You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Take the 815 into the city...
Well, every morning at roughly 5:45, I take the 805 into the city. I tried to mix it in with the lyrics but somehow 815 has a better rhythm to it than 805. But yes, each day, the 805 is my bus that picks me up at the Bonaventure Roller Skating parking lot in Farmington Hills. Life on the 805 SMART (Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation - yes, I looked it up) bus is quite different from the bus experience I used to have (look back in the 12/07 blog archives for that) as the shocks are similar to a '76 Pinto and the seats give excellent leg room...for someone 5'7". For someone 6'2", not so good. All is not lost though as I can usually snag one of the horizontal seats in the back (pictured below) that allow me to stretch out and go into Tim's World, usually with the headphones on while reading a book. I can't complain as the price is right up my alley, free. It's cheaper for my employer to buy a bus pass for me than to pay for a parking spot so it's a win win for everyone.
The 805 route buses do a loop from Farmington Hills through Redford via Grand River to Beech Daly, over to 96 and into the D every half hour five times in the morning and vice-versa in the afternoon/evening. The exciting part of the ride is getting to pull the signal to stop cord. As I'm the first and pretty much the last stop, I rarely get to do it but the few times I have did it was quite a thrill. The bus riders are working folks just like me. Not much chit chat as everybody is either reading, sleeping, or playing with their cell phone applications. There is one woman on my morning ride who needs to toss the industrial size perfume she has at home into the garbage. Holy Toledo is that some strong stuff. Not good. One lady has her husband there to escort her on the bus each morning, sometimes with a batch of flowers for her. Romance is not dead I guess.
Thanks to everyone who voted this week for passing the SMART bus millage.
The bike tour is off to Mexico tomorrow so hopefully I'll have some stories and pictures to pass on at that time.
Trail Head
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| my seat |
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| early riders |
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| request to stop cord |
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| stop requested signal |
