Cleveland or Bus, Mega Bus That Is

My friend Kevin from Homer and a couple of his friends made plans to come to Ohio this week to see Pink in concert.  Kevin very generously got me a ticket to join them, so I'm Ohio bound today.

Waking at 4am to make my way in to Manhattan for what I thought was a 6:30am bus, I was nearly two hours early as the train arrived on time and was an express one, the walk from the station to the bus stop was shorter than I'd anticipated and the bus was actually scheduled to leave at 7:15am...  Needless to say, the Mega Bus can run so cheaply because there are no stations to pay for.  This meant that I got to stand out in the cold and wind and watch the sun come up over part of midtown.  While I enjoyed watching the dark sky turn to light blue to pink, not being able to feel my toes by the time the driver let me on the bus was taxing.  Thankfully, I brought my sleeping bag so was able to tuck in to it and spent the first part of the ride cozy and dozy.

I had no idea that the Mega Bus existed outside of the UK.  The last time I rode on one of this large double decker buses was in 2005, between London, England and Cardiff, Wales.  I was propped up top and in a front window seat with a bird's eye view of the ever-changing landscape and alternating rain, snow, sun and cloud.

I had a two hour layover in Pittsburgh so took the time to explore a bit of the downtown area which has been revitalized and is a hub of galleries, restaurants, theaters, museums and coffee shops.  Also had a fascinating conversation with a woman in line who said she was a professional psychic and then proceeded to tell me a lot of extremely accurate things about my past.  When she asked if I wanted to know what the next six months had in store for me, without hesitation, I smiled and said, "No way, not knowings most of the fun!"

Then, when boarding the bus to leave Pittsburgh, I got a laugh when the new bus driver gawked at me and questioned, "What the hell are you going to Cleveland for?  Nobody goes there!"

And, well, here I am, one of the bedbug capitals. I'm nestled in to my sleeping bag in a hotel near Lake Erie.  Tomorrow I'll explore the lake area and then Kevin, Holley and Vanessa come to town and we'll head to Columbus for the concert...