The bus ride deserves its own post.

You know why Greyhound is so cheap?

Because people on it are goddamn crazy.

The gate line for DC was already doubled back on itself when I got there (they'd oversold the previous bus, they are organized like that). I noticed one sketchy guy hovering around the gate - he was this skinny blonde middleaged man who obviously hadn't bathed or changed for a while. Equally obvious was the fact that he was not stable - he kept weaving back and forth and swearing to himself, eyes unfocused. I thought he was some bum who'd wandered in for the AC, but to my surprise he both had a ticket and was allowed onboard. I'd assumed the entire Greyhound company had cracked down on security ever since the beheading, but apparently that's just Canada. I sat as far away as I could.

Things went downhill almost immediately after. The bus driver spent an hour and a half arguing with a woman who had dared to move her bags off the seat onto the ground, which ended with us waiting for the police to come and remove the passenger, who was not violent in any way and could have been handled by actual Greyhound employees. When they finally showed up, people *applauded*. We pulled out, the bus driver gave the mandatory no smoking/thank you for riding spiel, then added a smug "don't try me" at the end, which also got applause. This blew my mind. People were actually impressed by her behaviour? She took an extremely minor incident and blew it way out of proportion. These were grown women behaving like children, but you're congratulating her on what, exactly? Not allowing 'disrespect'? I hate to sound like a judgmental foreigner but...this is the kind of attitude that causes problems for America.

At about 3 am on the interstate out of Clarksville, sketchy guy made his move. He demanded to be let off the bus (we were in the middle of nowhere) and when that didn't work, began screaming and clawing at the bus driver and exit door. The bus swerved around and half the passengers rushed to the front to see what was going on. Luckily, some of them were actually helpful and held the guy down so the driver could find a safe place to pull over and wait for the state troopers. Throughout all this sketchy guy kept shrieking, moaning, and cursing everyone around him. Then he started to have a seizure (the trooper insisted he was faking this, but he sure as hell was not faking the rest of it).

Oh Greyhound. And I get to ride you for another month.