I always disliked riding the bus growing up, and I would walk to school a lot, but now, being blind, I didn't have a choice.

Riding the bus has given me several experiences and brought several interesting people across my path that I never would have expected.

One guy that sat with me informed me that he was from Sacramento California.  I asked him, "Where are you headed?"  He said, "Just riding the bus."

"What do you mean?” I said.

He said, "I ran away from home".  Again I inquired: "what do you mean?", as I could tell that this man was middle aged.

He said: "I just decided to leave my wife and kids and ride the bus around the country, so I've been on the bus for a couple of weeks now and decided that this is what I want to do."

I wonder how this life style worked out for him.

Another rider, a lady sat down next to me and we also struck up a conversation.  She was going to the same destination, Rochester.  I shared a little bit of myself with her and finally asked her what she did for a living.  She said, I work in a lab with research.  I said, "really, that's interesting, what do you study?"

She said, "I study human feces."

I never know what to expect on a bus!

 

Story 1

I worked at a blind workshop for 23 years.

I also worked a long way from home, over 22 miles.  Each day after work, I had to catch a bus in front of where I worked, to catch another bus at mid-town.  The timing was critical because there was only 1 bus out to my area 22 miles away.

Normally, there was a 45 minute wait for the main bus out of town, so I would sit at the bench inside with my cane folded up and tucked under my thigh on my right side.

With my new prostetic eyes, I don't look blind, so when this guy sat down next to me, on my left side, He struck up a conversation saying: "how the hell are ya?”  I responded with: "pretty good, how are you?”

While we were chit chatting about the weather and stuff, we both heard this cane tapping coming down the hallway on his left side.

He said: "look at that poor blind SOB coming towards us.  You know, they ought to be locked up or something, so that they can't get hurt, or hurt anybody with their canes."

Well, it was about time for my bus to be coming, so I stood up, opened my cane and looked towards him and said: "it ain't so bad."

I wish I could have seen his face!  I walked outside and caught my bus.

 

Story 2

The bus that took me up to mid-town was late, and like I said, there is only 1 bus out of town that I needed to catch or else I don't know what.

At the last minute, the bus finally came, and I am thinking, hurry hurry.

The bus finally let me out at mid-town, and with my cane I was racing around the corner as fast as I could to catch the bus when suddenly, a guy held my arm and said: "brother, JESUS can heal you".

I said: "thank you brother, I know he can but right now I'm late for a bus.”

Again he held me and said a little louder: "brother, JESUS can heal you!”

And yet a third time he repeated himself.

I finally informed him: "believe me brother, I think that he already has."

By the way, I did catch the bus that day.