I stayed up on the internet in a UIC lounge until about 4am, ate the other half of some really good pizza, and then walked back to the bus station. People were already lining up for the 6 am bus, and an attendant told me to go stand in line 13

When I got to the end of it the ticker taker told me that my bus had just left. She pointed to a nice shiny blue express bus like the one I had ridden from Saint Louis. I guess I got comfortable here in the big city and lost track of my Survival Mode. She put me on the bus she was taking tickets for, which was headed to the same place, and told me I could transfer to the Express bus in Milwaukee

I was pretty upset when I got on the old Sans-WiFi bus to Milwaukee. I didn’t think there was any way it was going to make it in time to transfer me to a faster newer express bus that had already left.

My attitude quickly changed when the driver got on the PA system though.

“Hello passengers this here’s your captain speaking. We’ll be driving to Milwaukee Wisconsin today, it’ll be a non smoking drive, if you got any electronic devices just keep those attached to some headphones and at a volume where only you can hear it. Two of ya’ll are here on the wrong bus, you should be going to Madison, so when we get off you’re gonna talk to me and I’ll make sure you get on the right one. That’s it! If you’re in the back of the bus kick back relax kick your shoes off. If you’re in the front of the bus, relax, but leave you’re shoes on, so I can relax. This is a Nonstop trip”

Something about her sassy and self assured attitude stood in direct contrast to everything I’ve seen from Greyhound employees so far. So I relaxed and took a nap in the seat.

Before I knew it we were in Milwaukee ahead of schedule. We’d even beaten the New Blue Express bus. I’ve been waiting for it as I write this entry.