On Thanksgiving Day my daughter, Emi, and I boarded an Apex bus scheduled to leave at 1:30 pm at East Broadway – at 2:15 we still hadn’t left, and none of us knew the reason, including the driver. Finally a Chinese employee entered the bus, and when someone asked what happened to our 1:30 departure, she said, “1:30? No problem. We leave 2:30.” And off she went.
At 2:30 we were told to change buses; a more patient group you haven’t met. Bags came down from the racks, coats, and reading materials were collected and we all walked across Division Street to another bus. The reason for the delay seemed to be . . . a secret, no answers to questions were forthcoming. At 3pm we departed; it was a smooth ride to Baltimore. The Baltimore Travel Plaza was the destination for a few of us. When we arrived there the bus stopped by the roadside to let us off and quickly left. It was cold and windy and no shelter was in sight
I tried to confirm our return by phone, but couldn’t get any information, so we went with the time given when I bought the tickets in New York. We stopped by the same cold, windy, isolated roadside and waited for the bus. A bus was waiting but it wasn’t Apex. The driver motioned for us to get on. We did, presented our tickets, and were told Apex bus had left and we needed to pay an extra $20 each. A nearby passenger chimed in to say that he had the same ticket and paid the $20. We said, No thank you, we would wait for the Apex bus, and that it couldn’t have left, we still had time. The passenger who paid asked for the return of his $20 and got off the bus with us. Three Chinese bus employees followed us off the bus. There was a mini conference. My daughter’s ticket and the other passenger’s ticket were reexamined and they asked to see mine. I don’t know what new information was extracted in those few seconds, but we were told to get back on the bus at no additional price. We three looked at each other and boarded the bus again.
In the town of Delaware the driver stopped for more passengers, and as we started to drive away we all heard a banging noise underneath the bus. We left and could hear the driver speaking Chinese on the phone. He stopped the bus three times and went outside to try to repair the problem. All to no avail. Very slowly we inched our way along the highway keeping closely to the right. When we got to NJ we were told another bus would be coming. We waited 45 minutes for the bus. Again we were an unusually patient group. The bus came. We collected our possessions and boarded another bus. The rest of the trip went smoothly. And I suppose that was all to be expected because when you pay $35.00 for a round trip bus ride from Manhattan to Baltimore you take your chances. But, then again, if Fung Wah can do it right, why not the others?
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“The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends and will always make the best of his circumstances.” -Aristotle
“. . . The trick to being a good adventurer, of course, is to take all such surprises in stride. Good people keep walking whatever happens, taught the Buddha. “They do not speak vain words and are the same in good fortune and bad.” – Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
www.rolfpotts.com