April 6th, time to leave. Nancy drove me to the corner of Nationwide Boulevard and North High Street in downtown Columbus.
It was a cold, blustery day for early April. We were the first to arrive and for a while we wondered if I was to be the only passenger. Soon, however, a small group of people arrived, including two very friendly young ladies.
“Good morning,” they and we said almost in unison.
“Going all the way to Chicago?” I asked.
“No, just to Indianapolis.”
I wasn’t a bit surprised when Nancy said, “I’m kinda worried about Dad riding alone.”
“Oh, he’ll be okay.” one of the girls said.
“I sure hope so. I’ve even asked him not to get off the bus at any rest stop, even for a cup of coffee. He’s so slow with the cane and all he might not get back to the bus in time.”
“Don’t you worry. We’ll see that he gets his coffee.”
“Well thank you, girls, now I feel better about it.”
As we waited for the slightly late bus, we wondered how they would operate in rain or other inclement weather.
The thought got no further as the bus arrived. It was a large double-decker brightly painted in vivid blue with bold yellow lettering advertising their low fares.
I put my bag in the storage area, hugged and kissed Nancy goodbye and got aboard.
Soon we headed to the Ohio Union on the Ohio State Campus for the additional stop they make in Columbus and shortly after 11:00 A.M. we headed South on Route 315 to I-70 West to Indianapolis.
The ride was somewhat bumpy due to the stiff suspension required for such a large vehicle and, of course, our highways aren’t the smoothest surfaces to ride upon. The wind we noted back at the departure didn’t abate and we soon had sway to go along with the bumps.
I appreciated that we had a toilet on board. When the need called I had to be extremely careful. I have a balance problem, can’t walk a ten-foot straight line on dry land on a windless day. I was able to hold on to seat edges and what not to reach the toilet room.
Once inside, I was very surprised at how difficult it was to even stand. Aiming was a problem, but I got it done without mishap or mess. Twice.
After about three hours, we pulled into the largest McDonald’s parking lot I ever saw. It would be possible to park a fleet of semis or buses and have room to spare.
“Still want that coffee?” one of the girls asked. “
Would love it, thanks.”
After a few minutes the welcome brew was in my hands. The girls even wanted to buy it for me but I insisted and paid generously for it. Very sweet girls. (I’ll have to tell Nancy that I could easily have done it myself).
On to Indianapolis. Here the curbside loading is in front of the Court House. There is an area of landscaping defined by a low retaining wall just high enough to provide sitting for waiting passengers. Lucky people.
We lost some and gained some passengers. I didn’t try to count how many were on board, probably no more than 20 or so. This begs the question: How can Megabus survive taking so few people so far for so small a fare? Maybe their other trips have many more riders or much higher fares due to later reservation requests. There must be some such reasons.
My earlier research into Megabus did indicate that over the past few years they have discontinued routes due to low passenger counts. But just before I left home, I saw on their web site that they are adding new routes. Beats me.
Now onto I-65 North to Chicago. An hour or so out of Indianapolis there appeared the largest wind farm I could have imagined. For probably 20 miles on both sides of the highway, as far as the eye can see the turbines are spaced about 50 to 70 yards in the East-West direction and something like one-half to three-quarters of a mile in the North-South direction. There must be 2000 of them, some so close to the highway that their hugeness is apparent. The triple propeller-like blades turn ever so slowly, accepting the wind, generating electricity, the amount of which I have no idea.
Multiplying this wind farm by the hundreds or thousands of other existing farms, plus those still to be built, will go a long way toward reducing our nation’s dependency on fossil fuels and petroleum.
A few years ago T. Boone Pickens, the Texas billionaire oilman presented his plan to sharply reduce our country’s reliance on imported oil. His basis is that we have in our own nation, vast resources of natural gas that can be used to power the thousands of large truck fleets once they are converted to operate on natural gas.
He has lobbied Congress and anybody else who would listen and finally has succeeded in getting a Natural Gas Act introduced in Congress. It is co-sponsored by many Representatives and the outlook for passage looks favorable.
I do believe that our country owes a great deal of thanks to Mr. Pickens for his nonstop efforts.
Now if we can just develop “clean coal,” our energy situation would be much, much better.