Greyhound: 100 year Anniversary
Riders wait for their Greyhound bus to depart the Union Station parking garage in May in Washington, D.C. To meet the competition and its challenges, the bus company has been overhauling its image. (Amanda Voisard/For The Washington Post)
It was nearing midnight when a sleek coach adorned with galloping canines inched through the new Greyhound terminal in Washington. The 45-foot-long vehicle rolled past a glass-enclosed ticket counter emitting a warm glow, a wood-paneled waiting room and me sitting on a bench, watching for the 12:01 bus to Chicago.
The driver pulled into a spot and hopped out, dressed in the same shades of blue as his charge. Despite the hour and the long road ahead, he was a ball of energy.
“The ride is faster than you think,” Tony Stevens assured the dozen or so passengers bound for destinations between the capital and the Midwest.
As part of the boarding process, Stevens matched our IDs to our tickets. He looked at my ticket — Washington to Hibbing, Minn. — and exclaimed, “I’ve been there. That’s where they have the museum.”
And that was why I was going: to visit the Greyhound Bus Museum in its place of birth 100 years ago this year. My pilgrimage would take one day, 14 hours and 19 minutes and would include three transfers (Chicago, Minneapolis, Duluth), countless rest stops (RS Midway Plaza, Pa.; Tomah, Wis.; Pine City, Minn., etc.) and several teeth-brushings in bus station bathroom sinks (Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Minneapolis).
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Category: Anniversary
