Busing around town
Topic: Busses, Cars & Trains
I took the #5 bus, Pima Street/West Speedway, to Campbell and Grant. It's such a nice bus as I can take it from home to within a few blocks of work. It's also a bit slower since it wanders north to Pima before coming back south to Speedway. When the schedules mesh it great on weekends as I don't have to go all the way downtown and back out. Today I was transfering to the #9 bus, Grant, to Campbell and Grant.

When I walked up to the bus stop at Speedway and Campbell there were four guys already sitting on the bench so I stood a little ways off where there was shade. One of the guys called to me and said to come and sit and they would move. I said I was ok since I didn't have a long wait but they all got up so I went over and sat down, feeling a bit bad about it. He said the driver would yell at them anyway if they were sitting on the bench and not allowing riders to sit. They then wandered off and I realized they were homeless and not just waiting for the bus. This is miserably hot weather for homeless people and it was a bit early for the libraries to be open, one on Sunday I believe, but I did appreciate that the drivers tried to keep them from taking up room on the benches since it's also miserable to stand in the sun and heat because a homeless person is asleep on the bench. I know, I'm heartless, but there are other places to sleep in the shade but when waiting for the bus you have to wait by the bus stop.

I had been planning to see a movie at the Catalina Theatre, one our remaining old movie houses, but just lost interest, besides Bookmans, a great second hand bookstore was right there. I then took the #15 bus, Campbell, south to Broadway. While waiting at the Grant stop I saw that they were doing some elaborate landscaping around the bus stop. They finished major roadwork along here about a year ago and it looks like they're prettying it up now. It will be nice to have a good bus stop. Right now it's pretty barren and very hot while waiting for a bus.

I had lunch and did a little grocery shopping and then it was the #8 bus, Broadway, on home. I had pretty good connections today and all of this only took three and a half, hours including shopping and lunch.