Riding the Bus

Since moving to Clarksville, I've been making use of the public transport system.  This is new for me, mostly because I've never lived in a place with an actually accessible transport system.  But here, I ride the bus.

I live about a 20-25 minute drive from my school, complete with too many stoplights and people who don't know how to share the road.  There is also a shortage of parking at school.  So taking the bus is a less-frustrating way to get where I need to go!

It goes like this.  I don't actually live on the bus route, so I have to drive a little bit to get there.  I like this drive though.  It's on windy back roads and it only takes me six minutes.  (But I have to pretend it takes twelve because I'm usually late getting out the door.)  I park at Wal-Mart, where my bus stop is, and hop on.

The bus takes a winding and circuitous route to the centre of town.  It's about a forty minute ride, which is almost twice as much time as driving myself would be.  But it's forty minutes I can spend reading, working on homework, or knitting (and answering curious questions about my knitting.)  And it's time that I'm not spending being frustrated by traffic!  It also saves wear and tear on my car, a good amount of gasoline each week, and I suppose I'm destroying the planet a little less, too.

I don't take the bus every day.  Wednesdays I have to be at church downtown, and don't get out of choir rehearsal until after my bus stops running.  So I have to drive that day.  Tuesdays I have an evening rehearsal at school which means I take the bus to school for the day, then drive back in for rehearsal.  And for the next two weeks I'll have to drive on Friday as well, since I have to go straight back to Jackson after my last class.  Once that commitment is over, though, I'll only drive two days out of the week.  

I like that.