This is me, waiting for the bus in HudsonI haven't had a car in twenty years - since I was a teenager going to the MAWL in Long Island.
I don't even have a valid driver's license.
The first question I get in Hudson is always:
"How do you get your groceries?"
Well, there are cabs in Hudson, (hello!) and they only cost $4 to go to the fabulous Price Chopper. I go once a month AT MOST...it takes me HOURS and several pills to come down from any Greenport experience.
Or, I can take the bus.
Yes, folks, there IS a bus that goes from Hudson to horrid Greenport.
It's the Zappanelli bus line, and it costs a dollar. Yes, a dollar. No credit, that's what the sign says.
When I called their telephone number, in my best JANE HUDSON voice ("Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" -- "Yes, this is Ms. Jane HUDSON....why yes, we DO pay our bills on time...").
This was the conversation:
"Yeeeello!"
"Hello. Is this Zappanelli Bus line?"
"Yep, this is it!"
"Well, I would like to know your schedule and route. Is there a website?"
"Nope. We start at 9:30, go up Warren, go to the shopping malls and head back down. Each trip is about 45 minutes. You just figure it out."
"Oh, are there stops along the way? Which corners on Warren?"
"Just wave us down, we'll stop. It's the white and blue bus."
"Oh, thank you..."
If I HAVE to go to Greenport, and I'm feeling particularly thrifty, I get my act together (scarf, sunglasses, etc), buy a three dollar cup of coffee with organic soy milk at Nola's, and wait on the corner for the Zappanelli Bus, like the photo above.
I give the man a dollar.
"Thank you for the ride." I say, this time, as Brenda Vaccaro.
"Just have a seat, lady" he says to me.
Then the fun begins! Because I never know WHERE to sit, or WHOM to sit next to....
It's me, in my American Apparel/Banana Republic ensemble and my "North of Warren" neighbors. They're a mixed bag.
There's sometimes a guy in motorized wheelchair; it's decorated in flashing lights, flags, stickers, banners, whatever.
I smile politely.
I sit on the bus, it's a short, bumpy ride.
Sometimes I just walk to Greenport, it's really not that far.
Sometimes I just walk to Greenport, it's really not that far.
Last month, as I was walking back along the side of the road, a fat lady in a station wagon drove by me and honked.
When I turned to look at her, she gave me the finger. (true story).
Welcome to upstate New York, Baby Jane.
3 comments:
The bus schedule used to be a pdf.file available on www.CityofHudson.org.
The file seems not to be accessable right now.
In fact, it appears prison inmates are maintaining the City of Hudson website... or karaoke addicts or something...
WTF?
I took the zombie trolley bus from hell. Once. It reminded me so much of growing up in San Francisco and Rice-A-Roni conmmercials!
Dropped $1 in the slot as instructed at the Amtrak Station (weekdays only.) Exact change only too.
Bus does 60 miles an hour up South Front Street but then it doesn't turn right on Warren -- it zooms through the stop sign and continues down North Front Street. I'm thinking, "What, does this line stop at the dump or something?"
Then it turns right on State and continues to Bliss Towers. Two people get on with small bags of aluminum cans.
Bus then turns right on South Second. Bus then stops travelling at 60 miles an hour and slows to 3 miles an hour as it turns left onto Warren.
Driver asks me "Where do you want to get off?" I say, "Where do you stop?" He says, "Tell me where you're going."
The two people from Bliss Towers get off at CVS, which I assume is where they turn in their cans. And I'm thinking, "Wow, with all those cans, they just saved twenty-five cents on this bus trip."
I got off at the CVS too. I just thought it best.
LMAO flag us down!
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