Greyhound Tales

Spring break. What to do? South Padre Island? Miami? Mexico? When you have JUST arrived in the US and know that you don't have school for a week and aren't sure what to do, all you need is a friend who is as crazy as you and you will have fun.

I loved and still love traveling. The first spring break we had, Prasanna and I decided to try our hand at travelling, on a greyhound bus.
Dude there are only Kallus in greyhound busses. You guys will get mugged. Where are you going to sleep? It is going to take so long. You are not going to have enough money. Were the comments we heard for about 2 weeks. When everyone realized that we were going to do it, they started becoming supportive.

To take care of the money thing, we found a student deal – travel anywhere a greyhound goes for 200$ for 1 whole week.

To take care of the sleep thing, we decided to go to Detroit, Chicago and Cincinnati, where we had friends/ family.

To take care of the mugging, we both had hoodies.

We both were like Kallus anyway, so no issue.

We look at routes, places, schedules and finally decided to leave Dallas one night at 00:05 towards Arkansas.
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Dallas,+TX,+United+States&daddr=Little+Rock,+AR,+United+States+to:Memphis,+TN,+United+States+to:Nashville,+TN+to:Indianapolis,+IN+to:Cincinnati,+OH+to:Detroit,+MI,+United+States+to:Chicago,+IL,+United+States+to:Dallas,+TX&hl=en&ll=37.596824,-89.912109&spn=11.915265,23.269043&sll=37.492294,-89.978027&sspn=11.931867,23.269043&geocode=FYuI9AEdfWg7-ilLl0V79xlMhjGPZ0f2pJvsuQ%3BFXEwEgIdxcV_-imbVh-hNKHShzEXW_MNEPUFNA%3BFd5WGAIdLPah-ilFl0PqHn7VhzH-thpgFfOT0Q%3BFQvcJwIdm8rT-ik9kOsTMuxkiDGg2umh0Lk_fQ%3BFcTRXgIdBlXd-ikDanmn_1BriDF86rlA9p2O1g%3BFY6qVAId7HL2-in5ITjesVFAiDEXk8Dki377aQ%3BFSPthQIdhtIM-yl1HcsQAcokiDHSxLk1ToZ2Vw%3BFWICfwIdGuDG-inty_TQPCwOiDEAwMAJrabgrw%3BFYuI9AEdfWg7-ilLl0V79xlMhjGPZ0f2pJvsuQ&oq=Dallas,+TX,+United+States&mra=ls&t=m&z=6



DAY 1
Naresh dropped us off at the bus station, didnt want to get down since it was DOWNTOWN and drove away. No cell phone. Knew only a few number by heart, and thats all that mattered.
We got onto the bus, the bus left at 00:05 sharp and quickly, we fell asleep. When we woke, the bus was in Little Rock Arkansas (Bill Clinton was president at the time), so we brushes and washed up at the grey hound station and went for a walk. We had breakfast at some cafe and took some pictures near the capitol. We also go one of the politicians to take a photo of me and PDX on the steps of the capitol. He had initially thought that we wanted our photo WITH him and had refused, when he realized what we wanted, he came back, left his briefcase on the ground and took our photo.
We left Little rock in the early afternoon and reached Memphis early evening. We walked around a bit, found a hard rock cafe, where we bought some mementos. We then watched some of the street performers perform tumbling and jumping tricks on the streets. There were also a lot of musicians singing/ playing instruments on the road which we enjoyed watching. We then had a hearty dinner and headed out to the Nashville.

DAY 2
We reached Nashville early in the morning and slept in the greyhound station for a while.
It was COLD in Nashville and I then realized that I had left my glove in Naresh’s car and had to walk around with my hands in my pockets all morning long. We walked around a bit, saw a bridge, some parts of downtown and then found a nice restaurant and had a nice big breakfast before heading back to the greyhound station.
We headed to Indianapolis. We realized when we reached there that it was St. Patricks day. There was a big parade that we got to watch as we were having lunch. We walked around a bit and saw the colt stadium, pacers stadium and spent some time in downtown.
Our next destination was Cinncinati, where Ajay, my friend picked us up from the greyhound station. He worked for GE in downtown and it was easy for him to pick us up. Ajay took us to a hole in the wall fantastic food Chineese restaurant where we BELTED. We then headed back to Ajay’s apartment and my cousin Vivek, who was studying Medicine came to visit and had ice cream with us.

DAY 3
Ajay dropped us off in the morning and we headed to Detroit. The greyhound bus went to Dayton, Ohio, where we got down and went to the aero museum. We then caught another bus later that afternoon and headed to Detroit.
We reached Detroit in the evening where we met Prasanna’s friend Santosh and my friend Ballal. Just like Dallas, the boys didn’t want to get down from the car in Detroit and so, we jumped into their car and drove off to their college apartment. We reached there on Day3 @ night and stay up late catching up, and went to bed late.

DAY 4
Went around their school campus. Played some tennis. Relaxed a bit at home. Watched some classic Md. Ali fights and ate and drank and pigged out.

DAY 5
Another relaxing day in the apartment, went around the campus a bit more, went to Ballal's professor's house which Ballal was house sitting and then got dropped off at the greyhound station in the late evening. We were on the overnight bus from Detroit to Chicago.

DAY 6
Reached the Chicago Greyhound station around 530am and called Vidya, Senior @ UVCE and UTA and she had some friends pick us up and take us to their apartment. Also met Deepak – a.k.a Kaadu (super senior @ UVCE and UTA) and a few other of their friends. We left to see downtown Chicago late morning, after belting some Giordanos pizza and got to see Dewon (deewan) street, the skyline view from the aquarium, jordan's restaurant, tall tall building and then got dropped off at the Greyhound station.

DAY 7
in da BUS! All the way from Chi town to D-town to A-town. Phew.
Was glad to see Naresh when we got back.
I think we used up 7 rolls of film and did a total of over 2500 miles :)

We got to sit in separate seats except for the first leg, from Dallas to Lil Rock. The buses were empty and it was very comfy and I was able to sleep on all journeys. From the time the bus gets onto the interstate, to the time when it slows down at the destination, exiting the interstate, I slept most times :). 

Would like to do this travel again sometime if time permits :).

Will write about my 1 Amtrak experience some other time :)