The buses went from Lake Quinault to Aberdeen ($1 each), Aberdeen to Olympia - the capital of Washington State ($3 each) and then with a different company from Olympia to Tacoma ($3 each.) We were relieved to get our bikes on the front of each bus (there are only 2 bikes allowed) and we were trying to work out what we were going to do if we couldn't - couldn't come up with any good ideas! It is a brilliant system, and I don't think that any of the buses in NZ do it this way. It was the same as the system used in Bar Harbor.
The real eye opener for us was that it exposed us to the other side of America. The people who ride the buses in this part of the world (from Lake Quinault to Olympia in particular) appeared to be the lower income/welfare based people. A lot of the people were disabled - listening to some of the discussions, some people were veterans, on disability pensions. A lot had let themselves go and seemed quite angry at the world. On the other hand, some of them seemed to be quite friendly and generous to others.
We saw an ex marine - from the south (self described), who was on a bike (that the bus driver let him put in the wheelchair space) - give another guy who was on a wheelchair scooter (looked in his 50's), his rain poncho as he didn't have one. Very kind.
His kindness reminded me of the quote I saw on Facebook the other day saying 'be kind to unkind people, they need it the most.' Not that the other guy was unkind, but it got me thinking.
When we got into the Aberdeen station we had a 1 1/2 hour wait for our connection, which was eye opening. There was a group of men hanging around arguing/talking with each other. We kept our heads down, and eventually they drifted away. Then about 20 mins before we were due to leave an altercation began between the officials at the bus terminal and one of the guys who had been harassing them. They called the police who came. The guy then severely failed the 'attitude test', another policeman turned up, and Peter heard them say something like 'why have you been evading us?' after searching the database. He was obviously on something and just got more and more belligerent.
In the middle of all this the bus arrived and we quickly got on. But the thing that amazed us was the reaction of the locals. Quite a few of the locals getting onto the bus were giving the police grief for being there to deal with the guy. One of them even rang the local police department and asked them why they sent the policemen out, and demanded to know whether they had better things to do. He then got aggro with the police department. Stranger and stranger. As he was hanging up, someone else on the bus announced that they had just heard that there had been a bomb threat just now at the local Safeway.
Certainly a different set of experiences. - Peter and gear waiting for the bus, pretty much what we spent all of today doing (in the rain and cold)
Finally got into Tacoma and the little that we have seen of it so far has been interesting. A huge port with oil and petroleum distribution, importation of footwear, production of asphalt, distribution of gypsum, the port and waterways became very polluted. They undertook a massive project to clean up the waterways- with much funding through rates and taxes. The area is now still definably industrial, but has quite a quirky trendy feel around the waterways, we will explore tomorrow.
We did a quick visit to the Museum of Glass and looked at amazing art glass from Australia and the Pacific (but none from NZ) and watched working glass blowers. We will visit some of Dale Chilhuly's glass monuments that he prepared for the city tomorrow morning.
Outside of the Museum of Glass, the furnace is in this structure.
Water and glass display outside museum of glass in tacoma, on the waterways to the right.
Some of the examples of the amazingly intricate glass at the museum,
Summer tomorrow - hallelujah!!!!
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