Home. Sweet Jebus.
Ronnie, Darwin and I are all home now, at long last. The most immediate thing to record/report is that while we were saying things like "we probably won't take the bus again", now it's "we DEFINITELY won't take the bus again EVER EVER EVER".
It seemed pretty simple; the same bus all the way from Chicago to Denver, then another bus to Grand Junction, then a last bus to Durango to get us back today.
One...slight problem. The bus that was to take us from Chicago to Denver was an hour late in arriving. No big deal, we thought, we've got layovers that we can make up time during; an hour in St. Louis, some time in Kansas; surely we can shave some time off here and there to get us to Denver at the appropriate hour so we can catch our bus to Grand Junction.
I should point out that the bus to Grand Junction was supposed to leave at 11:30 pm on 9/14, and the bus to Durango would leave at 5:30 am on 9/15.
Not so much.
Despite only being an hour late to Denver (which was about how long the layover there would've been anyway), we were told that although there were more buses going to Grand Junction, the next bus to Durango would be leaving at 5:30 am on 9/16. Which meant we would have to wait somewhere for ANOTHER FUCKING DAY before being able to even get on another 12-hour bus ride to home.
Yeah. So...after much anger was expressed and some tears were shed, a plan was formed. Instead of sitting around the Denver bus station for A WHOLE DAY (or even trekking out to go see the museum and coming back), we would rent a car and just drive from Denver to Durango. A number of phone calls were made (14), a taxi was hailed, and a car was rented--at 3:30 in the morning--and finally we drove off.
6 and a half hours later, we were in Durango, getting our car and being immeasurably glad to be (close to) home.
Sorry if this isn't the most coherent entry ever. I didn't get a lot of sleep "last night".
It seemed pretty simple; the same bus all the way from Chicago to Denver, then another bus to Grand Junction, then a last bus to Durango to get us back today.
One...slight problem. The bus that was to take us from Chicago to Denver was an hour late in arriving. No big deal, we thought, we've got layovers that we can make up time during; an hour in St. Louis, some time in Kansas; surely we can shave some time off here and there to get us to Denver at the appropriate hour so we can catch our bus to Grand Junction.
I should point out that the bus to Grand Junction was supposed to leave at 11:30 pm on 9/14, and the bus to Durango would leave at 5:30 am on 9/15.
Not so much.
Despite only being an hour late to Denver (which was about how long the layover there would've been anyway), we were told that although there were more buses going to Grand Junction, the next bus to Durango would be leaving at 5:30 am on 9/16. Which meant we would have to wait somewhere for ANOTHER FUCKING DAY before being able to even get on another 12-hour bus ride to home.
Yeah. So...after much anger was expressed and some tears were shed, a plan was formed. Instead of sitting around the Denver bus station for A WHOLE DAY (or even trekking out to go see the museum and coming back), we would rent a car and just drive from Denver to Durango. A number of phone calls were made (14), a taxi was hailed, and a car was rented--at 3:30 in the morning--and finally we drove off.
6 and a half hours later, we were in Durango, getting our car and being immeasurably glad to be (close to) home.
Sorry if this isn't the most coherent entry ever. I didn't get a lot of sleep "last night".