything: cars, trucks, boats, planes, buses, trains. So I'm going to use this post to talk about a brief amount of time when I had to take the public transit bus to school and to work.
Gerson and I shared a car for the first two years of our marriage. It was my VW Passat from high school. For the most part I drove the car to school and to work, and Gerson rode his bike to school and to work. (We had different schedules.) During Gerson's last semester at BYU, he had an internship that started around noon or 1:00. For the first half of that same semester I had class at 8:00, and the second half my classes didn't start until 1:00. So Gerson and I would drive together in the morning, he would take the car to his internship in the afternoon, I would take the bus to work in the evening, and Gerson would pick me up. Halfway through the semester, when my 8:00 classes ended, Gerson would take the car to school, and I would sleep in and take the bus to my afternoon classes.
Some universities have deals with public transit where students can get free passes, BYU is not one of those. Students can get a discounted pass, but the price is only worth it if you ride the bus everyday. At the beginning of the semester, I was only riding twice a day, so it wasn't worth it. But I was able to get a discount price if I bought 20 tokens at a time.
Riding the bus wasn't awful, but I really hope that I don't have ride it that consistently again. I was pretty scared the first couple of weeks, but then I got used to it and for the most part, was pretty comfortable. One bad part that stands out in my memory was a particular driver.
On the UTA website it was really hard for me to read the bus schedule and understand exactly where the stops were and what time the bus came by each stop. I eventually figured it out, kind of. But for the first week or so of riding the bus from my apartment to school, I walked to the second closest stop from my apartment. The closest stop I hadn't ever noticed, and had never seen a bus stop at. Well, one day while walking to the other stop I saw the bus just parked there. I looked at the sign, and noticed it was indeed a bus stop! I walked up to the sign and stood there for about a minute, but the door didn't open. So I knocked on the door, the driver opened the door, I asked if I could come in and she said yes. As soon as I sat down she started lecturing me about how this is her break and it's her only 15 minutes to be alone and eat and not have to deal with passengers. I was so stunned I didn't even mumble an embarrassed apology.
That encounter made me realize that I had seen other drivers take their breaks, but they always parked the bus in between two stops, not right in front of one, so as not to confuse the passengers. I guessed that that stop was probably an exit stop, but not an entrance stop. I also noticed the the same drivers drove the same route at the same time. So I memorized the time that she had picked up at that stop, and started going to school 30 minutes earlier so that I could avoid taking the bus when she was the driver.
No more incidents happened until one day I had to take the bus home, which was rare. She was the driver for my ride home. I was a little nervous to see her again, but since I was sure I knew where her break was I figured I would get off at that stop. So two or three stops before, I was the last passenger on the bus. At the stop before the one I thought was the right one, she angrily asks, "So, where are you planning on getting off?" I told her which stop and she says, "Well, I take my break right before that one." Oh my gosh, that woman had switched break locations on me! I told her that I could get off right there - right there wasn't even a stop - and I ran off the bus. So apparently passengers have to read her mind and magically know when to get on and off at the correct time?
Oh my gosh. That is one of the funniest experiences I have had with someone in that field of work. I felt angry and embarrassed at the time, but now it just makes me roll my eyes and giggle.
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