"I am indeed but a wanderer, a pilgrim on earth. But are you anything more?" - Goethe
"There is no foreign land; it is the traveller that is foreign." - Robert Louis Stevenson

Starting on April 30, 2011, I departed Texas on a Greyhound Bus for Florida to begin an adventure on the open waters
of the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. This blog is an account of my journey and a way for my family and friends to follow along.

Mission complete: Safely landed in Texas on June 26, 2013

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Welcome...to America's Public Transport System

Departing Corpus Christi for Miami with ticket in hand.


Cliff Notes
-  Departed Corpus Christi, TX at 7:30 pm on April 30, 2011. by Greyhound Bus.  Arrived in Miami, Fl at 7:30 am on May 2, 2011.  Interesting start to this journey. 


Full Post
-  Since this is the second time I have set off on a journey inspired by wanderlust and the unknown, I decided to give myself a bit more of a challenge by not taking any commercial flights.  After my Greyhound bus ride from Corpus Christi, Tx to Miami, Fl, I may have to reconsider.  Let's just say I can check this off of my "non-Bucket List".  A "non-Bucket List" being a list of items you shouldn't do, if you can avoid it, before you die.  


In most countries, busses serve the entire population as a normal mode of transportation no matter their income level.  In America, it seems the general bus crowd consists of those who have just gotten out of the hospital/nursing home, out of jail, crossed the Mexico-US border, or all of the above.  


A man who fits the "all of the above" category boarded the bus hurriedly with no luggage just before the bus left New Orleans.  He was wearing a hospital garb top, blue jeans and I guess he thought the hospital wristband he had left on his wrist also doubled as a bus pass or went well with the barbwire tattoos running up his left arm.  He was the first to get off a few stops later in Alabama.  I'm assuming he was just a poet on the run as I had the chance to view where he had been sitting, he had engraved "redrum..." into the buses interior.  Just a few lines short of the haiku he was working on I guess.


Well 1.5 days later, I did make it to Miami in one piece thinking this may end up being the most harrowing experience of my trip.  It was great to have my good friend Mark pick me up at the Miami bus station.  It was a bit of a shock to be transported from my last couple days on a bus to the life on Miami Beach.  A destination surrounded by blue waters, white sands, expensive drinks and gorgeous women wherever the eye turns.  I think I have handled the transition well. 


Hopefully it will not be too much longer until I can catch a boat out of here or until Mark convinces me to stay and find a job in Miami.  He doesn't have to work on that too hard as the bikini clad internationals may just do the trick on their own.


Until next time....