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Knormal posted:Do long haul busses have power outlets nowadays? I feel like that would make all the difference. I think most buses these days have power outlets. So indeed you can charge up AND watch whatever you want.
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Apr 9, 2024 07:35
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I think the only reason to take a long distance bus in NA is drug smuggling and/or too consistently drunk to drive or fly.
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Apr 9, 2024 08:43
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I have now! I'm now waiting for the 4AM Amtrak to go back right now. Come meet me, I'm bored. The train is delayed too. Edit: Another delay! Shadow0 fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 09:01
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I took the 33 hour bus ride between Los Angeles and Dallas while wandering around the USA. The border patrol folk stopped the bus in New Mexico, and demanded to see the passports of any non-US citizens. So, I obligingly got out my UK passport, and they said "no, not you." Also had a conversation with a delightful chap who had read "the Hobbit" in school, and seen the Lord of to he Rings movie, but hadn't realised that the two were connected
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Apr 9, 2024 09:21
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First time going by train was for a cousin's wedding outside Chicago. That was from Flagstaff to Chicago in the winter of 1985 when I was 9. Don't remember much of that trip. We flew back to Arizona after the wedding. Second time was in the summer of 1991 with my Dad. He was being sued and had to go to Fort Wayne for his trial. He hated flying so we took the train, again from Flagstaff to Chicago and then rented a car and drove to Fort Wayne. I remember we had a sleeper cabin with it's own toilet, my dad was disabled and had needed extra room using the toilet, he couldn't bend his right leg well at the time. Also he didn't think tipping was a thing on the train for some reason and after our last meal the server asked if there was a problem with the service since he never left a tip. He was quite embarrassed and left a rather large tip to make up for it. Lastly, I will never forget, right after we entered Illinois the train came to a stand still and we were stopped for hours. Apparently someone stepped in front of train and ended themself. I remember going to the very last last car and looking out the rear window after we started going again and seeing some blood still on the tracks, flesh mashed on the rail and shoe with a foot in it that was cut off at the ankle. I was horrified. On the trip back we smuggled and entire half suitcase full of fireworks we got in Fort Wayne at Spectrum Fireworks and brought them back to Arizona where they were illegal at the time. Bricks of firecrackers, jumping jacks, bottle rockets, smoke bombs, etc. Thankfully no horror story for the trip back. Also took the Surfliner from San Diego to Anaheim once in 2003 and that was cool. Oh and in 2009 took a short train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes and back in Peru. That was amazingly beautiful ride in a river valley. Trains are cool.
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Apr 9, 2024 09:40
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Aragosta posted:First time going by train was for a cousin's wedding outside Chicago. That was from Flagstaff to Chicago in the winter of 1985 when I was 9. Don't remember much of that trip. We flew back to Arizona after the wedding. And? The trial?
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Apr 9, 2024 10:28
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I've crossed Spain from Santiago de Compostela to Barcelona on an overnight train. We didn't want to pay for beds so we got the reclining seats. I found them pretty much impossible to sleep in. The journey was very smooth, the train was clean and the views were nice for the daylight part of the journey anyway.
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Apr 9, 2024 10:32
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I have taken the train from Stockholm on the east coast to Gothenburg on the west coast several times. It takes about 3 hours and is very uneventful.
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Apr 9, 2024 10:35
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The Bible posted:And? The trial? He lost. Had to pay the former president of his company like a million dollars. Was a company my grandfather started after getting back from WW2, an industrial laundry called Cover-All Rental Services. He died when my dad was 19 and my grandmother ran it until she died 7 later. He then, at 26, ran it for a total of 9 years before selling it. We had moved to Arizona and for 4 years he would fly monthly back to Indiana for meetings and he hated flying. I think he would get loaded for those flights, he was a big time alcoholic until 1991 when he went to Sierra Tucson and got sober. Apparently he didn't give this guy the opportunity to purchase the company correctly or something. I think it was in his contact as president to have first right of refusal or something like that. He was not happy to say the least. I, unfortunately, cannot ask him for details as he passed in 2015.
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Apr 9, 2024 10:42
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Just remember to bring a bag to poo poo in on the bus since the toilet in back will be guaranteed not to work
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Apr 9, 2024 10:57
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I once took a train from washington to california and there was some kind of accident on the railway and the train got delayed by something like 36 hours. They ended up running out of food and it was a real hell of a mess. Took a flight back because gently caress that.
