Why I Take Public Transit

I know I complain all the time about not having a car here in Washington (although 4.00 gas prices make it easier to deal with) but if I was driving myself I wouldn't have the amazing experiences I have on public transportation.

So after a long day at the office that included being interviewed on camera by BYU's Washington Seminar ( I made sure to wear my nicest suit and my new cuff links so keep that in mind)I was happy to take the metro switch to the good old 10E bus and head home. I was deeply engrossed in the Star Wars book I was reading (yes I'm a huge nerd I'm just gonna embrace it) when I realized we had stopped. Why might you ask? Well earlier in the day we had a huge rain storm. There had even been tornado warnings (incidentally as I type this, it is pouring rain with thunder and lightning) which had even knocked trees down.

Thus our bus ran into a little problem. A big tree had fallen across the road and we had no choice but to turn around.


I had full confidence in my Metro Bus driver. She recognized that it would be difficult to back down the road so instead she decided to back into the driveway turn the bus around. That proved to be problematic. The funny thing was that I was all but oblivious to this as I was just sitting on the bus. Then I noticed that people were getting off the bus, traffic was piling up in back of us and three cars were trapped in between us and the tree. The brain trust got out and noticed that one of the wheels wasn't touching the ground. Not touching the ground meant no traction. The men on the bus decided to see if we could push the bus and get it moving. I removed my jacket (remember I was wearing my nice suit) and prepared to push the bus. We quickly noticed that no matter how hard we pushed the bus wasn't going anywhere because it was stuck on the curb.

It was at about this point that I thought to myself, I better start to document this. It is for situations like these that I keep my camera with me most of the time. I knew this was notable as residents of the apartment building in which the bus was stuck were standing on their balconies watching the proceedings.

Eventually our bus driver realized that it was a losing battle and she called in for reinforcements. I was taking pictures thinking wow this is kind of funny. I called Dan to tell him what he had missed. I am sure that the driver wasn't so keen about me photographing. I think she was a little embarrassed. I asked her if a tow truck was coming and she says "Why? So you can take more pictures." I assured her that there was no malice form me just something to put on my blog. I'm not sure she found it as amusing as I did.Sensing that it could rain any moment I decide that I couldn't wait for the tow truck and decided to just walk home. I called McMary who was happy to come rescue me. I was ready to go through the tree (remember nicest suit) but then noticed that here was a downed line of some sort. So I took a little bit rougher of a route.
I told Mary I would meet her half way on Arlington Ridge Road. I called my dad because I knew he would get a kick out of this story (I was right, he did) and then it started to absolutely pour rain. My nicest suit drenched. Luckily I found an awning to stand under and McMary and Katie Mags came to the rescue.

Thank you public transit for giving me so much, not the least of which being blog worth material.