Thanks to Ron’s efficient monitoring of the clock I did leave the plant and make it to the train station on time. Quickly we unloaded my luggage from his Flex and, after a brief but heartfelt hug, I rushed into the station, bought my ticket, and hustled to the platform.
That is when the controller told me the train was stuck on the tracks due to a faulty switching mechanism. I scanned the track and in fact saw the train, but it wasn’t moving. He then informed me I should join the group departing the platform and wait for a shuttle bus that would take us to the next station upstream from this malfunctioning switch, where we would be able to board the train. Neither he nor the controller that joined him offered to help me manage my luggage.
Sigh! Where is chivalry nowadays?
Mind you, I’m used to pulling my luggage. That was not the problem. The problem was that it was so miserably hot. SO miserably hot that the train tracks were expanding and warping. So terribly hot that the switches were malfunctioning. And, if the temperature is so extreme that it warps train tracks and blows switches, how do you think this traveler felt, lugging those suitcases and that one leather bag?
I guess I should tell you that the train platforms in Dallas are outdoors, not sheltered by any type of building. Now that you know the conditions, you can truly feel sorry for me.
I reversed my course and followed the group of passengers headed for the station. We had to wait for a shuttle bus to take us to the next station. I found that rather odd. Seeing as they knew the train was stuck and waiting upstream of us, why hasn’t the shuttle bus materialized yet?
All in all it was about a twenty minute wait. And then, it took about fifteen minutes for us to get to the next station. Apparently that was all the time needed for the train to get unstuck and reverse its course. By the time we made it to the station, the train was gone. It was trying to maintain its schedule, instead of waiting for the passengers guaranteed to ride. Can someone please tell me why train conductors were making such a big deal of head counts and potential passengers if they were not going to delay the train so that we could board it?
And so it came that I had to wait for an hour outdoors, in 100+ degree heat for the next train. Another flurry of phone calls to Fort Worth and to the plant, where I could in fact have stayed and visited for another hour without risking missing the train.
Personally, I blame Fort Worth. I have never liked that town.
There is a geological fault line between Grand Prairie, a suburb west of Dallas and Arlington, a suburb east of Fort Worth. It is clearly visible, not as a jagged line that one must carefully navigate over, but in the terrain. East of this fault line the soil is dark, rich and loamy; trees and greenery abound – at least, it does when the sun is not scorching down from the sky and the temperatures are not squeezing every last vestige of moisture out of everything. West of the fault line everything is flat, brown and dead. The soil is shale and the rock tends more to limestone. And that is how I describe Fort Worth to friends and relatives all over the globe: flat, brown, dead. Beyond Fort Worth are the outskirts of the Chihuahuan Desert, which you and I traveled across a few posts back.
I own property in Fort Worth. I know good people in Fort Worth and I have family that lives in Fort Worth. I even lived there, for a while. But I never felt comfortable there, never felt compelled to actually live there, as in: go out, visit, carouse or the like. To aggravate the situation, even though I lived in Fort Worth, I worked in Dallas nearly the entire time I resided in Texas.
I was not looking forward to my visit in Fort Worth. For one, because my sister in law always has issues she wants or needs help with but never follows or accepts advice for, and for two, well… it was Fort Worth. If you must know, I consider Fort Worth the black hole of the universe, not just of transportation, as the title alleges. Things have a tendency of going wrong or of dying in Fort Worth. Marriages, vegetation, job markets… Strangely enough, several others that make their home and lives in Cowtown agree with me.
The bright side is that my beautiful niece lives there, and she makes the visit worthwhile. Even though I know plenty of people in Fort Worth I did not plan to visit any of them. Instead I wanted to reserve what little time I had for my family. I learned my lesson about spreading myself too thin in Dallas.
I finally arrived in Fort Worth after 9PM and debarked, along with all the other fuming passengers who had to wait for the late train even though they had been at the station on time to catch the early train. They muttered and grumbled all the way to their cars while my eyes scanned the platform for my niece and her boyfriend, who had waited out the extra time at the station.
There’s my Jessica! With tears and hair flowing freely she flies into my arms. I sweep her off the ground and hug her for what must have been a minute straight. Joyous reunion! Her boyfriend Jordan follows closely behind but keeps a measure of distance. He doesn’t want to get kicked by one of her jutting feet as I twirl her around.
The rest of the visit is, as we say, private. Let’s just say that visiting Donna is visiting Donna, and we made the best of the time we had. The family provided me with a comfortable, air conditioned room. The rest of the house’s climate control system left a lot to be desired, but the room I slept in was of comfortable temperature. We laughed, we cried, we played with the dogs and with Baby Devon, and then it was time to go.
We had to get up very early the next morning to catch the bus to Memphis. There is only one bus out of Fort Worth to make a Memphis connection in Dallas, and it leaves at 7AM. I set my clock to wake up at 4:30, so that I could grab a shower and pack again before hitting the road. The whole family decided to wake up early to get me downtown on time.
Oh, bad news: within one mile of leaving the house in the White Settlement the suburb of Fort Worth Donna lives in, all traffic was diverted off the interstate and onto the highway looping around the city. Wonder what could have happened? Now we not only have a detour to contend with, but mounting traffic issues because everyone has to take that detour and we’re coming into rush hour. And then, my nephew didn’t know the quickest way to downtown and missed the exit to Interstate 35, which runs right through downtown. We doubled back and turned around to get on that freeway. We finally made it downtown, and rushed into the bus terminal, all of us together like a solid unit, only to find out the bus would be delayed about 30 minutes.
Donna and the kids had to get back home because Jordan had to go to work and Baby Devon would be left by himself. Fortunately traffic headed west was not delayed at all and Baby Devon was still asleep by the time everyone made it home. I was still stuck at the bus station.
I had an hour and a half layover in Dallas before making my connection to the Memphis bound bus. As long as the ticketing agent was right and the bus was only going to be thirty minutes late, I would have no problem making my connection.
Unfortunately he was not right and I watched with growing dismay as the clock’s hands first inched toward, and then swept past the 9:20 mark, the time I was supposed to board my bus out of Dallas. At this rate I was not going to make it to Memphis by 7PM that evening, as my itinerary specified. I called Lisa, my friend who lives in Memphis. She would be picking me up from the bus stop, but now it would not be at a decent hour. We agreed to stay in touch by text message throughout the day.
And that is where I leave things for now. Greyhound personnel have a lot of sorting out to do and I’m not a happy traveler at this point. I’ll finish telling you of the downstream effects of this delay in the next post, but I do want to tell you what had happened to cause all of these traffic back ups and detours. A tractor trailer had plowed into a concrete bridge piling and overturned. The state troopers closed the entire highway and rerouted traffic so they could clean up the mess.
More to come, Folks!
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