Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 2002 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

Dec 22, 2002

Going Greyhound

Las Vegas in the Early Morning Hours

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: USA, Nevada, Las Vegas, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

Going Greyhound

This was my opportunity. I had to go from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and back. It's now or never. The experience started on the Internet where I tried to book the ticket. While the web site is quite nice, anyone with a non-US address can not book or buy a ticket on-line. Bummer. The dollars from foreigners are not as green as the note from the average US resident?

The trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles corrected some of my prejudices. The crowd waiting for the bus wasn't as wild as expected. There were no bizarre personalities occupying the Greyhound waiting room, no apparent drug addicts hanging around. Most people were quite ordinary, like me. The passengers were made up by some Caucasians, some Asians and the majority Hispanics.

The bus was not as old and stylish as the ones seen in the movies and not as new as a modern bus from the 21st century. An ordinary bus for ordinary people. It was an okay bus and we left right on time. A British bus could not leave any more punctual. The bus was half empty and I made myself comfortable.

As we rolled towards the freeway the driver explained the playing rules to the passengers. He took the microphone and his words were roughly as follows: "Welcome to Greyhound. My name is John Doe. I will be your driver today. Our destination is Santa Ana and we will make scheduled stops in W, X and Y as well as a 15-minute lunch break in Z. Federal regulations prohibit smoking on this bus. Federal regulations furthermore prohibit ."

After the list of not permitted activities like loud music, he continued: "Greyhound also has a strict no-violence policy. Absolutely no kind or type of violent behavior will be permitted or tolerated. I have a cell phone here and it is directly connected to the I-15 police troopers. Should you show any violent behavior I will not hesitate to use it and you will be removed from this bus by force. We had shootings on this bus; so trust me, at the first sign of trouble I will call the police and report you."

"My company does not want you to talk to me. Behind myself on the floor is a yellow line. Do not cross it. Under no circumstances. Do not walk up to me, do not ask me questions. Don't ask me the time or when we get to our destination. If you follow these rules we will get along just fine. My job is only to get you safely from A to B. And that is exactly what I will do."

Some 5 hours after listening to these cheerful words we rolled into the Santa Ana bus station and as I looked at the watch, I realized that we sharply on time, right down to the very minute! No violence, no loud music, no smoking and right on time. What more can you ask for?

Back Again

This was a lot more like my original expectations. Lots of wacky, out-of-the-ordinary people waited in the many lines or slept in the seats. No door had any sign to announce the buses or indicate the destinations. I just asked a handful of people and since all gave me the same information I trusted them. Certainly I wouldn't trust the minimum-wage Greyhound employees too much. I was told "The luggage will be checked through all the way to Las Vegas." This is like saying "The check is in the mail." It sounded too good to be true, and it was too good to be true. I had no problem taking care of my own luggage.

The lines were long and all over the place. With the waiting hall being so tightly packed it was close to impossible to walk around with a big piece of luggage. I had a 90-minute wait. This gave me enough time to study the people around me. A quarter of the chairs had these old black pay-TVs installed. You insert a quarter and then you get to watch TV for 10 minutes on a 6 inch tube. Hardly anyone was watching TV though. The single mom sitting to the right of myself was busy enough to keep her 4 kids, all toddlers, under control. The woman across from to the right was trying to sleep. She had her head rested on a 3 foot by 3 foot cardboard box. She had some sort of a tic making her foot jump up and down nervously. Needless to say that she didn't sleep well. Every minute she raised her head, looked around and then tried again to fall asleep. Across from me to the right was a black guy, somewhat fat, overweight, or shall I say weight challenged? He wore all black clothing, black boots and unlike his female neighbor he was sound asleep. To my left was a young woman, Asian, good looking and well dressed. Let's say better dressed than I was, even though that doesn't mean too much. She enjoyed her hamburger as she waited.

30 minutes before departure I got up to get in line. It turns out that it might have been a mistake to wait so long. The guy at the end of the line was all nervous and didn't stop complaining that they, Greyhound, wouldn't put on a second bus. He rambled on and on, always about the same thing. "Man, man, shit, why don't they put on a second bus. We will never get on this bus. Too many people, man. Shit, can't understand them. They [Greyhound] make so much money but are not willing to put on a second bus. How the hell are we going to make it to Las Vegas. I talked to the supervisor, man, and he said they won't put on any extra bus. Damn it. They can only do that because they are a monopoly. Shit, we need some competition here. Why doesn't any of those Internet millionaires buy some 1000 buses and go into the bus business. Man, what's a 1000 buses to them." I politely ignored him but he got me worried: Would I make it to Las Vegas if the bus is full? I started counting the people. There were some 35 to 40 people in front of me in the line. Since the bus holds some 47 passengers there shouldn't be a problem. But with this strange line I couldn't be too sure that there aren't some people standing somewhere else that are also part of the line. Anyway, no need to lose my calm. There is nothing I can change anyway. If I get on the bus, great. If not, there will be some other solution. But getting stressed now would not improve my situation.

