You can't be serious ?

 Never again.  Drunk dude roaming up and down the aisle harassing people, trashy loudmouthed ghetto trash, felon looking tatted up white trash, ugh

Take a case of beer and do a live stream of your trip!

I dated a chick I met on a Greyhound bus. She was a bit of a freak.

I remember the Detroit Greyhound station was like a fortress, a Mongolian horde would have trouble getting in there.

When I graduated HS back in the late 80s, I decided to spend a month with relatives before starting college.
Being on an extremely limited budget, I decided to go Greyhound.

JACKSONVILLE, FL to LOS ANGELES, CA.  

When I went home, I flew.


Prayers going out for you, OP.

Where are you leaving from?

edit:  never mind i see you already answered that.

It's like going to Walmart.  Enjoy all the freakazoids.  Only problem is, you can't leave.

fpni again

I have a list of things I won't do now that I can afford it. Having to drive somewhere 3 hours away and having to pay to park is a crazy reason to take a greyhound bus.

Mid 70's two friends and I took the Greyhound from Dayton to Boulder to do some backpacking for a couple of weeks. I don't recall any problems. Made a stop in St.Louis at night, probably Kansas City too. Most of the other riders were friendly. I wouldn't do it again though.

Bring everything you might need during the ride. Music, reading material, snacks, beverage, etc.

Get on the bus, build your nest, and ignore everything else.

If you sit there thinking how much it sucks, it only makes it worse.

Last time I road a greyhound was from Pittsburgh to Cumberland MD, coming home from AIT. I don't remember much, it was almost 30 years ago. It was actually a few months before desert storm.

Google this: Tim McLean

You've been warned.

ETA: Dibs on guns.

A gal was getting on a Greyhound bus and couldn't help but notice that right behind the driver's seat there was one drunken bum holding onto another filthy hobo who was having convulsions and throwing up all over himself.

The gal asks the drunken bum..."Is your friend going to be allright?".

The bum replies...."I think so lady.....but I don't know who we are going to get to drive the bus now."

Enjoy your trip!

wrong.

Not sure about taking it as a passenger but the bus is an underutilized, inexpensive way to ship odd sized things.

Sold a very expensive JDM exhaust on ebay to a guy in San Fran.
Would have cost a couple hundred bucks to UPS or Fedex due to the shape.

I think it was under $50 to have it ride the bus the length of California.

And yeah, the bus depot is a case study in the trash of humanity.

It is how prisons send release inmates home...

i congratulate you on being cheap. as a cheapster myself. i have a lot of respect for people that can cheap there way through a situation.





get to the bus early. if you can't get a seat without bodily fluids on it. you should at least get a seat that only has dry fluids caked on. not one of the wet squishy ones.

I rode Greyhound years ago and it wasn't too bad but I always wanted to try the Green Tortoise.
Hippie Bus

Buy a moped.

Drive there in 6 hours, put moped in hotel room.

Drive back.

Sell moped.

Seems to me that when I was a kid, shipping by bus was actually pretty common. That's how we always got Christmas cookies from grandma.

You never know what you're going to get when you take the bus.

I had a lady offer to buy me food out of a machine at the terminal in Mobile AL. This was February '82. I was obviously military. She said she knew that military people made no money and that's why those guys crashed their jets. It was suicide because they weren't getting paid. She was talking about the crash of the four Thunderbirds the month before.

I used to smoke on the Trailways bus in '73. I was 11, so it was okay.

Three hours should be easy, but I wouldn't do it because I can't stand not having my own transportation.

I was scheduled to take a train from Tacoma, WA to Portland, OR.  The train track had issues so we were diverted to a bus.  If I didn't have an appointment I needed to keep, I would have cancelled the trip.  The bus seats extremely small/narrow, and even though I sat next to a woman who only weighed around 140-150 pounds, the two of us were squeezed into these really small seats.  She was around 55-60 years old, but at least she was clean, didn't stink, well mannered, and could carry on a decent conversation.  I'm just glad I didn't get stuck next to some 25 year old meth head with a face covered in crank sores.

I wouldn't take the bus unless there was no other option.  Even though it was only a 2.5 hour ride, it was pretty bad.. very cramped, uncomfortable seats, and little ventilation.  Obviously I couldn't get up and move around like I could on the train.  I thought Amtrak should have provided some kind of price offset for the downgrade in service.

Oh, no metal detectors or search prior to getting on the bus.

It can't be that hard to keep a car around Austin for a week, I've done it, and aside from that I'd rather have a car.

That said day time city to city USUALLY are not TOO bad these days. Any of the more expensive Bolt buses and such are usually better, you don't want the bottom dollar trips, as so does the ghetto trash. I've taken a few bus trips and in general I'd do it again. If I had to and there were no other options.

The passengers on the S.S. Minnow thought the same thing. How did that work out for them?

OH! yes it will

Just for you OP

fartfest

Look up your itenerary on the web.  It will show any other stops.  Likewise, that sounds right for SA to Houston Downtown.

Bring a tablet with a few movies,  headphones, snacks & enjoy the ride...

You get a lot of old war - horror stories about drunks, stinkers & crazies.  New buses are pretty nice with movies & wifi...

As Hunter S. Thompson once said... "Buy the Ticket - Take the Ride!!"  

Exactly what I came here to say. Not worth the risk.

