My two dollar, thousand mile date night

[gaffa]

@Mama_Zappa

That is quite a deal indeed - I’m impressed.

Thank you. I love being able to travel back home to Chicago nearly every week, costing barely more than $100 a year.

I prefer the train of course - more legroom and you can get up and move around more easily - but at triple the price, the bus is a good deal for us.

I used to take Amtrak a lot, and I do appreciate the extra legroom - but I really can’t afford to go back to them. The cost meant that that I could only afford to travel back home once a month or so.

The one longer-term bus ride I’ve taken in recent years was on a charter bus up to Boston - similar distance to your jaunt. I don’t know if I could do that every week, though of course the fact that most of the other occupants on my trip were Girl Scouts may contribute to that opinion.

Yikes! And I thought the Amtrak train filled with Boy Scouts returning from their Jamboree was bad (they weren’t as noisy as I imagine a bus full of teenage girls would be, but they reeked.)

Is your bus usually full? If not, that’s great - you stand a chance of having 2 seats to yourself (much more comfy). The buses from here to NYC are usually completely sold out.

It depends. When it’s totally full, it’s unpleasant. I try to catch a glimpse at the reservation number sheet the driver has, and I can estimate how crowded the bus will be and choose my seat accordingly. If it’s full, I won’t try to get one of the table seats, because that means that I will have people both sitting beside me and across from me and have less legroom than at a regular seat.

But generally, the only time it’s packed is around the holidays and when all the college students are traveling. The last bus I took had only 41 out of 81 seats filled. The time before, it was 61.

By the way, my wife pointed out to me that I had neglected the “date night” aspect of my travels. It is, of course to go home to Chicago to see her. I usually take the Friday 8:30 PM overnight bus from Kansas City which will get me to Chicago at 6:30 AM. I take the L home, then join her in bed and get a few more hours of sleep that aren’t on a moving vehicle. Then we’ll go out Saturday night to dinner and a movie.

[China_Guy]

Be careful with the ambien. Blood clots can kill. I shit you not. It’s more than 10K to go to the ER, get diagnosed and then a night in the hospital. Ask me how I know? Mine was a plane but just a FYI

[gaffa]

@China_Guy

Be careful with the ambien. Blood clots can kill. I shit you not. It’s more than 10K to go to the ER, get diagnosed and then a night in the hospital. Ask me how I know? Mine was a plane but just a FYI

I looked through the prescribing information and the Wikipedia page about it and don’t see any mention of a particular risk of blood clots. Most of the risks associated with it are remote in my particular case - I’m a passenger on a bus, I’m using it to sleep for roughly six hours, and I don’t have to be anywhere in particular the next day. And I take it once a week, so the risk of dependency is non-existent.

[Digital_is_the_new_Analog]

I suspect the concern isn’t that ambien causes blood clots, but that ambien leads to not moving in confined quarters, which can lead to blood clots.

[gaffa]

@Digital_is_the_new_Analog

I suspect the concern isn’t that ambien causes blood clots, but that ambien leads to not moving in confined quarters, which can lead to blood clots.

Ah, OK. I think I’m OK on the Megabus based on the way I sleep. If I’m on the overnight bus, I put a pillow or my coat under my back and stick my feet under the seat in front of me. In this way, only my back and butt are on the seat, with no pressure on the backs of my thighs or calves. Even then, I tend to get woken up a bit during the stops in St. Louis and McLean, so I’m not completely out of it.