Bus Rides

I had shared a few paragraphs that I wrote about buses a few days ago. Here is a revised version. I wrote this in May last year. It is a long essay so I will post the entire essay in instalments. The pioneers travelled from upstate New York to Utah. This famous journey is called the Mormon Trek. It could be a coincidence that the bus stops frequented by me in a small university town called Iowa city are located on either side of a street interestingly called the Mormon Trek road reminding me of a historical journey taken by the pioneers, every time I go to the bus stop for any number of little errands. It is a good idea to call roads after historical journeys. Because a road is meant for a journey and life itself is a journey. The pioneers may have hiked, roamed, traipsed, tramped or trudged all the way to Utah more than 178 years ago. Apart from being reminders of historical journeys, going by buses helps me contribute my mite for protecting the environment. Each human choosing public transport instead of a car helps save so much valuable fossil fuels. It is only when life circumstances catapulted me into the world of buses that I joined the bandwagon of public transport users and in the process learned a lot about buses. What if I get to meet an alien and I have to describe buses to them. Here is what I would say to the alien about buses. Buses are huge automobiles on four wheels with seats inside them. Buses are shaped like an elongated box. They roll gently down the streets of the city I live in. In the US I have never seen a bus screeching down the street at breakneck speed. They do not race with other vehicles. Two buses roll along this boulevard called Mormon Trek which has flowering trees on either side. Bus number 10 stops on both sides of the street. Bus number 12 halts only on one side of the street. But it does stop in front of a nearby grocery store. There is a proper bus stop only on one side of the road. This bus stop has a roof and a bench to sit on. It's walls are made of glass. The bus stop on the other side of the street has only a bench. The bench which has a red heart painted on it is made of wood panels. The colors of the buses are white and orange. The outside of the bus is decorated with an orange wavy stripe that is painted across the entire length of the bus. At the back, the bus is grey and red. Inside some buses the seats are blue. There are patterns on the blue suede like fabric. In some buses the seats are green and grey. There are seats on both sides of the bus. There are two doors. One door is for getting into the bus. One door is for getting off of the bus. At the door which is meant for getting off there is a step. If you climb that step you reach a slightly elevated place within the bus. This is the very back area of the bus and farthest away from the driver. There are seats on either side that face each other. At the very back, there is a long row of seats. Sometimes a crowd of teenagers sit on this seat and talk boisterously. (Reposting with correction in spelling of the word instalments in the first para)