Public Transportation
I left the house in Air Bellows this morning at 8:45 to ride with my neighbors to Winston-Salem for the first leg of my journey back to Cary. Greyhound uses the Winston-Salem Transportation Center as its terminal there.
Having spent very little time in Winston-Salem over the past 45 years, I hardly recognized the place with its tree-lined streets. This view is looking east down 4th Street with the Reynolds Building in the background.
The City of Winston-Salem has done a very wise thing in locating the terminal in the heart of the city and using it as a hub for all public transportation including city buses, airport buses, regional shuttles and Greyhound.
The facility felt and looked quite European.
The bus ... er, coach ... arrived promptly and left on time (11:20). The driver was a Greyhound Nazi of sort, letting all the passengers politely but firmly know the rules of the road — no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no loud music, no ringing cell phones, etc. — and that the coach would be stopped and any offender "put off" wherever they were. "All I'm asking," he said, "is for you to be respectful of your fellow passengers." Passengers of all races, creeds and colors got the message from this very professional captain of his ship! Quite impressive.
As for the coaches themselves, I found them to be cleaner, quieter, cooler and more comfortable than airplanes. When the coach arrives at a terminal, it remains running with the air conditioner in operation at all times. (Stops at terminals last no longer than 10 minutes.) The seats are bigger and the sound insulation against engine and road noise is excellent. And, of course, no seat belts. Based on this day's trip, I would prefer to take the bus over an airplane when time is not an obstacle.
We made stops in High Point, Greensboro and Durham before arriving in Raleigh. The transportation center in Greensboro is based around the train station there and is very much like the one in Winston-Salem otherwise. High Point, Durham and Raleigh have Greyhound stand-alone terminals of little character or utility.
I slept from Greensboro to the Harrison Avenue hill on I-40 in Cary and we arrived in Raleigh on time at 2:05. I walked three block to the TTA bus stop.
It was located at Salisbury and Jones Streets, directly across from that building when all your state taxes are spent!
Unfortunately, the next bus on the 301 route to Cary was not scheduled until 4:00 when the downtown workers began returning home to the 'burbs. I hadn't eaten and found a street vendor selling hot dogs. With time on my hands, I noticed that the stand was in front of the building hosting the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition and decided to seek the comforts of air conditioning therein. As for the exhibition, don't waste your $16 to see a half dozen pieces of 2000-year old paper in bad shape, behind multiple layers of glass (to protect them), under poor lighting (to preserve them), with writing on them in languages you probably don't know. For all I could tell they might be saying "Moses is a pig" and I wouldn't know the difference. I found a page from an original Gutenberg bible in the "after" exhibit to be more interesting.
Anyhow, the TTA bus arrived about 5 minutes late and made stops at NCSU, near South Hills Mall and beside Cary Towne Center. By that point the bus was nearly full of passengers.
Now, folks, if you want to do something that feels really weird, try riding a bus through Cary! This is at the ramp off Walnut Street onto US-1 South.
The map on the TTA Web site and the route actually being run these days are not exactly the same and my closest point to the townhouse was Big Lots on Kildaire Farm Road. This I'm told is a popular stop because folks can leave their cars in the parking lot there and ride the bus either downtown or to RTP. A pass good for one month cost $90.
So there I was with a walk of about two miles left. I needed the exercise but the heat and humidity made this final leg of the journey the only unpleasant one.
It was my good fortune to encounter a Goodberry's along the way! Burgundy cherry.
I used a series of greenways to shorten the hike and seek cooler air along the creeks before arriving home at 5:45, some 9 hours after I began my return journey to Cary.
My neighbors refused to accept payment for gasoline (it only took them six blocks out of their way) and, as a result, my total transportation costs came to $21.50 for the trip of 150 miles door to door when taken by private automobile.
And, yes, I would do it again.
Having spent very little time in Winston-Salem over the past 45 years, I hardly recognized the place with its tree-lined streets. This view is looking east down 4th Street with the Reynolds Building in the background.
The City of Winston-Salem has done a very wise thing in locating the terminal in the heart of the city and using it as a hub for all public transportation including city buses, airport buses, regional shuttles and Greyhound.
The facility felt and looked quite European.
The bus ... er, coach ... arrived promptly and left on time (11:20). The driver was a Greyhound Nazi of sort, letting all the passengers politely but firmly know the rules of the road — no smoking, no drinking, no drugs, no loud music, no ringing cell phones, etc. — and that the coach would be stopped and any offender "put off" wherever they were. "All I'm asking," he said, "is for you to be respectful of your fellow passengers." Passengers of all races, creeds and colors got the message from this very professional captain of his ship! Quite impressive.
As for the coaches themselves, I found them to be cleaner, quieter, cooler and more comfortable than airplanes. When the coach arrives at a terminal, it remains running with the air conditioner in operation at all times. (Stops at terminals last no longer than 10 minutes.) The seats are bigger and the sound insulation against engine and road noise is excellent. And, of course, no seat belts. Based on this day's trip, I would prefer to take the bus over an airplane when time is not an obstacle.
We made stops in High Point, Greensboro and Durham before arriving in Raleigh. The transportation center in Greensboro is based around the train station there and is very much like the one in Winston-Salem otherwise. High Point, Durham and Raleigh have Greyhound stand-alone terminals of little character or utility.
I slept from Greensboro to the Harrison Avenue hill on I-40 in Cary and we arrived in Raleigh on time at 2:05. I walked three block to the TTA bus stop.
It was located at Salisbury and Jones Streets, directly across from that building when all your state taxes are spent!
Unfortunately, the next bus on the 301 route to Cary was not scheduled until 4:00 when the downtown workers began returning home to the 'burbs. I hadn't eaten and found a street vendor selling hot dogs. With time on my hands, I noticed that the stand was in front of the building hosting the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition and decided to seek the comforts of air conditioning therein. As for the exhibition, don't waste your $16 to see a half dozen pieces of 2000-year old paper in bad shape, behind multiple layers of glass (to protect them), under poor lighting (to preserve them), with writing on them in languages you probably don't know. For all I could tell they might be saying "Moses is a pig" and I wouldn't know the difference. I found a page from an original Gutenberg bible in the "after" exhibit to be more interesting.
Anyhow, the TTA bus arrived about 5 minutes late and made stops at NCSU, near South Hills Mall and beside Cary Towne Center. By that point the bus was nearly full of passengers.
Now, folks, if you want to do something that feels really weird, try riding a bus through Cary! This is at the ramp off Walnut Street onto US-1 South.
The map on the TTA Web site and the route actually being run these days are not exactly the same and my closest point to the townhouse was Big Lots on Kildaire Farm Road. This I'm told is a popular stop because folks can leave their cars in the parking lot there and ride the bus either downtown or to RTP. A pass good for one month cost $90.
So there I was with a walk of about two miles left. I needed the exercise but the heat and humidity made this final leg of the journey the only unpleasant one.
It was my good fortune to encounter a Goodberry's along the way! Burgundy cherry.
I used a series of greenways to shorten the hike and seek cooler air along the creeks before arriving home at 5:45, some 9 hours after I began my return journey to Cary.
My neighbors refused to accept payment for gasoline (it only took them six blocks out of their way) and, as a result, my total transportation costs came to $21.50 for the trip of 150 miles door to door when taken by private automobile.
And, yes, I would do it again.
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