Why I hate Greyhound (yet still rode one of their buses after multiple horror stories.)

I had made plans sometime last week to visit my friend Alitia and her family in Central Point. I bought my bus ticket a week in advance and eagerly awaited Friday night.

Well, sort of eagerly. Greyhound is notorious for bad service, overbooking seats and treating their customers like cattle. But I've traveled with them before without having too negative an experience, so I figured I would be fine.

Boy, was I wrong.

I got to the station about half an hour before boarding (I would have been there earlier. But last-minute necessary errands, the schedule of the LTD buses and the half-hour travel time between my apartment and the Greyhound station downtown prohibited that from happening. Still, I figured I would be fine. Because how many people ride the bus in the middle of the night anyway?

Apparently, six more than the 9:20 p.m. bus from Portland (the one I wanted to catch, and had a ticket for) could hold. I arrived at the station just after the guy at the ticket counter gave the waiting crowd his speech about how the incoming bus only had nine seats available and the rest of us would have to wait for a later bus at 11:30. I was 12th or 13th in line. What's more, the oh-so-accommodating bus driver informed us that the bus station closed at 9:20, so we would have to wait outside for the second bus.

Even better, there was a heavyset man in the front of the line who looked determined to get on that first bus, even if it meant taking a seat from an older lady or a little kid who ideally wouldn't be waiting for two hours in the cold, late Friday night in downtown Eugene, three doors from a rowdy bar.

I called Alitia, who had already planned on meeting me at the Pilot truck stop in Central Point, to tell her that I would be...running a little late. She insisted that it was fine, even after I informed her that I would be arriving sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m.

I walked with two other female passengers -- better than being alone in the aforementioned situation -- to Carl's Jr., about a five-minute walk from the bus station. There, we waited, warmed up, got some food and ranted about the horrible service provided by Greyhound. One of the women was particularly outgoing and showed me and the other woman pictures of her grandchildren, who she was on her way to visit. The two other women had met in Bend and were on their way to California after a five-hour layover in Eugene.

Finally, the bus came. It was mostly empty, which afforded me an extra seat to stretch out and attempt to sleep on -- not that sleeping comes particularly easily on a Greyhound bus. After the six of us who were stranded in Eugene boarded the bus, the driver got on and was about to pull out of the alley when a guy sitting near the driver started telling her to stop because there were people running after the bus. A man and his two young sons almost missed the bus out of Eugene, even after the driver went so far as to go around the corner and remind everyone to get back on the bus.

After stops in Roseburg and Grants Pass, the bus made it safely to Central Point. I was dead tired and fell asleep shortly after I arrived. It's Saturday morning, I'm now awake and telling the tale.

Oh, and hopefully I won't be riding Greyhound anytime soon...oh wait. I still have to get back to Eugene... :P