Thursday, January 12, 2012

dogging the bus


Yesterday I signed off with sounded like a toss-off line: “So, back on the shuttle bus I will go.  And wish that it could be half as nice as a first class Mexican bus.”


Yesterday morning while I waited for the shuttle bus to take me back to Salem, my mother entertained my brother and me with her Mexican bus ride story.  It was the late 1960s.  She had headed south with my father and her cousin, Rachel.


I will not go into the details.  Suffice it to say, she rode one of the chicken buses that now seems to be stuck in the American psyche whenever the term?  Mexican bus” comes up.


Well, my shuttle bus was not a “chicken bus,” as you can see from the photograph at the top of the blog.  The Valley Retriever runs from Newport through Salem to Bend -- and then back in the same day.


Greyhound once provided regional bus service in Oregon.  No more.  The market responded to fill that void in the form of shuttle services.


The Valley Retriever's equipment is the type of shuttle you often find in an airport parking lot.  Twenty-two fixed seats that are adequate for the three-hour trip from Bend to Salem.  Tough I suspect they get mighty hard on the final leg to Newport.


But they certainly are not what you receive on the premier bus lines in Mexico.  Seats that rival first class airline seats.  Food.  Toilet.  And the inevitable movies playing on the overhead television monitors.


I must confess that I have never set foot on one of those buses.  But I really need to give them a try.  If I can only get over my need to have a car at my ultimate destination.


I guess,though, that will be a story for another day.  Perhaps when I return to Mexico in just under a week.


But I bet the Mexican bus will not have this type of cool logo.


10 comments:

Tafreeburn said...

retriever, it looks more like a dachshund but then that name would not imply that it carries people, would it?

had such a great day!  had little japanese boy sit next to me on the train and he strike up a conversation with me-a rare happening for a child, her was 11. then a little girl at my station talked to me. actually, i did talk to her first. turns out i'd met her and her mom at the store about 2 months ago but neither of us remembered the other till we exhanged names. they really made my day!!!

teresa in nagoya

yes, you must definitely go to angkor wat.

Mexicantrailrunner said...

Why is it scowling?

MX buses rock, without doubt.

Steve Cotton said...

I agree. It is the oddest retriever I have seen. Of course, Jiggs would often scowl like that.

Steve Cotton said...

If you were carrying 8 surly people in you, you would probably scowl, as well.

Islagringo said...

I take the Cancun-Merida-Cancun bus all the time.  It's a 4 hour semi-luxiourous experience.  Very comfortable 1st class bus.  The best part? I now have the Mexican equivalent of the AARP card and I get a 50% on my tickets.

Steve Cotton said...

I guess I just need to start taking advantage of these age-blessed discounts.

Felipe Zapata said...

Mexican buses have cool logos too. You are not paying attention, amiguito.

Steve Cotton said...

On the beach, most of our buses have no logos.  They almost look Swiss in their sleekness.

Barbara Kingston said...

My husband and I along with another couple took the Premiere bus to Puerto Vallarta from Guadalajara. Very enjoyable ride. The seats were extremely comfortable and better than any bus I have ridden in the United States!

Steve Cotton said...

Your testimony is consistent with everything I have heard.