A Greyhound bus Thanksgiving travel adventure

by Jamie Rhein on

When we walked into the Greyhound bus station in downtown Columbus today a little after 12 pm to buy my dad a one-way ticket to Cincinnati, he asked my daughter if she’d ever been to the station. “Nooo,” she said, her voice implying disdain, as if, why in the world would she ever have the reason to go there. My daughter is 15, so you can imagine. It’s the way they talk.

My son, who is 5, proclaimed that the station looked like an airport. Sure enough, it was like an airport on a holiday weekend, except there were no announcements over a load speaker every few minutes. There were lines that snaked around almost to heading out one door before coming back in another and there were the delays, we’ve all come to know with airport travel. Buses are also part of the mysterious delay game. My dad’s bus had yet to arrive. For some reason, buses out of Cleveland were 2 hours late leaving there. That was creating delays on down the line. Since a bus can’t claim air traffic congestion, I wondered what was the problem. No one at the bus station seemed to know.

For my dad, who flew from Stewart airport in Newburgh to Detroit and then to Columbus, arriving a little after 10 this morning, this delay did not do wonders to his holiday travel. His travel already survived a few snafus. The flight out of Stewart was overbooked, and he didn’t have a seat assignment. This was because, according to him, he didn’t book through Northwest’s Web site. He refused the offer of a flight a few hours later which would have routed him through Atlanta and back to Columbus. Since he held firm, the ticket person was able to get someone to agree to be bumped in my dad’s place. Good deal for them. A free ticket anywhere in the United States.

Then there was the delay leaving the Detroit airport. But, all in all, the trip was not too bad. He was waiting outside the airport at Baggage Claim when I drove up about the time I thought he’d get in after I checked the flight status. Picking him up was a matter of swinging into a spot next to the curb and swinging back into the line of cars heading out of the airport once he and his bags were safely inside the car.

After a quick visit, here we were at the bus station trying to find out information about what was going on with the bus so he could make it to his sister’s in northern Kentucky. The ticket sellers had no idea what was going on. One person told me that when she asked about a later connecting bus from Cincinnati to Louisville, she was told by a personnel guy that he didn’t have the information. Perhaps he was unfamiliar with using Greyhound’s Web site. Funny, because that’s how I found out about the 12:20 bus out of Columbus.

Eventually, a bus was brought in to start from Columbus and head to Cincinnati with as many passengers as it could fit, although the driver was surprised because he never drives that route. My dad and about six others didn’t make it on the bus. It was unclear how long the bus from Cleveland would be. Harumph!

But, at this point, things got more interesting. In between giving my kids money for Cheetos and a bottle of lemonade out of the vending machine so I could get change to put more money in the parking meter, I was chatting it up with a guy who heads to Cincinnati via bus quite often. He said with the price of gas, it was much cheaper than driving there. He’s also interested in living overseas so we talked about the pros and cons of that. After a bit, it felt like we’d become traveling pals–even though I wasn’t going anywhere.

After discovering he was going to be left behind, still at the mercy of Greyhound, the guy decided to drive to Cincinnati and that he would take the two women, who had been unable to get information earlier, and my dad with him if they’d chip in for gas. Since the guy lives near the bus station, after my dad got back all but 20 percent of the cost of his ticket, I dropped him off next to the guy’s red pick-up truck. The two women were already tucked in the seat in back. We waved as they drove off, shouting Happy Thanksgiving. I never caught this guy’s name, but he has an awesome smile.

Right about now, the TANK bus, the commuter line from Cincinnati to Florence, Kentucky, should be arriving at Sears at the Florence Mall. Hopefully, my dad is on that bus since his sister is waiting for him there. My dad’s trip back from northern Kentucky on Friday should be a lot easier. I’m driving down to get him.

Here’s how Greyhound bus ticket refunds work, in case you’re in a similar situation. Round-trip tickets are good for one year, so if you think you’ll use the ticket later on, hang onto it. One-way tickets are good for 6 months. You can get a refund of all but 20% of the cost of the ticket. That’s my understanding of it anyway. The woman connecting in Cincinnati to Louisville chose to hang onto her Columbus to Cincinnati ticket for later and will use the Cincinnati to Louisville portion today. I hope she makes it in time for the turkey.

