On The Road. (Greyhound (USA))

Member Name: beckstrous

Product:	Greyhound (USA)
Date:	02/07/02 (1582 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: flexibility and freedom, value for money, the people you come across

Disadvantages: bus depots aren't great, sometimes uncomfortable, the people you come across...sometimes!!

I have always been fascinated by America: enormous cities, vast expanses of natural beauty and mile after mile of road stretching out into the distance, unexplored and inviting. It was something I just had to see - and when a friend invited me to spend six weeks travelling from east to west in the summer of 1999, I jumped at the chance.

Greyhound buses seemed the obvious mode of transport. A 45-day Ameripass - which allows you to travel anywhere on Greyhound in the USA - cost £225 in 1999 and will set you back around £260 these days. I think it's better value and more flexible than Amtrak (a national train pass is £242, but it only lasts 30 days) - and anyway, there was something romantic about seeing the States by road as opposed to rail.

As I got off the plane with the ticket in my hand I felt a surge of excitement: America was suddenly enormous, and the possibilities seemingly endless. I still have great memories from that trip - which is why I'm writing about it three years on. Hopefully someone will find my experiences useful; I've split this opinion into sections to make it a bit more readable.

1. THE ROUTE

On the back of the Ameripass is a route map and this formed the basis for any "planning" we did. We weren't rigid when we thought about how we'd get across the country. Instead, we picked six or seven cities as cornerstones and then made the rest up as we went along, picking up flyers at hostels, flicking to random pages in the Lonely Planet or going on recommendations from people we met along the way. And it worked: the best way to make the most of what the Ameripass offers is to remember how flexible it can be. The only thing we had to do was be in Los Angeles six weeks after we landed in New York - and that was easy. Getting there was the fun part...

If you're curious about Canada, Greyhound offers a more expensive ticket that covers Canada and the USA. I'd only recommend
this if you've a lot of time - Canada is huge, and the standard Ameripass does actually allow you to go into Canada on certain routes (we used it to visit Toronto in the east and Vancouver in the west, two fantastic - and contrasting! - cities).

Our ad-hoc approach to this sort of travelling really did work. Had we planned our trip out to the very last detail we would have missed several gems that we discovered en route, and the trip just wouldn't have been the same. It's good to have a vague idea of what you want to do, of course - but letting the journey unfold of its own accord can be great fun.

2. THE BUSES

Greyhound buses tend to be quite hit and miss. If you board in the middle of a long route, the bus can be quite crowded and stuffy and it might not be as clean as it was when it first embarked on its way! If you get on at the start of the route, cleanliness is usually okay - but whatever you do, don't sit too close to the toilet - you will regret it eight hours later.

I found it quite difficult to sleep on the longer trips at first, but it must be an art you learn - you soon get used to it and it makes you appreciate the hostel beds when you eventually get to your destination! Some of the buses definitely have more comfortable seats than others - but generally they're okay, and while it's not exactly luxury travel, the legroom isn't too bad (I'm fairly tall).

3. THE DRIVERS

A bit like our Tube drivers - every once in a while, you get a real character. I can't remember where we were going, but one of our drivers clearly had aspirations elsewhere and made an otherwise tiring trip seem like some sort of magical mystery tour - others, however, were rather more surly. The luck of the draw, I guess!





4. THE BUS DEPOTS

Mmm. Not the greatest. Greyhound depots are sometimes in remote parts of town and can also be quite dull if you've got
a long wait. You often meet interesting people in queues, though - and I will always remember the man in the little station at Santa Cruz, who made two hours fly by with an in-depth discussion about the book I was reading at the time. I'm still not sure why he was working there and not in the local bookstore...

A word of warning, though - if you're at a depot to catch a connection and your luggage is going from one bus to another, watch out! Baggage handlers are not always on the ball, and at Kansas City, when we were destined for Colorado, our luggage almost went the other way on the wrong bus.

5. THE PEOPLE

Everyone who's been on a Greyhound bus has some story or other about the people they've met en route. Some of them are scary (an elderly man at the back of a bus in San Francisco springs to mind, waving a Gandalf-like staff and saying everyone was going to hell - and yes, they did throw him off). Some of them are funny (a drugged-up but rather harmless couple in Santa Cruz, bursting into spontaneous fits of giggles every so often for no apparent reason). And some of them are genuinely interesting people - like Lucas Schwarz, an American student we met in Salt Lake City and travelled to Seattle with, swapping addresses, books and stories on the way (we kept in touch after that summer, too). You'll see the whole spectrum of society on a Greyhound bus (well, apart from the ridiculously wealthy, perhaps).

6. THE HOSTELS

There are so many hostels in America that I couldn't begin to list them all. We found some fantastic places, but one of them deserves a special mention. I think it sums up what our trip was about, because it was in a place we hadn't even intended to visit. But in Chicago, we saw a flyer for the Glenwood Springs Youth Hostel on Grand Junction in (unsurprisingly) Glenwood Springs, Colorado. It's a fantastic hostel in a beautiful town, and it ended up being our longest stay a
nywhere on the trip. It's set in the heart of the Rockies - with hot springs, hiking, great bars and fantastic people. It's very popular, and it's easy to see why. I'm so glad we hadn't set out with a rigid itinerary because we would have missed Glenwood altogether otherwise.

7. THE MISHAPS

Travelling by bus and staying in hostels can be unpredictable sometimes, and any trip like this is never going to be without the odd little complication. I can remember two in particular: in Idaho, our bus broke down in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere. I can still hear the flustered driver assuring everyone that the nearby truck stop would be "open for breakfast in less than four hours" and that the next bus was "only eight hours away". It doesn't sound like fun, but the people on the bus took it in good spirit and it's one of my favourite memories.

The second mishap was in Toronto and there's probably a lesson in it somewhere. I had collected my newly tumble-dried laundry in a black bin bag and left it in my room for the day. When I returned, it was gone, and the hostel staff suggested that the cleaners "might have put it in the skip". Which they had. So there I was, close to midnight, ferreting around in a skip with a grinning tramp ferreting along with me. I'll never forget that!

8. THE TRUCKSTOPS

Truckstops seem to be an American institution, but they're not as glamorous as you might expect. You don't always get a lot of choice in food (they're not like our motorway service stations at all), everything comes in Supersize and they're usually quite expensive. Despite all that, after seven hours on a bus they'll probably seem like an oasis to you - but if you are going on a long trip I'd recommend getting some decent provisions first (unless you are especially fond of bright orange Cheetos).

8. THE REST

Am
erica is vast and the moment you hit the road it seems even bigger. If you ever get the chance to do what I did, I'd not hesitate to recommend it. No, Greyhound isn't always perfect and you can guarantee that things won't always go exactly to plan but that's half the fun. And after watching mile after mile of the arid landscapes of Iowa whizz past the window - or the lush greenery of Washington State as you travel from Portland to Seattle ... I really do think the best way to see this diverse and exciting country is by road and I would recommend the Greyhound Ameripass to anyone.

Can I go again, please ... ?

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