Hitting the road aboard the Megabus

LOS ANGELES- It’s that time of year again. Barbeque, picnics, plenty of sunshine, a couple of months of vacation days and an over abundance of  planned family reunions. Traveling to those family jaunts can be quite expensive if you have to travel across the country or have a mid-size court of doting little ones.

A good solution to cost-saving moves to get to those family functions is to hop on board of the Megabus.

Megabus? What the heck is the Megabus? College students know all about the Megabus. Students have been traveling this traveling, two-floor machine for years when the money has dried up, and they have found themselves in a situation to get home from school with little or no money in their pockets. It’s worth it.

Some of you may have seen those monster double-deck buses with the can’t miss, screaming blue paint advertisement going by you on the freeway. I know I have. When I first saw these very large traveling buses, it peaked my curiosity. For years, it used to be that only one company dominated the roadways for passengers looking to travel to and fro across the United States.

That is no longer the case.

It hasn’t been the case for several years now. That’s because the Megabus has stolen a lot of the public transportation mojo from the Greyhound experience. This years marks the 10th year the company has been in existence, and Megabus seems to gaining steam with the number of people it is reaching with its unheard of pricing and more than comfortable seating.

Want to call my bluff?

At the right time of year, you can find a ticket at the all affordable price tag of a $1. If you’re on the East Coast, it is not unusual to find tickets ranging from $3 to $5 at any given time, depending where you are traveling to.

More than the fact that Megabus, which is under the umbrella of Coach USA, has serviced more than 50 customers since its inception, the whirling, tour bus seems to offer traveling in peace and quiet. Maybe, it’s just me, but the Megabus has been a great alternative choice for traveling passengers like myself to enjoy.

While I love to fly, I will take a trip on the Megabus at any time. From the two times that I have ridden aboard the Megabus, the experience was a cool one that I thoroughly enjoyed. There was not a lot of drama, not a lot of fuss and not a whole lot of noise like I have experienced riding on other passenger buses.

Of course, the first thing that caught my attention was the double-deck, passenger layout. So, as I was boarding the bus on my way to the Bay Area to cover my first Super Bowl Week experience as a reporter, I was impressed by the top deck with its reserve seating and front end, sight-seeing window view.

For a moment there, I thought I was up in the clouds. Literally.

But what I really enjoyed the most was the spacing that Megabus has to offer, which allows you to recline, sit back, relax and go to sleep. In my case, it was perfect. The extra room allowed me to fiddle around with my computer and do some writing as it pertained to the Super Bowl 50 clash between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers that I was reporting on.

Let me back up a minute. The Megabus does not operate out of its own terminal, but rather have partnered with existing passenger holding pockets like Union Station in Los Angeles to have space to load and unload traveling customers.

That may turn off some people. But those who want to get away with the simplicity of a good, smooth ride to their destination at the affordable, low-price to travel, it is a very, very small inconvenience. I took the bus that departed shortly before midnight, and that worked well for me as I knew that getting to the Bay Area would take about eight hours to arrive.

To me, this is the best time to travel. The peace and serenity I had on my trip up North was worth taking. It was a good night to travel because it was in the middle of the week and not too many people like taking trips in the middle of the night like I do.

As a writer, peace and having the time to think in a quiet space is something I value a lot in order to effectively bring out my creative side,. This is one of the main reasons I travel from time to time aboard a passenger transportation vehicle like Megabus. The two times I have rode aboard the Megabus, I found this to be on point and simply invaluable.

I took my seat on the top deck reveling in the anticipation of going around participating in interviews and snapping up photos of the two Super Bowl 50 combatants. I was looking forward to getting pics of Peyton Manning and sitting in the reporter’s seat listening to Carolina quarterback Cam Newton’s take on the biggest stage in sports.

I was kind of nervous, but a good night relaxing ride  can do wonders for a person. Hopping aboard the Megabus helped me stay refreshed and relaxed as the neon night green lights that hover over passengers is akin to a person listening to a smooth jazz channel: It will put you in straight chill mode.

On the way back from the end of my Super Bowl 50 Week run, things got a little tighter as more people jammed on to get back to the City of Angels.

I still got a good seat and was able to travel back with enough room to bring on a laptop computer and several shopping backs, which should give an indication of the room space the bus provides. The best deal about the Megabus is the pricing of tickets. The second best thing is that the company has hit its stride in opening up all the major hubs around the U.S.

For travel on the fly, it’s difficult to outdo the Megabus.

Dennis J. Freeman

Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com