At the Unreasonable Mansion

Arrived in Boulder, in Daniel's car, accompanied by his dog. 

Neat setup, had dinner, talked to a few other folks. Its going to be fun!

Funnily enough, dont feel too tired after the 1.5 day journey. Perhaps the breaks in between helped! :P

With or without you

Another rest stop.

The bus driver told us 10 mins and then the bus would leave with or without us.

Well, he was true to his word.

The bus set off without 4 passengers!

Somewhere in the front, there were apparently 2 passengers missing: their belongings were strewn across the seats. A boy and his mother. Nearby passengers flagged this to the driver, who pointed out that they had been warned.

Then another passenger pointed out that the father of 2 boys (minors) on the bus was also missing. The boys (9-11) would have no one to look after them during the journey and esp when it stopped at Denver. This time, the driver took the bus around and we picked up the 4.

Overall, I think this particular driver wouldn't be winning Mr Popularity with this lot of passengers anytime soon...

Long after everyone had settled down, the indignant murmurs continued, with some passengers even wanting to report the driver for kidnapping to the cops! (this is the US) Mostly, the indignation was about the "10 minutes" promised - while the bus started off again only after 7-8 mins...

Eventually, I think the worst for the driver is a telling off from somebody at Greyhound (apparently, the 4 passengers abandoned at the rest stop had called Greyhound)

Anyway, we got to Denver at 7 pm (no passengers missing - although some passengers luggage was missing - having been left behind in Kansas City!)

we aint in kansas anymore

rest stop at the last bit of kansas. lots of wizard of oz memorabilia.
had a subway.

kansas city

stopover for half n hr in kansas city which i used for a bfast of
orange juice n french fries. hoping my checkin luggage is travelin
with me on the same bus!

off to st louis

just boarded the bus for st louis finally... at a time i should have
been boarding the bus FROM st louis :P

a few observations about greyhound:
/buses r comfortable with ac reclining seats
/organization around the buses is a shambles
/no signs or schedule info at stations. delays guaranteed. general confusion
/lack of cleanliness at stns seems exaggerated. seem ok.
/large stations but v inefficient system. no wonder chinatown buses r
doing well with only a fraction of greyhounds resources.

walking with kings

the missed connection landed me with a 6 hr layover in the music city
... nashville.
walked downtown. saw fort nashville. posed with elvis. saw the orig b
b king cafe.

was v interesting despite having luggage to lug around.

so far hv met a bunch of interesting charcters on the hound. Lawrence
of Alabama elementary school teacher n farmer. David the artist with
30 jobs ..frm savannah. orlando frm miami manager of hookah cafes.

enjoying day journey to nashville

v pleasant. not so full bus. good route. even started out reading the
rough guide to usa on my kindle. may have a 6 hr stopover in
nashville. hope something interesting there. meanwhile had an orange
chivda n chocs!

atlanta to nashville

as suspected missed my connection to st louis. now on abus to
nashville where i am to catch an evening connection to st louis.

other people in the same boat as well.

back to charlotte

bus finally started...
thought i was on my way to atlanta finally ... got on the bus n dozed
off... woke up back in charlotte. apparently something wrong with the
bus... driver decided to swap buses. so after a further delay at
charlotte i was away.

got to atlanta finally at 6 30... maybe missed my connection to st louis?

already late

my first greyhound trip n the bus is late... waiting round for the
atlanta bus to show up....

funny thing is there is no wrtten communication at any greyhound station.

Leaving towards Unreasonable

Am boarding a Greyhound tonight on a long journey to Denver, Colorado, where I shall join the team at Unreasonable Institute. Excited! 

Also, apparently, I am making history: I am the first fellow ever in UR's history to arrive by bus :P 

Also, in another first, this is my first initiation into Riding the Hound. 

I have been warned: But hey, I've been a regular long distance bus traveler in India -  can't get a better education than that! 

Can handle uncertainty - check

Can handle random schedule changes - check

Can keep an eye on luggage at all time - check

(not that I have much to keep an eye on!)

Can sit for hours in tight cramped spaces - check

Can rough it when needed - check

All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. No jet plane, but a hound...

ANOTHER change of tone

Well, turns out there's not much funny about the IIM FPM! :P ...
Also, I am traveling about at present, so have decided to convert this
into a travel log of sorts.

Will be posting periodically from various places in the US (some
random, others not. All posts, however, will be random).
Most of the time, will be using my kindle to post. So brevity shall be
the soul of wit from here on...
:)

Change of Tone

I'm back.
I've decided to bring this blog back. Except that there is going to be a change in tone. From now on, it's going to be more "observational humour" - if not my own, then contributed by folks at IIM still in the program.