A Living Magazine - Day 35 - Merrick'sTeam and the Late Greyhound

Had a good sleep, packed up and headed downtown to Rogue Coffee Roasters. Working there, I had my post up by noon. This place had truly been a haven for me. I didn't spend a lot of money there, but I was a regular and daily customer. I was fortunate enough to have been rung up by a woman named Merrick. I believe she was the manager of the shop, and she knew her stuff. Before I left for the final time, I introduced myself, briefly told her about my project, and gave her a couple of business cards. We shook hands and I made my departure, hoping she with friend me on Facebook so you all could meet her. 

The Rogue Coffee Roasters gang. That's Merrick on the far right..

The town was all abuzz with activities. Many of the stores had tables set up outside...

The parking lot that host the classic cars the day before was now transformed into a downtown market; one that was set up every Saturday...

A recycled wood furniture place had nice seating for people. Good idea!

Ariditas Wild Gardens garlic stand.

        

I walked back down to the chain-store side of town and went to the Dollar Tree to buy some snacks for the bus ride. Before walking in, I saw this little guy on the sidewalk. Not sure what happened, but he's resting in peace now...

There was still time before the bus, which was supposed to leave at 5:20 pm. I paced around the parking lot...

I guess students must be a little "right leaning" lately to read this.

The place where I bought my boots the day before.

Around 4:30 I went to the bus station to see if they were open. I just had a feeling that I should check in there, and I'm glad I did. There was a very elderly woman behind the counter. She must have been 80 if she was a year old. I asked her if they had Wi-Fi and told her I had to catch a bus at 5:20.

She said, "There isn't going to be bus at 5:20." I asked her what she meant. She explained that the Bus 1446 coming all the way up from LA had a problem. They were stuck in Redding (of all places) and probably would not be to Grants Pass until around 8:00.

I had no idea what "probably" meant. And, I tried many different ways to get more info out of her, but whenever she double checked the bus status, she was not able to specify a more accurate arrival time. I did more pacing outside and decided that I should get back to the station earlier than 8:00, but I also wanted to have better information about the status. I went to McDonald's and got online, pulling up the Greyhound site and calling customer service from my computer.

The first guy, Aziz, didn't have a clue about how to check up on the buses. While he searched online I found the route checker at their site. Unfortunately, it said that "There is no information about that bus to display. We apologize for the inconvenience." Aziz said he didn't know what else to do, and offered to transfer me to another customer service person. I thought this was highly irregular, but gave it a try. I sat on hold listening to the same distorted folk music for 16 minutes with no one picking up my call. So, I hung up, called back and got Alea. She confirmed that the bus had left Redding and would be in Medford by 5:30. So the 8:00 pm time still stood. It really would be nice if Greyhound had a real time view of the bus in question like what Amtrak does with its trains. But, it is what it is.

Noticing that it was already 7:15, I scooted out and quickly walked back down to the station. The bus pulled in at 7:45, so it was a good thing I was a bit early. The frazzled driver and the worn out passengers got off. They took a cigarette break while she checked my ticket and opened the luggage bay. She told me my ticket was printed wrong. The destination city was in the wrong field. She looked over it and then compared it to the other tickets in her envelope, then apologized and said she'd read it wrong.

I sighed in relief, and boarded the bus...
                           

Bus 1442, on the ride to Eugene.

Sunset out the window.

                                           

We made one stop so that the exhausted and hungry passengers could get a bite to eat. I got out and stretched my legs. I talked to a guy who had been on the bus the whole time. He said that there was no problem with the bus. Instead, there was a driver change. They had no idea what happened to their first driver in Redding. He got off the bus and never returned. This current driver was a replacement, and they had waited for her for nearly four hours.

She hurried us back on to the bus and it was about another hour to Eugene. There was no Wi-Fi signal, even though it was advertised as having it. Thus, I couldn't get anything done. I'd planned to examine Google Maps to see how to get out of Eugene, but that couldn't happen.

We drove over the bridge and into the center of Eugene, parking at about 11:30 pm. I had no clue where I could find a place to check my location online. I let my intuition lead me west and north, down various streets until I found a Taco Bell. The lobby was closed but the Drive Thru was still open, so there was a signal outside. I sat on the sidewalk and checked everything out.

Turns out, it was an easy route. I was right next to Route 99. All I had to do was follow it until I reached Junction City. I did follow it for about 7 miles, until approximately 2:00 am. My feet - especially my heels - were quite sore and I knew I needed to find a place to sleep. Oregon is a great state for improvised camping. Once I was away from the main drag, fields and side roads appeared.

I ended up walking into a medium sized field (maybe four acres?). There was a small river and I tried to get down to its little flood plain. But the second I stepped on what looked like short grass, my foot began to sink. It was quicksand!

I struggled out and returned to the taller grass of the field where I found a place to nest down, pulling the sticks and rocks on the ground out of the way with my boot. It wasn't ideal, but it worked fine for one night. Actually it was only three hours of sleep...

Eugene Sleeping Place