By Ryan Versaw

Bus

            An hour before dawn, fish sizzled with sausage and egg in a pan at the Valley Motel in Alamosa, Colorado. In the hour, a bus was to arrive at Adams State College, and from there, I was destined for Pueblo. From there, I would seek a fortress known to all who travel with a dog they love, such as the Rodeway Inn, which is guaranteed to have room for you and your pet any day. The people feel that even a single step toward a hotel or bus is unfriendly to our bread and our land, and a notice by phone that a bus was not coming came as no surprise.

I stared at the large iron statue of a bear near the sign for a bus that never came, waved once more at a school I love, and began walking toward the road to Pueblo.

            The Greyhound was raised by a hound born in Russia long before there were any buses in America. This breed was raised in England. A child of the Hound, called the Greyhound, is a dog born in America after a trek across the sea. Greyhounds were often bred to race in some states for the leisure of the people. Once raised to find people in hills and mountainous regions, the Greyhound was favored among rings of people who breed dogs to race. Racing dogs in competition is quickly becoming illegal in several states and many nations. Much loved by the proprietor of the Greyhound Corporation, the dog is still known throughout the world for its robust ability to live in many regions.

            Eric Wickman was a bus driver who started the Greyhound Corporation in 1914, according to the information provided on zippia.com. Driving an automobile with seven seats called the hupmobile, Eric Wickman drove colleagues between a mine in Hibbing, Minnesota, and the town of Alice in the same state. The Livery Route from Hibbing to Alice became the legs of the largest bus line in the United States by the year of 1914. Eric purchased a small bus line from Orville Caesar in 1925 and, with Orville, started the Northland Transportation Company. In 1930, their company became Greyhound Corporation. By 1946, Eric Wickman was president of the bus company.

            On a single bus route, there must be people involved in all directions from the station of departure. This is true for the operation of a bus route, employees, maintenance, and even holding roads and routes of travel to stations of arrival. The same sweat and blood are demanded from the lives of all people of the land. All people and all bread within miles of even curbside stops in cities without bus stations are called for to ensure room on the road ahead and city transit routes. People hold the bus for passage and clear the driver for departure to the next station or garage, thus encompassing the minds and hearts of thousands of people in the nation. The involvement of people in a transit company with the wanton engagement in the bus itself makes the closure of a bus company cost well more than the simple cost of running a bus route for a year. Greyhound supposedly shut down in the north, where bus lines are based, on the sixth day of May in the year 2020 (autoweek.com).

     On www.southafrica.to/transport/buses/Greyhound-bus there is information suggesting that in 2020, the bus station will resume services. With the demand for people, money, and bread in addition to an employee base of people driving the bus and attending stations in the name of Greyhound, there is little to prove that Greyhound even shut down. The bus company still runs in Canada, America, and Mexico with buses in Europe and South Africa. The company now operates with Flix North America Incorporated.

            Closures of bus routes and delays of specific buses are still common. In Green River, Utah, a bus was cleaned in a maintenance garage near the local gas station used as a scheduled stop. This brought me to the south transit station of Las Vegas, Nevada, an hour later than my bus was scheduled to depart. With a trip across many states, the next departing bus is always the next day at the same hour.

I opted in favor of being in Los Angeles this morning and bought another ticket to California only. While in Las Angeles, I heard that the next bus to Oregon would not leave until the following evening. After a stay at a motel in Hollywood, I hiked over a mountain and looked down upon the letters of the name I know by my own Heart. I looked at the city on a night covered in stars. At the same time, wearing no clothes at all to show that while naked, I hid nothing from the Land that I loved. The route down the mountain from the Hollywood sign was long. By the next morning, before sunrise, I was riding with a car full of boys from Russia through a neighborhood I love to the place I came when I arrived. A trio of days later, I was able to schedule another ride to Salem, Oregon, to meet my family. Delays such as this are becoming more common with Greyhound buses.

“In Hollywood, I hiked over a mountain and looked down upon the letters of the name I know by my own Heart. I looked at the city on a night covered in stars. At the same time, wearing no clothes at all to show that while naked, I hid nothing from the Land that I loved.”

            On the return to Colorado, a bus driver wanted to avoid taking a bus to Denver. At Market Street Station, we were informed that this was where we would be until the following night. A hotel was provided courtesy of the People, but this gesture is not standard for all trips to all places. Each day that I rode the Greyhound bus, more buses were delayed or canceled. More drivers do not get on their specific buses to begin their routes for the day with each journey I take north. Every delay leaves me reeling to a local bus route that I do not even use. Another bus comes before I can leave, and the current perils of riding Greyhound are complete.

            Currently, Flix North America is the declared company that manages Greyhound. With a poison green complexion to suit their exterior paint, Flix buses now have taken some routes in the north and south of the United States. Still, bus companies serve Canada, America, and Mexico. While the bus company is German and offers intercity bus travel (corporate.flixbus.com) to Europe, North America, and South America have plans to commence the operation of bus lines in India in 2024. Hopefully, buses with less room for legs and electrical outlets will fare well in the coming months. Until then, walk more and live longer.