Caught in the headlights A voice for those who don't have gas

Another form of transportation ll

So I found myself on a bus to north bay this week- end. It was not a trip that I was really looking forward to or have planned for, but funerals are like that. An old friend
from high school, who I have lost touch with had met with tragedy. His father had passed away. I do 't know why I thought that I had to go, maybe it was to due with being at his mother's funeral or a deep seated fear that no one would be at mine, but it seemed like the thing to do.

Not having a car I set out on my journey on Saturday Afternoon. The bus was leaving at 3pm so I had to transit, it up to Yorkdale to catch the bus. As usual I got there with just a bi oc time to spare. But enough time to gather the paper and a book that I hope to read as well as well as a number of non fattening snacks that I felt that I needed. I went down to the bus platform and waited for the bus.

i never really enjoyed taking the bus. I don't know if it's because of the cramped space or the fact that it goes to places I really don't want to go. But to be honest I would rather take the train.

Unfortunately for me and everyone else on the bus, Ontario Northland decided to suspend train service on Saturday. Which to me makes no sense. However I am not the captain of the ONR I am just a passenger and I am a passenger on the bus. I can assure you there are few things in life that are worse then taking a bus. Especially a full bus.

you have to size up your fellow passengers, wondering which one is less likely to cut your head off with a hunting knife. I settled down beside a young girl who looked none to pleased that this slightly over-weight, my therapist told me to be nice to myself, middle age man was going to sit beside her. She was probably wondering if I had a hunting knife in the small pack I was carrying.

Now this would be the perfect time to make friends and indulge in some small talk, but I wasn't in the mood and didn't want to come across as creepy so I stuck my nose into the paper and read.

it dawned on me that it had been a long time since I had read a something that wasn't on a computer screen. I was enjoying it. I had to thank the bus drive for that.

so I sat n my self imposed isolation and read and thoughtand mused. I read about Dick Cheney and how cities should get ou of the trash business. I read about I.F. Stone and David Millers bad day. I would never have read any of these articles and as I thought and looked out the window at landscape most beautiful, at small towns that were being by-passed by the new improved highway 11, I realized that travelling by bus was not so bad.

i got to see things that I would not have learned about had I not stepped out of my comfort zone. I would not have seen waterfalls and trees and other such things that I might have seen from the back seat of a car, but I don't think I would have been as appreciative.

And of course there is the being wiu ones thougts of days gone by and friends lost that one cannot experiance when travelling with friends or people you know.

So the bus ride might have taken a couple of hours more, but sometimes it's worth it because it's the journey not he destination that makes life worth living.