The first bus ride...

I looked out onto the patio this morning and it was still wet from yesterday. I don’t think anything truly dries here. The sun has shown its face a few times since we got here, but never stays for long. It rained most of the day on Sunday and has intermittently since we arrive here. I understand now where England gets it reputation of a rainy place. It is cloudy most of the day. I am trying not to let it get to me, but with another day of no car, no bike, no internet, no stuff, no school to look forward to, my outlook is pretty grim. I am going to try to figure out the bus system today and try to find a library for me and the kids. I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time waiting since I don’t know the bus schedule, but I am going to try!

As predicted…

I figured out the bus schedule for the stop at the top of the street. The kids and I packed a lunch and we went to the top of the street to wait. We waited about 2 minutes and a bus arrived. I was so excited that we found a bus so soon! We waited 45 minutes for a bus when we were trying to return from Cambridge over the weekend. We hopped on and found out that the bus was going to the Tesco in Bar Hill. I knew there was a library right next door, so we happily set off in that direction. As we got off at the Tesco parking lot, I was bombarded with requests for Halloween costumes. Being that we are days away from Halloween with no costumes, I told them we would go take a look before going to the library. They skipped into the store and rushed straight to the Halloween costumes. They both had already scoped out which costumes they wanted the last time we visited Tesco, so in less than 15 minutes we had two costumes selected. Nathan was going to be a sorcerer and Alyssa was going to be an angel with a fluffy, sparkly halo.

We packed up the costumes along with a few more clothes for school and we headed for the library. Upon arriving at the library, we found out that it is closed on Tuesdays. Our disappointment last only a few minutes since the library was right next to a big park and playground. We headed over to the park and the kids played for about an hour.

The weather was windy and overcast making the day a little chilly. Alyssa and Nathan suddenly decided that the park time was over and they were very anxious to try on their costumes. Looking at the time, it was 12:45. I had overheard the bus driver tell one of the passengers that the next bus time was 12:20 which was an hour after our drop off. I assumed that the bus must run hourly, so I explained to the kids that we would probably have to sit at the bus stop for 40 minutes until the next bus. They both were so interested in their Halloween costumes that they said they did not mind the wait. So, we waited… and waited… and waited. It turns out that there was only ONE bus that came back to that stop that went by our town and we had missed it. We asked each bus driver as the buses pulled into the stop if they went through Hardwick. They all said no. We asked at least 8 bus drivers about their routes. Pretty soon, we started to see the same buses again. The kids kept pushing me toward all the arriving buses begging me to ask the drivers which way they were going. I did not want to ask since I did not want to hear them say no again, but I asked for the kids. Finally, I had to explain to the kids that our bus was not coming. It was 2:00 in the afternoon and we had to figure out a way to get home. I looked around the parking lot to see if I saw any taxis, but none were in sight. I walked into the Tesco and sheepishly asked one of the security people watching the exit alarms if they could give me a number for a taxi. The first number I called just rang and rang with no answer. The second, the taxi service said they were not available until 4:00. The thought of waiting for another two hours just about made me cry. I then called Dale at work. I explained that we were stuck at Tesco and that we had no prospects of getting home anytime soon. He said that he planned to come home a little early since we had to go grocery shopping at the commissary anyway. We were saved! ONLY 30 more minutes of waiting! We were so excited. When he picked us up 30 minutes later, I was so excited to leave the bus stop, I was giddy.