Day 1

OK well I had my blog all typed out on Vista, but Vista sucks so I can’t open it on XP so here I am retyping everything for you all. Day one was spent on a bus. I got a Gray Hound ticket to Richmond VA where I would start my journey. The ride was miserable. There are a few things that happened on it that are worth mentioning. One being the first man I sat next to. Really all he did was made me loose a little more faith in this country, actually that’s about all my bus ride did. Let me explain. The man kept telling me he was not a violent person, but he was willing to kick down the door of the child’s house that made fun of his son and, “kick the ass” of the person who taught that child to be mean. Now don’t get me wrong, I see the value in standing up for oneself every now and again, but that seems to be going a bit far. Even so, if the man just admitted to being violent it wouldn’t have bothered me as much, but the fact that he actually believed in his own mind that he was peaceful is slightly scary. I guess it was a rough way to start the trip. I new starting this that I would need help from a lot of people, strangers even or mostly, and meeting people like that did not give me much hope.
The second man I talked to was a trucker...also a disheartening experience. Basically I learned that you should never make a truck hit its breaks. That’s bad. Now normally this wouldn’t be so bad, but I was setting out to ride y bicycle across the country, I figured I was sure to get in someone’s way at some point. As it turns out, he was right, when you make truckers hit their breaks they get really pissed off. Now don’t get me wrong, I do all I can to stay out of the way of moving vehicles, no mater their size. But it happens. I guess the thing that disturbed me the most about these two men is that they really didn’t know much about the world or life in any different application than the one they had experienced in central Kentucky. But they still managed to think they new just about everything. This is a bit hard to deal with coming out of an academic setting.
The third experience was the hardest to deal with. It was late, about 11:30 and I was tiered leaning up against the window of the bus as we pulled into a bus stop. An Asian woman came walking out to the bus station. The manager of the bus station came rushing up and with a forceful blast against the dour he forced the woman back into the bus station while screaming, “How many times do I have to tell you to stay inside until I announce that you can come out.” I can understand having a bad day and over reacting, but a few moments later when a few white people walked through the same door, the man who forced the woman back into the bus station calmly announced over the loud speaker that they needed to go back inside. Quite a different experience than what I have been used to in college. In many ways I wanted to go and talk to the woman and apologies for my country and the ignorant people who seam to be so plentiful here, but instead I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, “Welcome to America”. I didn’t think a white male approaching her in the dark and attempting to talk to her would calm her nerves, so I let it go. I don’t think I have ever been so disappointed in both myself and my fellow countrymen. And that’s how day 1 ended, I was alone, cold, and very discouraged.