The other guy would not want to stop talking. Besides complaining about the company not putting on a second bus, he now also acted as official line monitor. "Here is the end of the line. ... Let that person pass through." I always thought there are luggage limitations, but the guy just two ahead of me in the line, had two shopping carts full of taped plastic containers. After 50 minutes of wait in line, we left some 20 minutes late.

The guy who wouldn't stop talking had been stressing himself out without reason as we all fit comfortably into the bus and had even 5 more unused seats. As we drove off the driver again enlightened us with the delightful introductory speech: about federal regulations, the no-drug, no smoking dope, no-smoking-anything policies, the no- crossing-the-yellow-line, the no-talking-to-the driver and miscellaneous policies and that we will be taken off the bus should we not respect these issues. Then we were informed about route changes. Apparently some people got stranded in San Bernardino and we would make an extra stop there to pick up some of these people and we would skip some dinner stops to make up for the lost time. The female driver also informed us that we would get late to Las Vegas but that we should not worry about any connecting buses as all, repeat, all buses are leaving late.

The five empty seats were filled in San Bernardino and then at midnight we were finally off to Las Vegas. After a single brief stop at a gas station with an AMPM market we crossed into Nevada.

Viva Las Vegas

At 5 am with just half an hour of delay we pulled into the Greyhound bus terminal in Las Vegas. It had 42 degrees F (5 C) and a chilly wind was blowing. I had lots of time to spare. Some 5 hours. With so much time on my hand what's better than an early morning stroll through Las Vegas?

The city was surprisingly quiet. While it was not dead, seeing more than a couple of people on the street at any given moment was rare. My walking tour started in the heart of old Las Vegas, in downtown. Freemont Street had been turned into a pedestrian walkway years ago and is now covered by an artificial roof of 2 million light bulbs. But at 5 am even in Las Vegas these light bulbs are turned off. The remaining lights on the casino facades were strong enough to turn night into day. The Golden Nugget and the Horseshoe are here. In front of them stands the neon cowboy, former symbol of Las Vegas. It is quiet as I walk through the streets. An occasional loud speaker at a casino entrance talks to me but I don't listen. The words don't even register in my brain. I am cold.

Within a few blocks the lights disappear. It gets darker and darker and the houses more and more run-down. Bail bond offices take over. 24-hour service. As I leave the bail- bond zone behind it gets even quieter. Junk cars in front of collapsing small old wooden houses. "No trespassing" and "Watch the dog" signs everywhere. Kind of scary at 5:30am.

Near the Stratosphere tower which overlooks all of Las Vegas I head over to the well lit Las Vegas Boulevard. I had enough of the dark back streets. Taxis drive up and down Las Vegas Blvd. The distances between the casinos are big and I seem to be the only tourist on foot. Between the Stratosphere and the Circus Circus is still a large junk of an undeveloped site. Fenced off desert. As I walk southbound. I see a guy peeing against a fence on the other side of the road. He is in Las Vegas and it is not his lucky day. Just as he is ridding himself of his excess liquid a cop car drives by, brakes, put the car in reverse, backs up and gets out of the car. I think to myself, "This is getting interesting" as well as "Poor fellow". The cop is standing at the car door for a moment. The other person has finished his job and has turned around. Some words are exchanged. I can't hear them as the Las Vegas Blvd with its 6 lanes is too wide to understand the words. The cop walks closer and apparently tells the guy to turn around and place his hands above his head. Next the cop pushed the guy against the fence and then started a search, presumably for weapons. While peeing in public is not the right thing to do, the police response also seems a bit exaggerated. I don't watch the drama conclude. I start walking again before the final episode in this sad story. Not far down the road I find a police sign "Curfew Law". There were too many stickers on the sign to be able to read it. But it was pretty amazing. Las Vegas has some sort of curfew.

With the Circus Circus the tight string of large casinos starts. Here is the heart of the strip. Each casino seems to be half a mile long. It is still dark and quiet. The only people out seem to be the cleaning and repair crews. Employees drive up and down casino property to clean the sidewalks. Others manually sweep the floor. Yet other people put up new lettering for the latest show on the gigantic neon billboards. They need large cranes to reach the height of the signs, often 40 feet above the ground. I watched one guy repair broken neon tubes on a sign. Apparently there is a lot of work behind the scenes of Las Vegas and this work was unfolding in front of my eyes in the early morning hours.

The attractions were all turned off. The pirates didn't fight at the Treasure Island casino. The water fountain took a rest at the Bellagio. The inside of the casinos was calm too. Even New York New York, the city -- well casino -- that never sleeps was tranquil. A handful of gamblers were at the tables finishing off their day. The voices seemed hushed as the cleaning crews vacuumed the floors.

Many places were closed. Surprising, given that this is Las Vegas. Don't expect to be taking a drink at the Harley Davison cafe for example at 6 am. The Coca Cola and M&M stores are closed till 10am.

I was walking for about 3 hours now and it was getting light. Employees parked in the employee section of the casino parking lots and walked to work. The last casinos on the Strip are the Luxor, glass replica of an Egyptian pyramid, and the golden glass tower of Mandalay Bay. As I walked out of the Mandalay Bay Casino the sun was finally rising behind the hills. It was still chilly. A new winter day started in Las Vegas and for me it was time to say good bye.