the knight bus

I was in Houston about 2 weeks ago, and had to find my way back to Austin since my car is a piece of crap and can't handle long drives. My mom was nice enough to come and get me and bring me back, and I couldn't ask her to do that after a few days, so I decided to bite the bullet and take the bus back. Luckily there is this thing called the Megabus that goes straight from Houston to Austin for only $10 last minute! It's a double decker bus and I immediately expected this when my dad and I drove up to the bus "station":

Sadly that wasn't what it looked like, and that's not how we drove to Austin. However, it was still pretty nice! As I was waiting in line to get on the bus I see dad over there sticking his head in, and then just walks on the bus. Typical. When I get upstairs I see him chatting away with his new bestie, also my driver. After talking for a few minutes my dad says bye and leaves. The bus was really clean and nice, with wifi, plugs at every seat, and even tvs throughout if they wanted to play a movie for longer drives. So I'm sitting up top waiting for the bust to leave, and about 10 minutes later (we were about to leave) I hear my dads laugh and realize he never left! He just kept talking to his bestie. My friend Sheri said he probably was trying to get all the info about driving a bus so he could have a job like that where he gets to talk to people all day everyday.

About halfway through the bus ride I check my email and got this from my dad:
"I talked with Mr. Gobchuk, your driver, (name is Russian.  Used to be a Petroleum Engineer in Canada.  His brother was a Greyhound driver for 46 years and convinced him to become a driver, when he chucked being a P.E..  Lives in Conroe).  It is amazing how monitored the bus is by his home office.  They know his speed, how close he is driving to the car in front, even if he is sitting in the seat.  If (when) there is a fight on the bus, he hits a button which turns on cameras at each seat, the home office sees what is going on, he will get a message on his screen to pull off at a certain exit, and the police are waiting.  Pretty cool.

So my friend, Mr. Gobchuk, said he will get you to Austin safely, so you are in good hands."

Thanks dad.

I got there safely, quickly, and I didn't have to drive! I also loved being able to stretch out over both seats on my way there. Who knows, I might even take the bus back to Houston sometime.