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| Re: Not riding Greyhound anymore (336138) | |||
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Re: Not riding Greyhound anymore |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Mon Oct 14 20:26:43 2019, in response to Not riding Greyhound anymore, posted by https://salaamallah.com/ on Sun Oct 13 16:02:21 2019. Greyhound (or as I derisvely refer to them, GreyDOG) has been dead to me for over 40 years. When living in L. A. back in the day. I used them a couple of times to get to Magic Mountain (I did not own a car at that time). The first time was January 2, 1978 (observation of New Year's Day since the 1st was on a Sunday that year). Got it at the old Greyhound/RTD station in downtown LA (now long gone), made a stop in Hollywood, then to Magic Mountain. It was a regular schedule headed to northern California which made a stop at MM. No issues that time, of course being the winter season, there weren't that many people at the park. Then I went again on July 2nd (a Sunday). So now:--a) Summer season --b) Holiday weekend --c) The roller coaster Colossus had just opened that Friday before I got there relatively early. Park hours were 9:00 Am-Midnight 7 days a week in the summer, I arrived just before 10 AM. Rode some rides, then had a lovely 3-hour wait for Colossus. Got something to eat afterwards, maybe 1 or 2 more rides, then headed out to get the bus back to LA (~7 PM). Arrive to see a HUGE-ass crowd waiting. Now again, these are regularly scheduled buses from the north making a stop at MM. While the 7-ish bus wasn't full, no way was it accommodating everyone, even with a few standees, so it left without me. So I go back in (I had not gotten my hand stamped for reentry since I thought I was going home, but fortunately, my Greydog ticket included the price of admission to MM. I showed them the ticket at the gate and they let me back in. Rode a few more rides, may have gotten something else to eat, then headed out around 8:30 for the 9-ish bus. Same shit >:( Fortunately, I could see the trend developing, so this time I had my hand stamped upon exiting. So back inside. It is now dark, adn around 9:00 they had fireworks. It was kinda cool, they had to shut down the Revolution (for the 1 or 2 of you who saw the 1977 movie "Rollercoaster", that was the coaster featured at the end), because I guess where they shoot off the fireworks was close to the Revolution ROW, and they didn't want someone possibly getting injured by a dud firework that might land on the ROW. So at 9:00, they stopped boarding and send the trains out empty. The Revolution had 6 trains (each with 5 cars (IIRC)), and they could run a max at 5 at a time (the 6th was parked ona siding). So the first empty train pulled up to the boarding area (it would be the first train when the ride resumed after the fireworks. The second train pulled in right behind the first train, so it was half out of the station. Third train pulled in gehind, 4th train behind that. That was all the room on the straightaway leading into the station, so I was like where does Train 5 go. Turns out there was a brake on the final turn before the station approach, so that was where they stopped it. Looked kinda cool. Fireworks went off, then they were going to restart the trains in revenue, but the 5th train had some trouble getting started (that brake on the curve obviously isn't used that often). I guess they got it worked out eventually. After the fireworks, I headed out to the bus loading area. The crowd wasn't as big as before, but no way were we all fitting on a mainline bus with pax from points north. Fortunatelly, finally somone at Greydog dispatching had half a clue and apparently charted an MC-5 from an outfit called California Parlor Tours. I think everyone got in though there were a few standees. I was near the front of the line, so I got a seat. We left MM about 11:30 AM, made the stop in Hollywood, and got to the L. A. station after midnight. I still had to get home, but fortuantely I lived in mid-Wilshire, and there were 3 24-hour RTD lines going near where I lived. Ended up on the old 3 line. So I'm waiting for a bus at 12:30 in the morning, at 5th & Los Angeles Sts (in the heart of Skid Row). Fun times. It being a Sunday night, not many people out (and it wasn't as bad as it is today anyway). Bus came on time, got home around 1 AM. Fortunately, wehre I lived was pretty safe, I was often out at all hours. That was my las time at MM, and definitely my last time riding Greydog. There were no other options to MM w/out a car back then. No Metrolink (don't know how close the tracks are to the park anyway), and Santa Claria Transit, if it even existed back then, didn't have any service to the park, AFAIK. Life in California! |
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