Vintage train stations: Where have all the trains gone?

by Jamie Rhein on

My art car friend, Greg Phelps knows a lot about funky travel. He still talks about that crane hotel in the Netherlands that he and his girlfriend stayed in earlier this year after Gadling’s suggestion. Today he sent me a travel tidbit that led me to train stations. Here is a Web page link that takes visitors around the U.S. via a combination of vintage postcards and photographs to the train stations with art deco architecture. There is an historical overview of each place, including what became of them all.

For example, Union Terminal in Cincinnati, a truly wonderful building now houses several vibrant museums, including the Museum of Natural History. Figuring out just the right use for this gem took patience. It failed as a shopping mall. My favorite part of the building is the front. Doesn’t it look like a huge 1930s radio? Inside, there are large mosaics that depict various scenes of American work life. Here’s a bit of film trivia: in the movie “Rain Man” a scene was shot here. It is after Tom Cruise picked up Dustin Hoffman from the institution and was figuring out how to take him to California. They went to Union Terminal in hopes of catching a train. You can briefly see the mosaics in the background. Amtrak does use a portion of the building, but from what I recall, the few trains that do pass through here do so at night.

Some of these art deco stations no longer exist since they have been taken down to make room for “progress.” Browsing the stations is an interesting look at how travel in the U.S. has changed.

Dubai is Getting Taller in One Spot

by Jamie Rhein on

Dubai’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai has finally reached the height of being the tallest one in the world, and it’s not finished. Now it stands at 1,831.5 feet tall (555 meters), just a bit taller than the CN Tower in Toronto (1,824.9) which was the largest free standing structure. The once tallest building, the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, lost it’s first place standing in July. Oh, well. In order to make sure it stays the tallest, the developers of the Burj aren’t saying how tall it’s going to be. Now, that’s tricky.

As countries clamor to make sure they are noticed by the rest of the world, I expect we haven’t seen the last of the let’s build a really tall building. Height could mean might–that’s the theory anyway. For now the United Arab Emirates has the honor.

Once I wrote a physics factoid for a textbook that explained what makes tall buildings able to withstand a stiff breeze. Even though I understand the principles, I get heart flutters when I get too high off the ground, although my sunglasses did fly off the top of the Carew Tower in Cincinnati when I looked over the wall. Oooops. Here’s something you may not have known, until 1964, Terminal Tower in Cleveland was the 2nd tallest building in the world after the Empire State Building until it was surpassed by the Prudential Tower in Boston.

Here’s an easy to understand article at How Stuff Works that explains how skyscrapers work and how their height is determined, ie, the actual height vs the number of floors.

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Creation Museum: Where People and Dinosaurs Meet

by Jamie Rhein on

First of all, I love Kentucky. I really do. I was born there. I have family still there, but here’s a museum that I’m just not too sure about and it happens to be near where my relatives live. Already there’s controversy and I almost hesitate to bring it up, but here it goes, The Creation Museum opens tomorrow just south of Cincinnati. The Web site’s heading says, “Prepare to Believe.” This is an opposite look at natural history than the one depicted in my La Brea Tar Pits post.

The museum is not just a rinky-dink operation either. This is a mega-bucks attraction, as in $27 million, to highlight how the Bible is word for word true. For example, according to the word for word translation of the Bible all animals were created on the 5th and 6th day, dinosaurs included. That means that humans and dinosaurs really did live at the same time. The Creation Museum shows just what that looked like. Just think what this means for Walt Disney Productions.

To help visitors prepare to believe and connect dots between then and now, Old Testament favorites like Noah’s Ark are depicted in life-like form. If you ever wondered how the animals got off the ark this might help you out. The museum also has all the bells and whistles of visitor interaction as part of the walk-through displays. The photo is of the main exhibit hall where a 40-foot tall aninimatronic sauropod dinosaur is grouped with several others.

In Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky scientists are busy with protests since the fear is that kids, like my 5-year old son who would be enamored with this place, might have their scientific lens destroyed. For the creators of the museum, one of them a former Universal Studios director, it seems to me, that is part of the point. One of the things I appreciate about this place is that the museum says upfront what it is. The main theme is “The Bible is True from Genesis to Revelation.” This isn’t a bait and switch operation. You may not believe what you see, but you won’t be surprised by it either.