I boarded the bus on a Monday and arrived on a Thursday. It was just about three-day ride from California to Pennsylvania. I was prepared. I knew what I was getting into. This was my ninth cross-country bus ride. The bus is just so cheap and so good, and so incredible from a writing standpoint, that I had to do it.
It's hard for me to stay away from the hound. It's just so darn affordable. Greyhound tickets were up a little higher in past years, but they are back to being cheap this summer. They had the $99 anywhere in the US deal going again, so that's what I paid. No tax. 99 bucks to get across the country. Heck, the cost for just my bike on the plane would have been $150. Not that I was even considering the plane. I didn't even look at those tickets. I don't have a car, and I don't have a lot of money, so the hound is the answer to my cross-country transportation needs.
A lot of people have asked me about the hound. It seems to be a form of transportation that not many of my friends are familiar with. So here's some basic info:
The bus goes all day and all night, stopping every couple hours (usually every 2-5 hours). Most stops are quick, just a few minutes, so people can get on or off the bus. Rest stops are usually 15 to 30 minutes. Layovers can last several hours. I had a 1 hour layover in Vegas that started at 3 a.m. That was sweet. Like I said, the bus goes all through the night. Drivers change out every 8 hours or so. People sleep in their seats. The late night/early morning stops are the toughest. It's hard to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time on the hound. You gotta earn those miles!
All in all it was a good ride. I met some interesting people and got a good amount of journaling done. I'm not prepared to go into all the details. I'll save that for the book version of this adventure. But here are a few photos. In the first photo you can see how long my ticket is.
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