My Commute, So Far

I've taken the bus enough times to have a good idea about the ride. So far, it's been surprisingly good.Trailways Adirondacks has been great thru September, and I'm hoping my run of luck continues. There are many ways a coach-commute could go awry, and as a teacher trained to use multisensory techniques, I guess it makes sense (haha) that I'd contemplate each of the modalities in determining whether I like something:

Sense of SIGHT:
The buses aren't pretty, but that's not why I ride them. And the overhead lights have worked almost perfectly in my 20 rides. A word of warning: The lights in the front seats don't turn on because their reflections would endanger the ride; don't sit in the front seat if you plan to read something at night.

Sense of HEARING:
I always have my iPod, and I make sure to update it frequently so that I can tune in to my favorite podcasts. I like NPR's Brian Lehrer and Leonard Lopate; both have interesting guests discussing interesting topics. I should probably add a few blogs, tho, so I don't run the risk of having nothing to listen to. Any suggestions?

On one early ride, a young woman had her iPod on too loudly, its tinny sound piercing my quietude for a few minutes before I remembered that I had my own iPod to drown out her noise. Trailways actually mandates that its drivers announce: no loud personal stereos, and NO CELL PHONE CONVERSATIONS. You can answer an important call and chat for a few seconds, but that's about it. On two occasions, I've seen drivers threaten to stop the bus and even dismiss a passenger who kept talking on a mobile.

The buses tend to be well maintained, so they're pretty quiet, too.

Sense of SMELL:
On rare evening rides home, someone has had a potent-smelling dinner that has bothered me. This annoyance is typically brief, and I have learned to combat it by applying lip balm to mask the smell (partly). On one ride, my neighbor had a bad case of intestin-based halitosis, and I went thru a lot of lip balm. Even that ride wasn't so bad -- at least I got some blog material out of it.

Sense of TOUCH:
The seats can be more or less comfortable, but because the ride isn't longer than 90 minutes, so far my feeling about the seats is: No harm, no foul. My back feels the same as it did a month ago. They're wide enough that you won't be bumping elbows with a stranger, and most of the time, riders can have both seats to themselves.

Sense of TIME:
Sometimes I take a little snooze, but most of the time, I busy myself with:
* the Times Magazine crossword and the rest of its contents
* the Scrabble dictionary (I'm more than 100 pages thru it, word for word)
* Discover Magazine
The ride really goes fast when I find myself chatting with a nice stranger; I've met some interesting and fun people, but most of the time we keep to ourselves.

Sense of COST:
I'm not sure if we're born with this sense, but I've certainly developed it over the years. The bus is surprisingly inexpensive. If you buy a month pass ($425), it comes to about $20 roundtrip between New Paltz and NYC. I only travel to The City four days a week, so I guess it's more like $25 a day for me, but still, that's a bargain as far as I'm concerned.

It's also important to note two things. Firstly, the drivers are very kind as well as being safe and experienced behind the wheel, and the buses are in good shape. Secondly, Trailways has a policy that benefits me greatly: You can request a drop-off anywhere along the normal route. In my case, this means that the return bus actually drops me off right at the foot of my private road.

When I started thinking about my bus rides, I was hedging towards a B grade, but I think I'll have to give them an overall A-. There really isn't much room for improvement.

Go Trailways. Go, Trailways!