Alternate title: The day we took the train, trax, and a bus.
So yesterday we decided to go down to Salt Lake and do a dry run of John's commute, to be sure he makes all his connections and figure out just how long it will take so he won't be late on his first day. So we left around 9:15... ~~~dissolve from shot of narration to scene of parking the car~~~
The adventurers grabed their bag and headed out for the large building near the buses. "Hi we'd like to buy tickets to the Frontrunner (the commuter train), can we do that here?"
The woman, slightly overdressed for the occasion, looked up from her papers, "Tickets are purchased from the machine at the platform." She gestured slightly in the vauge direction we had come from.
The train pulled up just as we arrived at the ticket machine, "Hurry John, they only stay at each stop for a few minutes." Quickly navigating the touch screen the heros were briefly stalled by the credit card swipper machine, which lacked any instructions about which way to face the card in the slot. At last the tickets were printed out and they were on to the platform. Pushing the "open door" button, we made ready to board quickly, but nothing happened.
"Maybe they aren't letting anyone else on 'cuz they're about to leave," John hypothosized. That would mean a 30 minute wait until the next train! "Wait!" called Carolyn, "the button isn't green but the one on that door is." Zipping over to the next door, John pushed the button and the door opened. The explorers climbed aboard and quickly secured window seats at a table.
The train pulled smoothly from the station and our heros read and played DS all the way to SaltLake without interuption.
Disembarking at the end of the line, we made our way to the Trax platform. (The street car trains) "Which trax line do we want, Sandy or University?" John queried. Consulting her growing selection of maps, Carolyn replied, "We can take either and then transfer to the university line to get to our bus stop." Just then the Sandy line pulled up and we boarded.
We transfered lines and got to our stop without complications. "Our bus stop is just down this block," Carolyn said setting off. But on our arrival our route number was no where to be found on the sign. "Well lets go to the other stop," John suggested. Back tracking and proceeding North, the adventurers spotted thier stop just past a McDonalds, pausing to consider the rumbling in their stomachs they decided a brief detour was in order.
Following lunch (which aside from the uncarbonated soda, was quite good) we made our way to the stop. Unable to locate a schedule, Carolyn called the posted phone number. "Can you tell me when the next bus is for route ..." John looked over their maps while he waited. "... I see, thank you."
Carolyn explained that the 307 was an express bus that only runs for a few hours in the mornings and evenings. But only carried passengers one way, into SLC in the mornig and out of SLC in the evenings. The exact opposite of the way they needed to travel!
Thier spirits undampened, the intrepid travelers consulted thier maps. They soon discovered another bus that would take them close to their destination. Setting off at a brisk pace we were soon riding the Trax again. "Now we just transfer to the Sandy line and we'll be at our bus stop in no time," Carolyn said confidently.
Getting off the university line they didn't wait long before a South boundtrax came along. We climbed aboard settled in and began working a Sudoku puzzle, since it would be a bit of a ride. After several stops Carolyn looked up in confusion, what were they doing at the Stadium? The Stadium was on the University line. Realizing the error we quickly got off and took the next Trax downtown. Arriving at the stop to change lines our heros paid very close attention to the arrivng trax trains before boarding again.
Spirits slightly dampened and in need of a snack, we settled in to ride to our stop. John whipped out the DS saying, "I need to kill something."
Many stops later we disembarked only to discover a 20 minute wait for our bus. Taking advantage of the cold we snuggled together while getting an update from my Mom, on how Little John was doing. Advising her of our circumstances so far we let her know not to expect us any time soon.
Soon the bus arrived and an uneventful 25 minutes later we were walking away from our stop. As far as we could tell from the bus map we were 2 blocks up and 2 blocks over from our destination, so we set off on foot eager to conclude our journey. However, it was not to be.
After 45 minutes of steady treking up and down steep, snow covered sidewalks we straggled into an Artic Circle in desperate need of a bathroom break and a pick me up. Over a hot fudge sundae, some chicken nuggets, and a soda (carbonated this time), we reevaluated our prospects.
Deciding to take a differnt route to the bus stop we stopped into the Smith's for some provisions before setting out. While at the store Carolyn decided to return a phone call she had missed, from her brother Rick.
Finishing at the checkout John asked how the call went. "Great!" Carolyn replied, "He's racing us to the bus stop and will drop us off at the trax station!" With renewed hope and energy we set out on our new route. Looking at the very small and unlabeled bus map, we had selected a more circtous path to the bus stop in the hopes that it would be more level.
After trudging through the snow in a mostly northern direction we came across a friendly mail delivery person. He pointed out on our miniscule map were we were and which way we needed to go next. Follwing his directions west at the T-interesction were were able to navigate the rest of the way to Fort Union Blvd ourselves, without further incident.
Just as we got there Rick arrived and we were soon zooming along the freeway. Rick decided to use this excuse to drive into Salt Lake (he picked us up in Cottonwood Heights) as a chance to visit his favorite German deli. We tagged along since it was right by the Trax and he bought a kinder egg for Little John. Soon we were hugging him goodbye and on the Trax back to the Frontrunner station. Once on the train we broke out the supplies and relaxed for the ride home. John struck up an interesting conversation with a fellow passenger who turned out to be an industrial engineer for the government. Before long we were back at the car and driving the last little bit home. ~~~dissolve back to narrator~~~
So we decided that John will drive the car to work at least for the first couple days. And incase anyone was worried we don't have any blisters from all that walking in damp boots.
Pine Cone Hat
11 years ago
