Pennsylvania by bus

We left Philadelphia on a gloomy morning, making everything look extra dramatic.

When the rain actually came in, at times is was pouring down so hard, with so much running water on the streets, that it seemed a little dangerous. That had a tendency to blur the shots, however, so I do not have any photos that accurately convey it.

 

The scenery was still very pretty. One thing I will mention in Easton is the Canal Museum, and its presence made sense because there had been a canal running along most of our path there.

I have seen some debate online about whether Philadelphia is friendly or not. One resident described it as provincial, meaning that residents are friendly to each other but not so much with outsiders. As our trip mainly involved tourist and service industry employees, everyone was nice to us.

Our first bus driver was especially nice. He was telling us that he had rejected a couple of the buses that they tried to give him, because of cleanliness, lack of seat belts, or heat. That could have been him buttering us up, but also we heard him chatting with another passenger, a young man going off to college, and I think he was really nice.
 

It was also at the bus station that I had my friendliest exchange with someone who was not being paid to be nice to me, visiting with a woman in the restroom, but I don't know if she was actually from Philadelphia. Maybe.

Mainly, it was fascinating seeing just how small some of the areas served could be.

I have ridden Greyhound between Portland and Eugene and Portland and Seattle, and every stop we have made has been in a town with a full bus depot. We stopped at one place where it was just a bus shelter like a city bus would have, and it seemed like the middle of nowhere.

Actually, we nearly missed our bus in Easton. There was a small office, but mainly people waited on the sidewalk, and there were a bunch of people out there, but no one else got onto the bus when it came, so we thought maybe it was too early too board. No, they were just taking a different bus, that would apparently also be parking by this stretch of sidewalk soon. They could have all just been early.

At the same time, it seemed like a small and out of the way town, but we were briefly next to a couple whose luggage showed they had passed through Doha, Qatar. That felt fairly exotic.

Our bus trips were comfortable and reasonably priced. There were also some surprises.

Under the Greyhound sign there was also a name and logo for Peter Pan. This is a separate bus line, but it has some joint ventures and connections with Greyhound.

There was also a sign for Greyhound's 100th anniversary. I had not realized they had been around so long. Actually, the anniversary was in 2014, but the sign was still up.

Happy anniversary, Greyhound!

https://www.greyhound.com/

http://peterpanbus.com/