If you can deboard in Katy, I HIGHLY recommend you do so. I believe the stop is at Sam's Club at I-10/ Fry Rd.

Took one when I was a teenager to visit a friend a state away. On the ride home the 2 gentlemen behind me were talking about what they just out of prison for and one would not stop talking about "killing that bitch!".

I took the train next time, which is actually extremely relaxing.

Fuck that.

I’d take one of those Mexican buses before I’d ever get on a Greyhound.  Not even kidding.

Hide your money in your sock, and NEVER fall asleep.  

The only positive thing I can say is at least it's not summertime

Cities pay for homeless tickets just to get rid of them.

Damn dude, do you need us to start up a gofundme acct

Fuck that noise. I took a grayhound from Idaho falls to Provo once.
Normally a four hour drive.

Took nine hours.Holy shit! They stop EVERYWHERE. And every asshole on the bus has to go wander around the gas station, then drag ass getting back on the bus.

I'll hitch hike next time

I remember reading about this. The killer cannibal is now free less than ten years later with no restrictions and a new name according to Wikipedia. Oh Canada.

Definitely carry and never fall asleep.

Took an overnight bus from Ft. Bragg/Fayetteville to Atlanta two years ago because it was the only way out due to storms.  Multiple stops in SC and GA along the way and a 0200 bus change in the middle of nowhere.  DO NOT sleep, be very vigilant and ready to fend off any potential threat.  NOT recommended unless you have no other way to get from point A to B.

I pass those faded out, dilapidated buses all the time outside of Atlanta.

Always south of Atlanta, they are always headed south. The homeless people are heading south for the winter.

You'll lose your head

Highly entertaining.  Everyone should ride on one once in their life.

Done it. Nope. Never again.

Third world country on wheels.

Express busses are just a bit slower than driving. Busses that hit every little stop are oh-my-god slow.

Travel in the wee hours is actually safer than through the day/evening. Quieter, too.

Bus stops/stations are always in the worst part of town. If the town is too small to have a worst-part-of-town section, they'll make an exception for the bus stop.

Keep real cash well hidden on your person and keep vending cash accessable. Better yet, pack a cooler with drinks and food. That way, you can avoid getting off the bus at questionable stations.

Greyhound has free wifi and electrical outlets on its busses now. Bring a tablet or phone to keep yourself entertained. Good headphones will help avoid learning about all your fellow passenger's issues.

Most important:  If you can legally travel armed, do so. Tyranny and busses are the founding fathers' reason for the 2nd Amendment. Greyhound may have a policy about firearms, but those corporate bastards don't have to ride on their busses.

I've ridden a few when I was in my early teens, it was the most economical way for my divorced parents to get us around the country for visitation.

In my experience there will be:

A family of 5, also riding the bus, with a combined weight exceeding 2000lbs.  At first you'll be "meh".  Then, as you become out of your mind bored, you will realize that the entirety of their luggage contents is food.  Then as you watch them eat non-stop for what seems like hours, you will start to think 'at some point they will get full...or have to make roooooooo' and then one will get up and squeeze himself down the aisle towards the toilet...

Oooooh Myyyyyy Godddd...

the smell will be as if Satan himself took a shit on that bus and you have NO WHERE to run, no where to hide...you must breath in the depths of Hades hoping you don't pass out...or maybe you wish you would...either way, that little vent in the lavatory is useless.

Eventually you will go nose blind, or at least you hope you do, when another one gets up to make room...this will go on for the entire trip.

There will also be several drunks onboard, they won't really bother you.  Unless they have a seat next to you, in which case you will either be constantly offered a swig of whatever booze was cheapest at the last stop OR your shoulder will become a pillow and your arm a drool catcher to the nice man that smells of vomit and spoiled milk.

And no bus ride is complete without that one guy...that one guy whose aroma consists of Doral Menthol 100's and, well...Doral Menthol 100's.  This guy has had a 3 pack a day habit for 30+ years...he is the first smoker you have ever seen that actually has the brown tar stained lips, eyes and fingers that they told you about in grade school to scare you away from cigarettes.

You don't maintain that level of obedience to your Dorals if you don't smoke 2 or 3 every 20 minutes...so you - nose blind to the smells of sewer gas, booze, foul breath, body odor, and stale cigarettes - notice this guy gets up and heads to the lavatory...and not 30 seconds after he closes the door behind him the driver of the bus SLAMS ON THE BRAKES cars behind d the bus swerve and pass the bus with horns blaring.  The driver pulls the bus over sharply, nearly nose diving the front end of the 50,000lbs beast into the soft embankment.  He throws it in park, unbuckles his seat belt and storms way down the aisle, past the family of fatties - whom are still eating - past all the drunks, past you...and right to the guy, smelling of a fresh Doral Menthol 100 "THERE IS NO SMOKING ON THIS BUS, DO THAT AGAIN AND I WILL LEAVE YOU ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!...

Eventually, your bus makes it to a station where you will have a layover, along with a bus and driver change.  You will have no idea if the luggage  you checked in made it to the right bus during the switch, hopefully most of it does. But may god help you if that stop is in a large, bustling city...

So good luck OP, may your trip last only 2.5 times what it would have taken you to drive it.

They have free WiFi !

I did Memphis to Miami in 1988 with a friend.

I would never trade that experience, nor do I ever hope to repeat it.

Do eeet!