Riding in Memphis

My parents raised me like a good Oregonian to appreciate public transportation. Heck, I started riding the school bus in kindergarten! When I was in middle school, I rode the city bus across town, by myself, to help out at a day camp. During my study abroad excursion in Central America I hopped on and off all sorts of public transit. I did own a car from age 23-25, but as soon as I moved to DC I sold my little sedan and (usually) happily got around town via bus or Metro. The next 5 years I spent car-free until marrying into vehicle ownership. Even then, D.F. and I just had the one car and I took the bus to work. 

All that preamble to say, it's been a bit of an adjustment to live in Memphis, which is a really car-dependent place by comparison. We're actually fortunate to be within walking distance (0.5 miles) of a grocery store and other shops. Since I work from home, there's really no need for us to have two cars, but the bus system here has a kind of bad reputation, so I've been hesitant to try it. 

But today, necessity won out. I had to be at an appointment before D.F. would be home from work to give me the car. When I checked the bus routes online, I realized it was just a straight shot on one bus for me, so I figured what the heck, let's give it a try! 

The way that Memphians talk about the bus, I was expecting it to be a total sketch-fest of weirdness, but y'all, I gotta tell you, it was just about the most normal, uneventful bus ride I've ever taken. For real! I fully confess that I only have one data point, and for my study to be conclusive, I'd need to conduct further research. But I will testify that based on my limited experience, the bus seems totally fine to me. 

Here is what I observed on my 35 minute ride around 4:30pm:

• Passengers: mostly young African-American women. People playing on their phones, some chatting.
• Number of riders: lots! The bus was pretty much full, but almost everyone had a seat
• Timeliness: bus arrived to my stop 3 minutes after scheduled time
• Fare: $1.70 one way
• Driver's ability: drove safely, if a bit slowly
• Weirdos: maybe one, depends on how you define "weirdo." A young man was sitting up on a wheel well where I'm pretty sure you aren't supposed to sit. But he didn't seem that weird, just like he didn't care about the rules.

By comparison, here is what I usually experienced in Seattle:

• Passengers: wide variety of age, gender, race. People playing on their phones, some chatting. Often homeless people with big carts and dogs, especially downtown. 
• Number of riders: during rush hour, totally crammed, standing room only followed by another bus that is half full, which passes you on the viaduct while you stare longingly at it from your sardine can
• Timeliness: good at picking you up on time, but then you'll get stuck in a huge traffic jam and be late arriving
• Fare: $3.00 one way during rush hour
• Driver's ability: drive like maniacs because they have to if they ever want to escape the aforementioned traffic jam
• Weirdos: HA HA HA! like half the bus! Someone will be trying to start a drum circle in the back, teenagers making out, tons of piercings everywhere, an old dude ranting about something...
• Bikes: no one was using the bike rack in Memphis today, but lots of people load their bikes in Seattle

Now before you think everything is rainbows and butterflies over here at MATA, I must tell you, it's not. Service is woefully inadequate for a city of this size. The bus I caught today was running every 30 minutes down one of the busiest streets in town. In rush hour! The comparable routes in Seattle run every 5-7 minutes during peak hours.

Route options: really lacking. Here is the system map, if you're interested. Look at those huge gaps between bus lines! And also note how the routes are set up, mostly, on a wheel-and-spoke system. Meaning, imagine that downtown is the center of the wheel, and all the other routes are spokes that go out from it. So if you want to go anywhere, you'll probably have to ride downtown, wait, transfer, and then head back out. And remember, each bus is only running a couple times an hour, so you might be waiting a long time.

The reason both of the above are really important is that Memphis is a city with a lot of poverty. Owning and maintaining a car can quickly eat up a huge chunk of your income, especially if you're working a low-wage job. Activists are trying to raise awareness. Some people are talking about plans, at least. 

Leadership is another issue. MATA is currently searching for a new general manager, and although certain groups are calling for an outsider to come in and shake up business as usual, I get the impression that's not how things usually play out around town. Just in case the future leader reads my blog, I will now offer a few meager suggestions.

Fares: why is the fare $1.70? Who caries around dimes with them? Just make it $1.75. But as an aside, I noticed a lot of people using magnetic stripe pass cards, so maybe most people don't pay with cash and it doesn't matter.

Technology: I couldn't find any app like One Bus Away for MATA so I just looked up my trip on Google. When I arrived at my stop, a sign listed an email address and stop number, and it said you could text for an update on your bus's arrival time. I sent a text but got no response. If you want young, wired people to use your services, MATA, you've got to make it more user friendly.  

Stop spacing: MATA really needs to look at re-spacing their bus stops. There were blocks that literally had 2 stops about 100 feet apart. That is ridiculous, and it results in slow service.

And thus ends my naive bus post based on a single ride. I'll have to hop on again sometime soon to gather more data! 

Nashville!

Living in a land-locked state has its benefits, such as being within driving distance of several fun places to visit. Our most recent destination was Nashville, TN. It was a blast! Here's a summary of the high points.

Food/Drink
Southern food is alive and well in Nashville, and we thoroughly enjoyed the culinary stops on our tour. We hit up Peg Leg Porker, 55 South, and Loveless Cafe, and Merchants, just to name a few. Plus we stopped by the Yazoo brewery. Word to the wise: reserve your brewery tickets in advance. It was already sold out when we got there, so we consoled ourselves with a beer sampler :)

 Oops, I ate half my sandwich before I remembered to stop and take a picture!

