So after trying the Mexican Bus (which is one of the earliest posts on this blog), I decided to take the trip to Denver via Greyhound basically because it was not too bad of a walk from the house to the bus station. I think I knew this, but I technically rode a Los Americanos Bus and I believe the two companies are owned by the same parent company (one being an "American" bus and the other being a "Mexican" bus). Not that I noticed the difference.
Now some observations: The 3 options for leaving is really not surprising. In my air travels to Denver there is a pretty limited selection as well.
1) The quality of the bus station (the bathrooms were disgusting) shows either that the traffic they get is incredible or their cleaning/maintenance crew needs more help or is incompetent. Now it would be too easy to say that maybe the clientele doesn't know to respect public infrastructure. And to that I'm calling, "Bullshit." I doubt that your political affiliation, size of your pocket book, religious affiliation, even choice of addiction really matters when it comes to how you use the bathroom. Sometimes, defecating is messy. Thus, the disgusting bathrooms suggest that the management just basically doesn't care. And why should they care? The bus riding clientele probably isn't going to complain.
2) Now I generally felt safe, but the bus needed some work too. I didn't have an armrest, there was no soap or sanitizer in the on-board restroom, the sink didn't function, and the engine made this loud whine that would've drowned out any headphones if I'd bothered to bring any.
3) At one point, I was actually surprised to see two men actually sleeping on the floor of the bus as we were travelling. Given the limited leg room and uncomfortable seats it was pretty easy to think that maybe they had a good idea.
4) I was clearly a minority on this trip, which is actually refreshing, but it does strike me as strange when all the little kids persist in staring at you. My guess is that they don't get too many white folks on this thing?
Now I'm not going to draw too many conclusions because they all seem pretty obvious, but I do want to propose some questions.
What message are we sending when we fail to maintain public facilities? When the relative comfort of our customers is disregarded? Why are the people riding the bus (myself included) valued less than a person who would fly?
