We took the train to Cardiff, then transferred to a different train to Carmarthen. The guy across the aisle wasn’t wearing a mask, even though it is “required”. Oh well. This train only had two cars and after a few stops, it was very much filling up. The only two seats left were next to mask free guy on the aisle and across the table from him, but next to the window. A lady asked Mask free Man if he could move his things from the aisle seat so she could sit. He very sharply said no, he was social distancing and she couldn’t sit by him. She mentioned she had paid for a seat and he hadn’t paid for two, and he told her to get away from him. Luckily the woman across the table moved to the window seat and the new lady could sit. I didn’t like Mask-free Man.
A woman came with a trolley of sweets and drinks, and I felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express. Mask free Man stood up and told her to reverse the trolley back the 3/4 of the car she had already come so he could pass. She said she literally couldn’t- it only rolls forward for safety reasons. He grumbled and sat as she passed by our seats. I seriously considered stopping her and getting something, then another something, and maybe another something, just to make Mask-free Man wait. I didn’t. But my thoughts are not very nice.
At Carmarthen we transferred to a bus. The entire drive was gorgeous, but the windows were too dirty to get a picture. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We had two hours before our stop and I was confused as to how we would know to push the stop button, since there was no information given about what the stops were. Keith was completely unconcerned and just kept saying we’ll figure it out. I kept saying how will we do that? After an hour, I went up during a stop and asked how I would know when my stop was coming. The driver said people just know where they want to go. I said I hadn’t been here before and only knew it was the second stop in Llanfarian. He just stared at me. Apparently, I do not know how to pronounce Llanfarian. He said he would try to remember to stop there. I was not very confident. Keith started tracking the bus on a bus map app (the existence of which I didn’t know about) and we pushed the stop button at the right time. We confirmed our location as second stop and hopped off the bus. No one was there. There was no bus shelter or sign. We were cold. We started trying to figure out how to call when a little red car pulled up and there were our friends Steve and Sheila. They had been at the actual bus stop and when the bus stopped (because they were waiting) and no one got off, they asked the driver about us. He said he let us off up the road. Why? Who knows! I am not good at buses.
Hi to Steve and Sheila!
I am not good at buses either. I moved to St. Paul from a small town and my only bus experience was a school bus. That was easy because I had the same bus driver all of my school career and he knew exactly where I lived and always remembered to stop there.
Riding up and down West Seventh Street was different. I watched other passengers pull a cord that ran along the top of the windows and then bus would stop shortly after that and they would get off. So I had a game plan, but didn’t know how to predict the right time to pull the cord.
I certainly didn’t want to miss my stop so I pulled the cord early (actually very early) every day for the first week and walked several blocks to get to work or home. Somewhere in my second week, I realized if I saw my stop go by and then pulled the cord, I would actually walk less than I had been. So began Plan B.
Somewhere along the way (Plan D or E), I decided that I would rather have car and quit making bus plans.