Capital Area Transit

I haven't had a car since summer of 2006 and that's okay with me. I can't believe it's been two years already. I guess you can say that I've kind of cheated. When I volunteered we all shared a "community van" and I had a van that I could drive for work. It's not like I had loads of money to put gas in the thing though so my driving around entailed taking clients to food pantries, walmart, and the ever famous larry's meat market. Not exactly a drive to the beach.
Before Josh moved here I lived with Claire and she had a car so if I ever got really stuck I could give her a call and a few dollars. On a few occasions I tried to use the bus for all the normal tasks that people do. I rode the bus to the grocery store on a few occasions. The first time I remember really well. I was going to the Food Lion which from what I remembered was just around the corner. I somehow missed the bus going to the store because I couldn't figure out which side of the street I was supposed to be on so I figured I would just walk. This took me probably about 30 mins and I wasn't even walking slow. It was one of those late August days in Raleigh where the air just seems to be sticking to you in droplets. I imagined that anyone driving by could surely see how hot I was and was pointing and laughing at me. At one point I had to stop and look around because I wasn't even sure I was going in the right direction or on the right road. I figured I was just dehydrated and kept going. I don't think Food Lion/Big Lots have ever looked more appealing as they did to me that day when I finally reached the parking lot.
For some reason I didn't bring any of my own bags that day which meant that I had to carry about five plastic bags. Oh and did I mention that we needed milk? so throw in a gallon of milk. I don't know what I was thinking when I was shopping but it seemed like the only thing I bought were cans! I considered lots of things after I left the store and was standing in the parking lot watching everyone else get into their cars. I could just run up and jump in one and beg that they take me back to Hillsborough st. I could call a cab except I didn't have any cash. I could take the bus. So I decided that I would try to take the bus. I watched one bus go by a stop that said inbound. I still couldn't figure out if I wanted to go inbound (towards downtown) or outbound... I had no idea where my apartment was in relation to any of these stops. I decided to just walk back to where I knew one of the stops/routes and wait however long it took for the bus to arrive.
The bus finally arrived and it didn't have working air but I didn't care one bit. I was grateful for the ride and decided that next time I would decide what to buy more carefully. Nice light loaves of bread, angel food cake, and maybe some popcorn.

E.