I made it back from Birmingham in one piece. Amazing, I know. So everyone I met at Progressive Farmer is really, really nice. I think it'll be a great experience at the magazine. I included some photos from Samford in Alabama. I'll be staying on campus there this summer during my internship.
Some experiences of note from the trip:
1) I boarded the bus in Lincoln. It was my first bus trip like this ever. So I was freaked out when the bus was so crowded people were forced to stand and to sit on the floor all the way to Omaha.
2) I met a really nice lady with a Nikon D300 who loved talking to me about her grandchildren, who sound adorable. She is from the coast of California and was traveling to Wisconsin. She lives with and takes care of a woman who helped create the show "Gumby." I watched this show every morning before I went to school when I was young, I might add. She was the second person to suggest I carry "mugger money"--Matt's mom was the first.
3) I sat next to a very large woman on my way to Birmingham. She sat on me every time she would shift her weight. I was shoved against the window. She breathed like a bulldog. Then there was a guy snoring right behind me. Really. Loud. I can't believe he didn't wake himself up. The girl sitting next to him must have gotten tired of his snoring, so she started singing out loud. So I was squished against the window with snoring and a singing girl behind me. Good thing I had headphones with me.
4) I saw a man who was possibly a broke pimp in a bus stop in Indianapolis. He had red ostrich-skin looking shoes with gold buckles, red dress socks, red pants, a red button-down dress shirt, a red vest, a red suitcoat, a gold necklace with some sort of Egyptian symbol on it--oh it's called an ankh...I found it on google--a red fedora with a gold band around it, a black trench coat and a toothpick. Yikes.
5) I encountered many a smelly bathroom.
6) I ate a tasty turkey sandwich somewhere along the line. At least that's what I hope it was.
7) I met a really cool girl on the bus between Indy and Nashville. We're now facebook friends. :)
8) Nashville was very scary. There were a ton of people loitering outside the bus stop at 3 a.m. looking VERY suspicious. I was honestly scared I was going to be involved in some drive by. While I was there, there was a man muttering to himself behind me. I glanced behind me to see what he was all about, and he was holding cigarette rolling papers in his hands and some powdery green rocks in his hands. He rolled a cig up and went outside the bus stop to smoke it, then came back and stood by me again. Upon further investigation, I found out that it was hash. I was just surprised the guy had the nerve to do it right in the bus station. Yikes.
9) I was paranoid the entire time that I was going to get ripped off.
10) On the way back, I got really frustrated because the bus left an hour and a half late, it was really crowded and I had to go to the bathroom, and I couldn't for four hours. And the girl who sat by me on the bus smelled horrible. I had to hold my coat sleeve over my nose the whole time. Then I got to the transfer station, and it was so crowded there I could barely walk. So I couldn't take my bags with me to go to the bathroom because of the crowd, and I couldn't leave them there because there was no one to watch them. At this point, I called Matt and was really frustrated. He made me feel better, though, and I didn't hide in the bus bathroom and cry, luckily.
11) From St. Louis to Omaha, I had my own seat. Yay.
12) I met some cool guy with a bunch of cameras. He was interesting and was riding from Chicago to San Francisco.
13) I sat by this guy on the bus from Omaha to Lincoln, and he said he saw some people on one of his buses shooting up. AHHH.
14) I don't want to ride the bus again any time soon. Even though it saves money. I think I should get a prize for doing this. :)
~Photos by me in Alabama. Taken with the P&S. Or POS. Whatever you'd like to refer to it as.
