I know that it has been mentioned how much I enjoyed the fun of doing the Public Transportation in Chicago and all the walking. Now........if the weather had not been with us my review might not be the same. The weather was cold, but very nice.....nice enough that we could sit on a hill to eat our dogs while TheKing did his Up and Down exercises on said Hill.
Does this experience make me start using the Public Transportation (which I am sure is nice) in our hometown? Nope. Why? Mostly because we are 5.6 miles from town and it seems silly to drive the car to the bus stop to go another 2 miles to get to what I need to get to. I will say that sometimes I bike the distance - now that TheKing is older and hopefully will ride in the bike trailer better we might do it more often even. However, we do not have an L or a Metra or a Metro - so the getting from Here to There isn't as convenient. Now..........if I were still in STL I would feel like I should ditch the car more.
Our personal experience only stretched 2 days though. It was cool - people of every economic level road the bus. As I listened in on phone conversations (no eaves dropping necessary because these ppl were LOUD as they talked on their phones) I heard them talk about their lives - moms, dads, secretaries, one guy that did some type of trading, students, etc. One woman explained to my kiddo that she rode the bus like most because ppl didn't have cars since it was so easy to use a bus and so expensive to keep a car parked in the city. The bus drivers were nice - there was a helpful person in a box at every L and subway gate - they were all helpful in getting us places until we learned to read the map - which I did get good at - although there was always someone pointing out a better route after we decided what to do - exchanges were what we were doing at first, but then we got wise to just sitting patiently on one bus or L - less walking and confusion and the op for more ppl and scenery watching since we were not focused on not missing our stop.
By the end of day 2 - on our last ride to Union Station - we hopped on a bus that was completely empty. Chatted with the driver while we waited in the turn around area for her turn to leave. We told her how much we had appreciated all the friendliness and help all the drivers and subway workers had given us. We also mentioned how we were impressed at how clean everything was and nice the patrons were. The Olders were way in the back of the bus while we talked - as BigGuy, TheKing and I sat in the front talking with the driver. The busdriver was kind to mention that we might want to pull them close to us as we get going into the city picking ppl up - she said that as nice as our experience had been - the reality was that there are a lot of perverts who get on the bus and flash themselves at the riders who are in the back. Well...........that shot that...........the Olders were summoned to the front amid protest of "But we want to sit in back and hold the loops" and "why do we have to be up front." We didn't explain because we had finally found a place where I didn't want to explain anything about sex to them. Funny how that works.
Still..........I really liked not loading and unloading the kids in and out of the car. It was a real fun adventure.
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