I described in my previous post, “Adventures in Bussing”, what it was like commuting to work on the Metro Liner from Woodland Hills to North Hollywood, California. It was a pretty exciting adventure. Now I will tell you about my transfer in North Hollywood and my bus ride to Sun Valley on the second leg of my journey to work on the Thursday after Dump the Pump Day.
After the Metro Liner came to the end of the line in North Hollywood, the entire contents of the Metro Liner sardine can emptied out and everyone made a sharp left. Since this was my first venture, I followed hundreds of people across the street like a lemming going to it’s demise. Across Lankershim Boulevard there is a subway connection called “The Red Line”…destination Los Angeles. There is also a station for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (busses) that take you to parts unknown.
Here we are above…crossing Lankershim Boulevard. The orange, yellow and green structure is actually a covering, and escalators take you down to the subway. I find it amazing that they would build a subway system in “Earthquake Country”.
Here is a picture of the bus facilities which contain concrete sidewalks, small trees, and a few benches. After roaming around a few minutes, I found my bus bay and waited about 15 minutes until the bus was ready to depart. On the bus I go, I deposit my 55 cents into the little meter, took my seat, and away we went. This bus wasn’t as new as the Metro Liner that I previously took. There were a few people in the bus, and one of them was of questionable “gender”. As I looked around, I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face as I snuck a peek at all the people sharing the bus with me. After I took a quick “people inventory”, I was satisfied that there were no homeless people riding with me, and that made me happy.
After riding for a few minutes, I secretly snapped a quick picture of the bus and the driver. Notice the screen in the upper left hand corner? When that screen is on, it contains the news, advertising and shows the position of the bus (GPS). There is also some little keyboard to the right of the bus driver. Every once in awhile he starts to punch the keys like he is sending text message to someone. The machine in front of the passengers right hand is the machine that takes your money, tokens, passes and bills.
Uh oh….I just heard something foreign….something that is not quite right. I soon realized that this was a non English speaking bus. Here is a conversation I overheard heard between two middle aged women.
First woman: “Aye Carla, Ahora voy a limpiar la casa del doctor. Odio ese lugar. Si ese chihuahuaita orina la carpeta de nuevo, Voy a renunsiar!!”
Second woman, “Si, La neta jija!”
TRANSLATION:
First woman, “Oh Carla, I am going to clean the doctors house today. It hate it there. If that little chihuahua pees on the carpet again, I am going to quit!”
Second woman, “Yes, I hear ya girl!”
The bus traveled at a snails pace and stopped just about every light to either let someone off or to let someone on. Finally the bus rounded the corner and my stop was coming up. I pulled the wire to let the driver know that a stop was requested. It pulled around the corner and dropped me off safely at my destination.
Whew, that wasn’t that bad, and I am only 40 minutes late for work! The ride home was much more interesting than the ride to work. Stay tuned…..
The Empty Nest 