 This pecan french toast from 55 South was sooooo delicious!

This was from a dinner made up of lots of snacks. First snack: fried sampler platter. It has okra, pickles, catfish, and shrimp. My favorite was pickles, of course :)

On the next stop, DF got a salad and I got a Jack and coke. Hey, I already ate lots of fried veggies!

History
(from oldest to youngest) President Andrew Jackson's home (the Hermitage), the Tennessee State Capitol building, and various sites related to the Battle of Franklin (Civil War).

The kitchen at the Carter House, one of the main places where fighting occurred during the Battle of Franklin

The Hermitage is undergoing some repairs and renovations. Hey, it's like 200 years old, what are you going to do?

Final resting place of Andrew and Rachel Jackson, along with some other family members

The view looking down the hill from the Capitol. Isn't it depressing how all the grass turns brown here in the winter? I've heard it will just magically green up some day...I suppose this must be true, as it was quite green when we arrived in late May.

During a heated dispute way back in the day, a shot was fired in the Capitol. Look, here's the evidence on the banister!

Music
What visit to Nashville would be complete without live music? We did the Grand Ole Opry one night and boogied at the honky tonks another. It was awesome to hear so many talented musicians, especially the fiddle players!

Friends
Thanks to Facebook, I knew that two of my West Coast friends now live in Music City. We got to meet one friend and her family and saw another's husband play a live show!

Sightseeing
I recognize we were doing sightseeing in general, but it's the best title for the category of visits to the Parthenon and Opryland Hotel. The hotel is amazing! It reminded me of a giant Vegas hotel, except without a casino. There are huge plants/trees inside, waterfalls, a river...so cool! The Parthenon is a full-scale replica of the Greek one. It was originally built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exhibition, but that first version was made out of plaster and quickly began to crumble. The permanent one was built in the 1920s after the citizens of Nashville clamored for it, since their city was known as the Athens of the South. Now, it's an art museum.

Yes, that is inside a hotel!

 A ceiling mosaic in the hotel lobby

The Parthenon...and more dead grass

Photos are only allowed on the second floor where there is this giant Athena statue.

Other Stuff
Being good southerners, we went to church on Sunday (First Presbyterian) where we found out that people dress up A LOT, like everyone was wearing a suit, except us. Aaaaawk-ward! But the building is cool and old, so that was a plus. The town of Franklin is quite charming and has done a great job of modernizing while still preserving history. We ate at the Aquarium restaurant and I took an outrageous amount of fish pictures.

And last but not least, Nashville has a Trader Joe's. Hip hip, hooray! I stocked up on all my favorite non-perishable snacks and am trying not to devour them all at once now that we're home.

It was a great trip! There's still so much more to do there...hmm, maybe we'll have to make a return visit someday :)

Seahawks Fever!

This past week, I've really wished I was still living in Seattle. Sure, it was fun to watch the Seahawks dominate the Superbowl while in a room of Broncos fans here, but it would've been even better in Hawks territory. The dreams that came true! Spontaneous celebrations! The parade! 

I've been semi-paying attention to the team for the last couple of years, so I don't consider myself a total bandwagon fan. But I will admit to becoming more ardent in my devotion since our move south. Insert something about culture shock, homesickness, blah blah blah.

Really, though, how can you not love the Seahawks? If you are still on the fence about them, watch this entertaining video and you'll see the light :)

Traipsing Through Virginia

Work took me to DC and Virginia last week. I always enjoying visiting my old stomping grounds. I just wish it wasn't usually in the dead of winter. Single digit temperatures + a 1/2 mile walk to the meeting location = frozen face. Actually, I employed all my best cold weather gear and body heat conserving techniques. No frostbite here!

The Virginia portion of the trip included a ridiculous amount of driving. I can complain about it since I'm the one who planned my schedule :) That little rental Ford Focus added 800+ miles to its odometer in 5 days and I'd basically forgotten how to use the gear shift in our car by the time I got home.

Cold temperatures continued throughout my travels, but the only time I ran into snow trouble was in Southwest Virginia. For those who don't know, my job involves working with high school exchange students. I was going to visit a student who lives in a house up on a hill just over the WV state line. There's a fair bit of snow up in the mountains of West Virginia this time of year! As I was slowly creeping up the driveway, I had to go up a slight hill, and gravity wasn't interested in that happening. I'm sure all sorts of physics factors were at work - low friction coefficient on icy slush, the mass of the car, reduced velocity, the aforementioned gravity...the end result was the car sliding backwards. So, I applied the brakes gently. Then two 16 year old exchange students, who I suspect have never driven a car before, attempted to guide me to a safe resting place. The stood by the car shouting such helpful directions as "More! Now straight! No, more!" The one standing in front of the car said "towards me!" as I was traveling in reverse...

Somehow we managed to maneuver the vehicle around with its front pointed back down the hill, and I was able to inch down the mountain without further problems. It was pretty entertaining :)

And now, a couple photos from my flights.

Arriving as the sun sets, with a slight blanket of snow below.

Departure Day: deep freeze has set in. This is the frozen Potomac River with the Lincoln Memorial on the right

Frozen Mall + river. In just a few short months, this place will be teeming with cherry blossoms and signs of spring!

Someday I'll try to convince D.F. to write a guest post about our visitors from a couple weeks back - he was the main tour guide, as I had to work. Or I'll take notes and ghost write for him :)