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Apr 9, 2024 11:07
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I drive everywhere even down to the mailbox
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Apr 9, 2024 11:53
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BAGS FLY AT NOON posted:I drive everywhere even down to the mailbox Be careful of the pond on your way there
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Apr 9, 2024 12:34
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Haptical Sales Slut posted:I think the only reason to take a long distance bus in NA is drug smuggling and/or too consistently drunk to drive or fly. Back in the 00s, I had an acquaintance that took Greyhound from San Diego to San Francisco and back muling weed. 16 hours, each way. Through 10s (and maybe now?) there is a whole subculture on hauling shitloads and shitloads of weed from Norcal back down to Socal. Yes recreational weed is legal, but there are still limits on possession and federal law can even get involved. There's licenses and insurance to make it legal, but all of that is really expensive and the permits are extremely limited, so its cheaper for companies to simply pay someone to inconspicuously drive a couple 5 gallon buckets of hash oil from Santa Cruz to LA or whatever.
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Apr 9, 2024 13:25
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:Bus, train or tane thats my motto Accutane can have some serious side effects and should only be taken under the supervision of a medical professional
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Apr 9, 2024 13:54
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Aragosta posted:He lost. Had to pay the former president of his company like a million dollars. Was a company my grandfather started after getting back from WW2, an industrial laundry called Cover-All Rental Services. He died when my dad was 19 and my grandmother ran it until she died 7 later. He then, at 26, ran it for a total of 9 years before selling it. We had moved to Arizona and for 4 years he would fly monthly back to Indiana for meetings and he hated flying. I think he would get loaded for those flights, he was a big time alcoholic until 1991 when he went to Sierra Tucson and got sober. Thank you for this story, I felt a real connection.
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Apr 9, 2024 17:23
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I took the Blue Train from Cape Town to Pretoria, it was fun.
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Apr 9, 2024 17:28
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I took Amtrak from the west coast to Detroit a few times (in coach) when I was in my twenties and while it mostly sucked it was also a pretty rad adventure. At the time I literally could not afford a plane ticket from where I lived so it was basically the only option. The most consistent and funny thing was all the jonesing smokers getting upset about the non-break stops, where the train stops only long enough to let on or off passengers, but not long enough to let everyone out for a few minutes. I imagine this is tempered these days by e-cigs but it was really amazing how persistent they were. Also, lots of interesting characters, which can be good or bad. I remember being sat right in front of an Iraq war vet who was buddies with the conductor in our car, and spent most of the twelve hours he was on the train proudly telling him gnarly stories either about the violence he witnessed or his weird sexual exploits. At some point someone asked him to quiet down and he got all feisty and stormed out to the dining car while raging about respecting veterans. There was also the time our train hit someone on the tracks and we were waylaid for several hours, so they had to serve us a free dinner (gluey rice with the most prison-grade beef stew I've ever had) and I was sat across from two girls. One was a preppy rich girl who was going to San Diego to visit her aunt and go on a cruise, and was glad that her dad had given her an ipad for the trip because it was boring, and the other was an incredibly poor pregnant girl who was going to live with her family in Redding and who was terrified of the train going through tunnels. Watching the two of them try to interact was beyond fascinating. The worst part, besides having to sleep in a chair three nights in a row without showering (normal goon behavior), was that, because Amtrak doesn't own its own rails, a single delay completely fucks up the entire schedule. The freight trains take precedence and if the Amtrak train falls out of the tiny scheduled window it's been alotted then it spends the rest of the trip having to pull over for freight trains, compounding the delay. We were seven hours late leaving Chicago once due to a frozen engine block and were something like 28 hours late to Sacramento as a result. On the plus side, seeing the country by rail on the California Zephyr is mindblowing. You don't have anything else to do, so you just look out the window, and I can't think of a better way to really understand the scale of our continent. I'll never forget waking up in the middle of the Utah badlands on a cold morning and eating breakfast while rolling through an endless waving ocean of glittering snow, interrupted here and there by jagged blood-red mesas. The Empire Builder, which goes from Chicago to Seattle, is less amazing. Montana and Idaho are really ugly and you cross the Rockies at night. Rail travel is cool as hell but the rail system we have has been so aggressively hobbled that you really have to put the effort in to get the best out of it. I've never taken a bus for longer than a few hours but I think I'd rather just not travel if the only alternative was an overnight Greyhound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo2ZsAOlvEM
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Apr 9, 2024 18:23
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