We were young..

I was just thinking this evening about all the fun and crazy, sometimes stupid things I did when I was younger.

So just for fun,and out of pure boredom, I'm going to tell you about a few:

Me and my best friends Becca and Kate would walk home from school everyday. It was probably a 7 mile walk - why? Just because. We didn't have a car, and it was too much of a pain in the ass to get a buss pass to each other's houses. So we walked.

Our school was out in East BumbleF*ck.(no kidding.) When you looked out your classroom window, you would see cows grazing right outside the  playground fence. No joke. So we'd walk the 7 miles starting out behind the school. There was no path or planned out route.We just figured if we walked through the cow fields and stay paraelle to the road that took us into town, we'd make it there edventually. And we always did. I'm very suprised that none of us came out covered with ticks and pricker bush scratches.

Looking back now, I think, what the hell were we thinking? Now that I'm a Mom, I couldn't imagine letting my kids walk 7 miles home from school without a trusted adult. Problem was, our parents never knew. As far as they were concerned, we were sitting happily on the bus to our friends house and they would pick us up later.

As long as we're talking about buses, I'll tell you about the time that Becca,(mentioned above) and I decided that it would be the most wonderful vacation ever to take a Greyhound bus from Vermont to Panama City Beach, Florida when we were 17.  My Grandparents had a house that they were staying in down there at the time and it just sounded like so much fun. Ha!

This time, both of our parents knew. And why they let us go, I still have no idea. I had just started dating my (now Husband) boyfriend, Aaron. He drove us to the bus stop in Vermont and dropped us off. He was pretty worried about the two of us going all the way down there by ourselves.. but we had our hearts set on going and  I've always loved a good adventure!

So the first stop was New York City.  Oh man that was, uh.. well, that was just scary. The first thing we saw when we got off was a homeless man. I had never seen one before. I remember that our parents wanted us to call them from every stop to make sure we got there okay. So we used those ancient payphones they had back in the day and called. I remember Becca being on the phone and the homeless guy trying to talk to me. I was petrified. I just stared straight ahead. He then tried to get my attention by pulling on my pant leg. Bad idea buddy. I jumped and shrieked and grabbed on to Becca. Of course her parents heard all of this commotion on the other line and started to worry. The bum backed away and we reassured her parents that we were okay and then moved into the line for our next destination.

A lot of the bus trip was boring. Lots of riding and sleeping and being very uncomfortable. I'm not sure where we were at the time, but we had just boarded the bus. We had the very two last seats near the bathroom so they didn't recline. That was a bummer. Anyway, we were about to take off when two police men came running up to the door and started banging. The driver let them in, and they went up and down the rows. They finally came to a stop in front of a man and woman. They were scrungy. Both of thwm had dreadlocks and backpacks.. The police literally lifted them each up by their arms and threw them off the bus. No idea why. I sometimes like to think that maybe they were a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Robbing banks and using Greyhound busses as their get away cars. Probably not though.

The next incident happened somewhere in the Carolina's. We had this real nice, big, black lady for a driver. She was very friendly. The kind of driver that says hello to you when you board..

It was the middle of the night, I had been sleeping, when I woke up to see that our bus was sideways on the road. We were sitting in the middle of some back road highway crossed over both lanes. What the hell?!  I woke Becca up and we both got kind of worried. The bus driver was slowely trying to turn the bus around in the middle of the highway while cars were headed towards us in the distance!  It was so funny though, because I remember that no one else was panicing. Just us. Everyone else was either sleeping or not worried because this seemed to be the norm. Also it was a little strange because as she was turning the bus around, she was singing. As a matter of fact, she pretty much sang the rest of the night. In between songs, she told us that she had been going the wrong way for over an hour. What!? An hour? LOL... wow! so we were turning around to head back in the right direction - you have to remember, this was before GPS. And I think maybe this lady was new? I have no idea.

As morning came up and every one else started to wake up, we pulled into a rest stop. Not sure if that's the norm either for a Greyhound bus.. but we were starving so we didn't care. We ate and gor back on the bus.  As soon as the bus started pulling out, the bus driver started singing. "Every little thing is gonna be alright" The weird part? EVERY ONE else started singing along. It was almost like the Twilight Zone. But, being the good sports that Becca and I were, we chimed in and it made for a great rest of the trip.

The only other story that I can remember is a big fight that Becca and I got into with the two girls in front of us. We had the non reclining seats because we were so close to the bathroom, and they kept reclining theirs. We had no room and after sitting for pretty much 46 hours straight, you get a little irritated with that. So instead of being maature and asking them if they could please move their seats up, we'd wait until they would get up and then push their seats up while they were gone. Or even when they were sleeping. They caught on and got pretty mad.. so we had to suck it up and stay in the crappy seats for the remainder of the trip to the next stop.
That was probably night two. It takes 3 days to get from Vermont to Florida on a Grey Hound bus. Just in case you ever decide it would be a great way to travel.. it isn't. I have never gone more than one day without a shower.  We had to brush our teeth in the rest stop bathrooms and wash our faces.I was discusting on day three when we finally got there.

And you know what, it turned out to be one of the worst times, ever. Since we were only 17, my Grandparents didn't think it was a good idea for us to go out of the house past dark. Which was about 8pm. Even though they lived at a retirment place that had it's own private beach and pool. So, we spent the majority of the 10 days there inside or hunting for sea shells with my Grandparents.

It was awful. But the story is always funny to remember and I'm glad that I have some crazy memories like that. I'm geatful for my parents who thought I was mature enough to take a 3 day bus ride at 17 years old, and I'm greatful for Becca who was always my right hand man in all of these adventures..

Ps- spell check isn't working so bare with me :)