One of my goals is to visit my daughter, Jane, on my own. Jane is a senior at Pace University in Lower Manhattan. Eliz and I love traveling up to NYC any chance we get and use every excuse to go. For example, Jane might mention in a text that she has to run to the store to get paper towels. I’ll say to her, don’t pay those crazy New York prices, mom and I will bring you some. Okay, it has never been that extreme, but you get the idea. We love going.
Since I am at home during the week while Eliz works, I’ve wondered if I could travel to The City on my own for a visit with Jane. I would travel on a day where Eliz works until 6.00pm and try to get home around the same time she gets home. The timing, though, is out of my control, assuming I get on the correct transport. Since Jane started at Pace in 2015, I’ve wanted to try taking the train to see her.
At the end of July, the three of us went to Affiliate Summit, an affiliate marketing conference. We took the train. Since we would be there for three nights and two days, parking alone would run about $200. Coupled with the $40+ in tolls, we thought it was a good time to try the train. We were driven to Septa’s Swarthmore station by Margaret, Eliz’s sister. It is only about a mile away, so it is walkable for me, especially if I’m only taking a backpack with me and no other luggage. We changed trains at 30th Street station and headed to Trenton, still using Septa. At Trenton, we bought our tickets for Penn Station on New Jersey Transit and headed for the platform after a quick bathroom break. We arrived in NYC about 85 minutes after boarding the train.
All three legs of our journey by train were comfortable. The problem I have with using the train is the additional changes and potential of hopping on the wrong train. Not too big a problem, other than the additional time it would take to an already pretty long trip. We left our house at about 7.25am for the 8.45am train at Swarthmore. Once at 30th Street, we had to wait 20-30 minutes for the train to Trenton. Once in Trenton, another 20 minutes of waiting before boarding the train (though we did need some time to buy our tickets and hit the bathroom.) We arrived at Penn Station at about 11.20am, four hours after leaving home. The return trip home was a little shorter, even though we were delayed at 30th Street (we had to run from our NYC train in Trenton to make our Philly-bound train, which was fortunately on the other side of the same platform.) My total cost for the roundtrip was about $25.
In early August, Jane started hearing back from internships she applied for, with some companies wanting to setup interviews. She picked a single day to do some interviews and Eliz and I “took” her to New York for the day. Instead of driving, we took the bus, so I could get a feel for it with someone who can guide me before I attempt it on my own. We used Greyhound, which Jane usually uses to come home, because you do not get the bus on the side of the road like Mega Bus. We drove into Philadelphia to get the bus, because there was track work going on and we were unsure how much extra time it would take to get into Center City.
We left our house an hour or so before the bus was scheduled to depart, so that we had plenty of time in the event of heavy rush hour traffic. We didn’t want to add any additional stress on to Jane, the interviews were enough for her to worry about. Fortunately, we had no issues getting into Philadelphia, hopping on the bus and getting into New York City. We arrived about 50 minutes before her first interview. We made our way to the subway and headed to Chelsea.
While Jane was at her first interview, Eliz and I had a look around the area and ended walking around Whole Foods. Whenever we go anywhere, we always pop in to Whole Foods to see if they carry China Bowl Select Chinese Noodles. Unlike the Whole Foods in our area, most of the stores we’ve been in in New York do carry them. Another option for Jane if the store by her is out…
Jane met up with us at a Starbucks and we decided to walk the 12 blocks to her next interview at Herald Square, which wasn’t for over two hours. We stopped into The Harold for lunch, where I had Lobster Roll for the first time. I'm sure this will not sit well with my New England relatives. I enjoyed it, even though I'm sure it was slightly more expensive than something similar on Cape Cod. We found a Starbucks close to Jane's next interview and grabbed a table for Eliz and I to wait.
Jane was back within about 20 minutes. The only problem was, her third interview was canceled and our bus wasn’t until 7.00pm, about four hours later. What to do, what to do. We weren’t hungry, so we went to B&H Photo to have a look at plenty of cool things. It must be funny to watch a guy using a white cane to be checking out DSLRs and video gear. The Zoom H6 audio recorder wasn’t as much of a stretch. I’d like to get one of those to record my podcasts… With normal buttons and no touch screen to worry about, I think it would be easier for me to operate than Garage Band on my computer. That is my goal once I get to 20 episodes. Jane was also interested in looking around the store. She is very interested in a ring light for her YouTube videos.
We made our way to Port Authority to see if we could catch an earlier bus, but they were full. After wandering around the city for a couple of hours, we went back to Gate 66 at Port Authority. It was about 6.20pm. Boarding usually starts about 20 minutes before departure, so we still had 20 minutes to wait for that. The gate agent noticed my white cane and said to us that we would board first. He told us to wait in front of the normal lines in a corner. That is where we waited. At 7.15pm the same agent said our bus was delayed, but he had no other info on it. We waited some more. At 8.00pm, I called Greyhound customer “service,” which is not appropriately named. The first rep, whose name, I believe, was Fernando told me we missed the bus. I assured him that we did not and asked for a supervisor. He put me on hold, then came back on the line and told me that the supervisor was busy and they would be with me shortly. Back on hold for a few minutes before getting disconnected. The second rep, Berna, and third rep, whose name was inaudible, told me similar stories, with one saying that the bus was on it’s way to Philadelphia. Both of those calls ended with me getting hung up on, too.
After nearly three hours of nonsense and getting the runaround, we had a bus and a driver to get us back to Philly. They started boarding at about 9.20pm, and, as promised, we were first on. We sat about six rows from the front, leaving the handicap seating for an elderly couple that shared a wheelchair. (Greyhound refused to get an additional seat of any kind for the one not in the wheelchair, so the primary user of the chair would get up and stand for a few minutes to give the other a chance to sit briefly.) Once the bus was fully loaded, our driver gave us a speech that was more a reprimand. It was truly unbelievable how she spoke to us. Hey, lady, we’re not in orange jumpsuits heading to the state pen, we’re paying customers. You may be doing your employer a solid by coming in and driving us, but it was no favor to us. Once we actually got going, the trip was uneventful. We arrived in Philadelphia nearly three hours when we were scheduled. My cost for the bus and Septa combo was about $30.
As a whole, me and my fellow passengers were disrespected and treated poorly by most of the Greyhound staff that night. Individually, for me, it was different. I feel if I were on my own, I would’ve received any assistance I would require. For that reason, the fact that I’d only have to make one change (getting off Septa at Jefferson Station and walking across the street for the bus,) and a shorter overall time in transit, I’d try Greyhound on my own. Now, let’s see if I have the balls to do it.