assorted

Whew! It took until yesterday for me to ride home using the light rail. Free rides and football bowls through Dec. 31 kept the trains packed and virtually un-rideable. I put a trip together yesterday afternoon and probably won't do it again.

I boarded at the Tempe Transportation Center, the train took off, cleared the station, got to University and stopped. The track curves a bit and, being in the last car, we could see police lights on University. After a couple of minutes, the train driver announced that an accident on University blocked the tracks and we must wait until it cleared before continuing. What kind of odds put an accident smack over the light rail tracks? Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa/Scottsdale/Glendale/etc., etc., etc., contain thousands of really bad drivers, so what a surprise - not. Anyway, it happened and we spent 15 minutes in situ, waiting for the accident to clear. Uneventful for the rest of the rail ride, I got off at Apache and walked over to the bus stop to catch the 81S. About 10 other people did the same thing - pretty good numbers for ASU's winter break time. We waited and we waited and 20 minutes later, the bus showed up. In all, it took me one hour to get home - a good 30 minutes longer than usual. While I wouldn't expect accident delays every day, the bus wait seems pretty typical and pretty pointless. Guess the 66S gets my homeward bound business.

This morning I used the 81N/light rail combo and took some photos of more Apache/McClintock station art.