Day 1 Inbound

A little background ...

I've been telling my husband all winter that, as soon as the weather warmed up, I'd park the car for a couple of months and take the bus. Yesterday I decided it was time. I shelled out 50 bucks for a 30-day bus pass and thus commenced my adventure.

I'm a student at UNO. My husband and I lease a 2007 Mitsubishi Galant, and we own a 1998 Chevy Malibu. The Malibu has been on its last legs for a long time. Having five years of school left to go, I foresee a future without the luxury of two cars, as we will NOT be making two car payments while I am making little to no financial contribution to our household. When we moved to Omaha, I intentionally sought a rental home near a bus line. I succeeded, and now we live three blocks from the #4 and four blocks from the #3.

So far the Malibu is still running, and considering our recent purchase of four new tires it better keep going for a good portion of the promised 70,000-mile tire life. But the odometer reading on the Galant is steadily increasing. The lease allows for an average of 1,000 miles per month. Right now we're about 2,000 beyond where we should be. We plan to buy the car at the end of the least, but just in case I'd like to keep the overage under control.

So now you're up to speed. ...

Day 1 was not chosen arbitrarily. I have class at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays (as opposed to the 8 a.m. start I get to enjoy the rest of the week). I attend an exercise class at the on-campus gym, and I'm free the rest of the day. The weather was decent at 42 degrees and dense fog, but no active rain. Don drove me the four blocks to the #3 line, and the bus driver was very friendly when I flagged down the bus midway between labeled stops. When I explained that I wasn't sure where to wait, he said that spot was jut fine. Later, when I missed the stop for my transfer, he kindly suggested I walk back one stop to catch my second bus.

I inquired with the crowd at the previous stop and found that I need to walk around the corner to catch the #2 ... just as that very #2 drove by. Fortunately, I knew there was another one soon, and the delay only meant that I wouldn't have a half-hour to entertain myself before class.

I took a seat at the proper stop, and was pleasantly surprised that the two individuals who smoked cigarettes while waiting for their bus did so at a distance from the shelter. However, once those two were gone, two new waiters proceeded to light cigarettes, each standing directly in an entrance to the shelter and seeming to turn toward the inside of the shelter each time they exhaled. I continued playing solitaire on my phone (with gloves on), but now with my jacket zipped all the way up and my nose buried in the collar.

Upon approaching the UNO campus, I patiently waited through the first two stops, gambling that one more remained closer to the west end of campus. I figured the worst that would happen is I"d overshoot and have to walk a block back, no worse than having to walk across campus if I'd gotten off at an earlier stop. I chose correctly when the third stop turned out to be immediately across the street from Durham Science Center, complete with a crosswalk.

All in all, a pretty positive start to my 30-day bus-riding adventure. I anticipate an easy ride back home, but I think I'll spend a little more time on the bus to catch the #4 home and have an easier bit of walking. Tomorrow morning I'll catch a ride with Don, who works at the same time I have class. The real test will come Thursday morning.