Blogger back briefly again

Back from the Ozarks again, this time with grand-dads car safely in hand. No doubt about it, it's a land yacht (like this one); however, it seems to be a smooth-riding and mechanically solid land yacht, and it's a definite improvement over relying over Ol' Whitey, who seems to be experiencing grave medical difficulties and is currently parked with the transmission firmly stuck in second gear.

A couple of vignettes from the bus trip:

* * * * *

Waiting at the decrepit, crumbling A-squared bus depot for an hour and a half after the bus was scheduled to arrive, with temperatures dropping and dampness descending out of the darkening sky. Being asked, repeatedly, by a woman with a foreign accent, whether I knew when the bus was going to arrive. Chatting with a cabbie who parked his vehicle under the depot's unused loading bay and cheerfully informed everybody in earshot that the buses had been known to run two hours late, that at the rate things were going, nobody would make their Chicago connections, and that he had "often" taken people to Chicago to make their connections after they missed trains or buses. According to him, the bus company would reimburse any such fare. Uh huh.

* * * * *

"Pardon me, is this seat taken?"

"Uh huh. My friend's sitting there."

(After the bus pulls away from the depot with the seat still unoccupied)

"I'm sorry to see that your friend apparently missed the bus."

"Wha? You talkin' ta me? There weren't no friend! I just did'n wan' you sittin' there! HAW, HAW!!!"

* * * * *

The Chicago terminal is reasonably modern and clean and bustling, but the St. Louis terminal is surrounded by what looks like a bombed-out postapocalyptic disaster area. It's a pity, since the interior of the terminal still has some residual shreds of grandeur. With its two-story tall lobby, towering pillars, and decorated ceiling, it's reminiscent of the old-style grandiose urban railroad depots.

Outside, amongst the boarded-up storefronts and burned-out apartments/housing projects, I couldn't help but notice some apparently abandoned railroad tracks, with what appeared to be rusting catenary-wire supports, that emerged from an alley and promptly dived into an underground tunnel nearby. I doubt that I'll ever find out more than that about them, though.