wattsdantzler

March 17, 2012

Greyhound

Not really sure where to start my paper/journal entry on my Greyhound Bus trip. First, I would like to say that I am not an English major. Secondly, I usually stick to 140 character tweets, so this is going to be tough. Where to start the story…. Okay, so six of my offensive line buddies and me went to Florida for spring break. The week was awesome. Super fun, got sun burnt, and ate way too much food. The week took a turn for the worst when I left our house in seaside to go meet up with some of the UGA Cheerleaders staying in Panama City Beach (Which I might say is the nastiest place on planet earth) . When we arrived we went to eat dinner with country singer Luke Bryan, probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. The next day we went to his concert and had a blast. After I rode to Destin with 3 of the Equestrian girls from UGA.

I thought I still had room to ride back with my fellow O-Linemen (Who were staying in Destin that night). I didn’t. So I needed a way to get home to Athens. I had plenty of ride opportunities that were leaving Saturday or Sunday to Athens, but I wanted to be home Thursday to workout a few days before spring practice started.

How was I going to get to Athens?

Possible choices: Jog (Never gonna happen)
Hitch hike (Might get killed)
Take a greyhound bus (Oh no….)

So I decided to go with the greyhound bus. I called one of the Equestrian girls and she drove me to Panama City for 40 dollars In the morning. And the trip begins….

I arrive at the greyhound station not knowing what to expect. I literally was scared for my life. I was ticket number 30. The bus pulls in and the bus driver tells the whole group he has 22 seats available. (So what do I do? Ride on the top of the bus?) I am standing by a white guy who looks kinda creepy. He told me his name was Mike but his friends call him “Lil Meek”. He told me that he had just gotten out of jail because he beat up a cop in panama city beach. GOOD. He was ticket number 31. So he and I decided would stand for the first two hours with ten other people…

I was not going to stand for two and a half hours. This story is 100% true. I laid on the floor of this bus from Panama to Tallahassee. I laid on my side because my shoulders were too big to lay on my back. There was a Mexican guy kicking me in the side and cussing me out saying “There is a fat-a** white boy on my foot.” I slept a little bit the first trip but I was laying in the nastiest floor on the whole world. We finally arrived into Tallahassee and it took me five minutes to get off of the ground. I was practically stuck in the isle of the bus.

Once we get off the bus we took a thirty minute break and we got onto a nicer bus. I talked to Lil Meek for a few minutes and told me about his “baby momma” and his kid Malcolm who he was going to see. He seemed like a great guy. On the second bus I was lucky enough to get a seat. I sent a text to my roommate and said, “I have a seat #blessed” It had been four hours and my phone was almost dead. I asked every single person on the bus if they had an iPhone charger. Half the bus didn’t even own a phone. Three people asked me what an iPhone was.

Anytime someone on the bus used the phone I could hear them. The best conversation was a young lady who was screaming at a man asking him questions, “Where is da baby at?” and “You betta not let yo crazy-a** aunt have my baby” and my personal favorite, “Once I get off this d*** bus imma come find you and beat yo a**”. She was really angry.

The next few hours not much happened. We stopped in Thomasville, Cordele, and Macon. In Thomasville to my rescue, a nice young lady carrying an iPad, iPhone, and iPad walked on. She let me use her charger three times. I was on my phone the entire time and had to recharge it three times.

This part is the craziest part of the trip. We stopped in Cordele to get food. We pulled into a gas station that had a Dairy Queen inside of it. Me and about forty people got off the bus and walked inside to find the that Dairy Queen was closed. There was one person who screamed, “I’m gonna burn this d*** gas station to the ground!” another guy cussed out the bus driver because they wanted food so bad. I had eaten nothing all day. They had these pizza slices that were not very good. I ate two of them, a bag of Buggles, and red Powerade Zero and a pack of Reeses. When we got on the bus there was a guy sitting beside me and he had not gotten off and did not have any food. Each stop he smoked like three cigerettes. I felt bad so I offered him some of my Buggles. He said verbatim, “No thanks man, while I’m on Meth I never get hungry but thanks anyways.” At this moment I almost lost it. The guy just admitted to doing Meth in front of me. The trip continued for a lot lot lot lot lot lot longer…. The Meth guy started talking to himself. A baby in the back cried for twenty minutes straight. I needed a ride back to Athens and finally convinced a pretty tennis player named Lauren Herring to come pick me up. She told me she was going to be a little late because she had dinner plans already. So I knew I would have to spend about two hours at the greyhound bus station in Atlanta. Dear god help me…

I swear there is not a scarier, sketchier, and ghetto-er place in this entire world than this bus station in the hood of Atlanta. I sat down and watched the basketball game and very shortly a fight broke out. There was and older white guy with a cane who was yelling at a Mexican for taking off his shoes. The old man said, “Put them dang stinky shoes back on right now amigo”(in a very country accent) the Mexican who looked really scary, decked out in tattoos, tackled the white guy and started punching him. The fight was very short, but had a great deal of intensity. They both got throw out. Next, a man yelled at the customer service for literally for twenty minutes, then fell asleep, then woke up and started yelling again.. He get thrown out by the same security guard.

Lastly I walked out side to wait for Lauren to come get me. I had four people beg me for money. I had one guy try and sell me lighter for three dollars? Then another guy came up to me with a bag and in it had five Gameboy Colors. He wanted to sell them to me for thirty dollars. I kindly declined.

Finally my ride came and I drove back to Athens. It took my 6 hours to get to the beach. I left Destin at 7:45a.m. I arrived at my dorm at 11:25p.m.

I encourage everyone to take a greyhound bus trip somewhere and it will open your eyes to things that will blow your mind. Hope everyone else had a good spring break.

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