Greyhound bus trip through northern U.S.: (10) Denver, Colorado to Columbia, Missouri 2010-08-29

On the evening's unexplained 3-hour Greyhound service shutdown in Denver:
After a three-hour future-uncertain delay of vaguely-dispensed cause ("the drivers are finalizing the process of getting their mechanically-inspected buses from the Greyhound garage") at Denver's Greyhound bus terminal (as seen at the end of video #8 of this series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flrV59O6YVI), all of the buses scheduled to leave in the evening eventually boarded and left Denver several hours behind their respective schedules.

About the driver of this bus:
Passengers felt sorry when he was pulled over, most likely for speeding, just east of Denver, for, in the end, they thought his action was for their own good: he was trying do his best to make for lost time (to prevent missed connections) due to the company-inflicted three-hour delay back in Denver.

About this video:

A Greyhound bus leaving Denver late in the darkness of the evening runs non-stop, save the occasion just out of town that it is pulled over for speeding (not shown), all the way to the eastern Colorado town of Burlington for the trip's first rest stop (@0:00 to 0:13).

After an appreciated seven-hour slumber on the run (as opposed to the previously feared outcome of camping out in the Denver bus terminal), passengers awake at dawn over a Kansas landscape far less rugged than that to the west seen in the two days previous. The day's Prairie run makes a pause on the side of the road at an unceremonious gas-station agency in the Kansas capital city of Topeka (@3:40), just long enough to drop off and take on passengers before the bus is freeway-bound for the Kansas prairie once more (@4:30), this time non-stop through Kansas City, Kansas to its next major stop: Kansas City, Missouri, perhaps long enough to replenish one's supply of Greyhound cuisine (@5:35 to 5:42). The driver, now perhaps with one more speeding ticket added to his collection, makes the usual elaborate announcement on the to-do's and the not-to-do's at a major Greyhound connection and/or bus-cleaning point.

After having had a half-hour inspection of the downtown Kansas City landscape (@7:57 to 8:13) from the bus terminal in the southeast part of town, passengers now begin their day of Missouri crossing, still hours behind their original schedule. Antonio, the new driver from here to St. Louis would, unfortunately, shoulder the task of breaking the bad news of connections to be missed in St. Louis (@8:20 to 10:10). Shortly after, passengers are treated to the rare experience of being weighed at a highway weighing station (@10:20 to 11:10), a procedure normally limited to trucks in states other than Missouri.

When passengers are thanked for going Greyhound, many of life's simply pleasures, such as stopping a preferred restaurant or hotel of theirs, are denied to them. The same goes for that of visiting a XXX adult store along the freeway such as the one seen here as the bus exits (@12:54 to 13:00) for Boonville MO; the motto "look but don't touch" takes on asome real meaning from behind the picture-perfct window of a Greyound bus.

At Columbia MO one passenger who has been with the gang at the back of the bus since Denver gets off (@13:59 to 14:11), and within minutes the bus is back on Interstate 70, this time with St. Louis but one stop away.

Видео Greyhound bus trip through northern U.S.: (10) Denver, Colorado to Columbia, Missouri 2010-08-29 канала Backpacktrot