Nora and I are driving to NYC tomorrow, for Mom's 92nd birthday on Saturday. We'll be driving Georgia, and taking cats. Nora and Ed and Simon have been on the road so much recently that she doesn't want to drive back to Boston on Sunday and then home to Vermont on Monday or Tuesday, so I'm getting back to Boston on my own and she'll head straight to Vermont.
It turns out that Sunday is a pretty tough day to travel. The cheap buses get used by people with weekend friends and parties and boyfriends/girlfriends to visit, and although they may have different departures, they all have to go home on Sunday. So Bolt Bus is sold out. LimoLiner is sold out. Amtrak isn't sold out, but it's $168 one way. Peter Pan has seats; though it's a little downscale compared to Bolt, it'll have to do.
While looking for seats on Peter Pan...
Okay, I have to stop here for a minute. Peter Pan? Who the hell names a bus line Peter Pan? Bolt I get – quick, straight line. LimoLiner I get – purported luxury. MegaBus I get – cheap mass transit. Greyhound, the old dog... fast. Fung Wah? It means something in one of the Chinese languages, but I don't know which language, and Google Translate says that "fung wah" translates from Chinese to English as "fung wah." So let's say it means "the passengers are decoys for drug trafficking," which is the folklore about that company. Whatever, I still get it.
Peter Pan? The bus that won't grow up? It's even got the boy in green tights on the side of the bus. It's a mystery to me. Of course, I wouldn't have named a computer company after a fruit, either, so maybe it's just my lack of marketing acumen.
Anyway, I digress. While looking for seats on Peter Pan, I see on their website that they have three drivers who have accumulated over three million accident-free driving miles with the company. Three million miles! And it's taken each of them about 35 years to do it, so we're looking at 80-90,000 miles a year. But my favorite thing is that two of the drivers in the three million club are brothers, Joseph and Everett Anderson of Springfield, who both started driving with PP in the early '70s. I hope I get to meet Joseph or Everett on this trip. (Rather than Captain Hook...)
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