Way Stations Between

Stuck in A Moment Between Snowflake and Las Vegas

Vegas was my next destination. At this point, the trip in terms of my goals was achieved, and whatever happened from here, would be nothing but gravy. I was contemplating going back through Utah, or California. That question would dictate the next month or so while I stayed in Vegas, but I had to get there.

Holbrook has two buses towards Vegas every day. You have to transfer at Flagstaff, and so I knew I’d be spending a day or so in Flagstaff, which is alright. I figured it’d be a hop, skip and a joump away. Turns out I was wrong..

I found out the hard way that bus drivers cannot take cash. I kind of hate that thought, as in places like Holbrook, there are no easy places to get a ticket. My cash was not king, and I was going to be stuck in the city with no real way to go that morning. At that point, I foudn out another way for people out of the country to get tickets.

While I was waiting for the bus I spoke with two lovely ex cons who just had gotten out of jail in Northern Arizona who told me how to do that. I ended up walking from the Circle K to the 7/11 to buy my ticket for that night, and went back to the coffee place to work.

I wish I could say more. I ended up in a bar later to make time. All in all I just killed time here. Holbrook just doesn’t have a lot to do. I ended up going back to the Circle K when the bar was closed and was allowed to sit and power nap my way to the bus, which showed up around 2 am. I had been up for a long time, and I was only going to sleep for about an hour.

I took it.

I arrived in Flagstaff at 4 am and snow was just starting to hit the ground. The greyhound station wasn’t open, and was more a one room space than anything elaborate. Still even with snow, the place was beautiful. Flagstaff could be alberta in the south in terms of the mountains. But the snow was already coming down heavy and hard. I had been fortunate getting to the south to avoid the deep freezes, but here, snow caught up with me.

To my solace, there was a starbucks about twenty minutes from where I was that was opening at 4:30 in the morning. I got a ticket to go to Vegas from where I was and it was leaving in the early afternoon. I figured I’d go work at the Starbucks, enjoy the town, and head out.

None of that happened.

What happened instead was that Flagstaff and Northern Arizona was hit with a snowstorm. I was happy for my snowflake peeps. Winter hadn’t been there in years and it was coming with a vengeance now. I spent my morning working at the Starbucks and with about two hours to go to the bus, I headed back to the station.

I wish I had more to say about those two stops, but Holbrook is well, Holbrook, and Flagstaff decided to have a freak snowstorm. So I just figured I’d sit in the now open station, and wait for the ride.

That ride was late. Four hours late. I learned an awful lot about local construction websites that were telling you when the highways are open. This greyhound driver was determined and went above and beyond, let me tell you. I was happy to see him because I was on an hour’s sleep. I contacted a friend for a place to stay for the night, and ended up crashing on the bus once I was one there.

Turns out I was on the last bus that made it out of town, as the storm stalled traffic forever. All of us on the bus were stuck there for another 16 hours. Now you may think, that was terrible. I didn’t think so at the time. For starters, the bus station back there was one room, and wet and cold. It was staying open because of the other delayed passengers, but it would have been a miserable space to stay in. The bus was warm and had a comfortable place to sleep. I was warm and secure on it, and managed to pass out with a smile.

When I woke up the next day, we were still stuck on the road for the first hour or so. I saw the same trucks that were there the night before. Funny thing is that Flagstaff is one the snow line for this. Once we descended down the mountain towards Vegas, it would be smooth sailing. We just had to get over the line.

It was great to see the truck in front of us take their first tentative steps. That meant we were free to move again as well. We made it five miles before we had to stop a second time, as the trucks didn’t have the friction they liked as the snow was melting but the ice was still slippery this early in the day. There was a concerted motion to stop again, and we did for a time.

Eventually the snow eased and the ice melted. We started moving again. This greyhound driver was amazing. He managed to navigate the ice and snow with precision and had the grace to be patient and fun. We got going and broke through the snow line as we descended downhill. It’s strange to see the desert take the place of the snow as we got there. A mile can be a difference between a desert and a blizzard.

It took a few hours, but this time, the normal pace was resumed. We stopped at a restaurant to freshen up. This driver is the kind of driver that deserves to be recognized. Excellent service and a sense of humor. He was a good dude and he got us all to where we were going. I want to once again thank him here.

In the end, we arrived. All of us passengers that were stranded between moments, came to an end.

I was in Vegas.