SORRY NO PASSENGERS

As I was planning my trip I started to come around, thinking my propensity for trains and Greyhounds was silly because planes are so much faster. How bad can planes be? How good can buses and trains be? Unfortunately I’ve convinced myself of my own preference even more strongly, by taking all three in succession.

Not sure how much to write about my personal life and inner feelings here. I like making blogs about exploring. Exploring is often something I do that’s separate from my personal life and even serves as a distraction from difficult times. But this time, I do want to include occasional personal stuff.

Tl;dr I’m feeling absolutely doomed and tortured but it’s maybe because of jetlag/not sleeping last night. I’m overly sensitive to that.

The last few days I stayed with friends in Boston and I adapted to the time difference very quickly in terms of sleeping and waking, but physically I felt like garbage. My friends have a toddler who I was meeting for the first time and I was kind of bowled over by what great parents they are, and also she’s just fantastic. Yet I was waking up with my blood running cold and going into dark moods whenever I had a moment alone, so the visit was a mishmash of emotions.

Took the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited from Boston to Toledo. 10/10 never any complaints about Amtrak. For some reason when I was planning my trip, I never realized that I could transfer from Amtrak to Greyhound at Toledo instead of Chicago, so not only did I overpay for both my bus and train tickets, but I had to buy an all new bus ticket after going back and forth with the Amtrak lady on the phone at 6 AM. No, my 7PM ride from Toledo to Cincinnati could not be exchanged for the same trip at 8AM because it was only possible to buy the 8AM ticket online, but it was only possible to exchange tickets over the phone. I don’t get why Greyhound is so strict when they’re not even popular.

I had some short enjoyable walks when we stopped in Albany and when I was waiting for my Greyhound in Toledo. Pictures to come after I sleep.

I almost missed the Greyhound because I was the only passenger and I thought the bus hadn’t come, because no one was lining up for it. Turns out the driver was waiting outside for me, so I felt bad, but I got distracted by the Greyhound being pretty nice inside. Obviously, I have complaints about Greyhound the company, but I don’t get why people are down on the buses themselves.

Time to cheer up by listening to podcasts and playing Pokémon Blue on a 20-year-old GameBoy. Playing this game is something I get back into every few years. I have no interest in Pokémon Go or any other Pokémon games but there’s just something about Pokémon Blue. It’s so small and simple and repetitive, but there’s just enough to keep you emotionally invested because the small simple repetitive things are animals.

The wise old man characters are always saying they can tell how much I love my Pokémon, that I don’t just care about winning. Like how would they know that?