An 'imagine this' moment

A little bit of back story for you.
-I have to take a bus from Manhattan to get to my apartment in New Jersey.
-It's the first stop out of the Lincoln Tunnel and close to 31st street (this will be important in a minute.)
-My ticket costs $2.55 (when you travel between different zones, the cost is different)
-A lot of buses are exact change only

SO, IMAGINE THIS:
You get on the bus number that appears on your ticket at the gate that the guy in in the ticket office told you to go to. You come out of the Lincoln tunnel and watch the street your bus is supposed to be getting off on fly by on the left. You realize, this apparently is NOT the bus you wanted. Then, you remember you left your cell phone at home. So, you can't call anyone to help you figure out what to do or to help you get back home.

You decide you have three choices.
1. You can get up NOW and tell the bus driver you think you've made a BIG mistake (while everyone watches and wonders "oh great! What now?")
2. You can wait until the first stop and then get off and walk back or ask the bus driver what the best thing to do would be.
3. You can ride it back to Manhattan and just catch another bus (because they all go back to port authority.......). Better yet, this will just swing back around by the stop you normally catch buses at in the morning and you can just get off there!

You decide against #1 because you don't like people staring at you and thinking your an idiot. You decide against #3 because that will probably take forever! Not to mention, you only have $1.00 cash in your wallet and don't know if that will be enough for the transfer fare. You go with decision #2 and figure a little walking won't hurt anyone.

However, as you keep waiting for the bus to stop, you begin to realize that he's not stopping anytime soon. Crap! By the time he does stop he's in the 60's and you start to panic a little bit. Now, you'd really look dumb telling him that you were supposed to get off on a stop that was 30 streets back. So, now you start to think option #3 is looking good in terms of getting off at the stop you catch in the morning. That is, until you start to figure out, he's not going back that way. He'll definitely be taking another route..... So, I guess I will just take it back to Port Authority in Manhattan and then catch another bus. Oh shoot, but I don't probably won't have enough for the transfer fare! Gah! You're running out of options.

You decide to suck it up, tell the bus driver and ask him what to do (now that a good amount of people have emptied off the bus and you see an empty seat right behind him which will make it easy to talk without everybody knowing your business!) Not to mention, you're a good way from home, without much cash or a cell phone, nor a clue of your whereabouts. Asking the bus driver is looking REAL good about now.

WELCOME TO MY TRIP HOME TODAY!!! :)

Luckily, the bus driver was extremely nice! He gave me a hard time about it, joking that I was causing trouble and that the transfer fares would cost me a GOOD amount of money. Thank goodness he wasn't picking any passengers up on the way back as he was switching over to a new bus route. He was able to switch up the way he normally goes back to Port Authority and dropped me off at the bus stop in front of my house.

THANKS ALLEN!!!

(When you come to visit, if you're taking a bus during rush hour and it says EXPRESS... GET OFF!!!!! Even though it says the same number as on your bus ticket... it's EXPRESS... it doesn't make local stops, which yours is one of... GET OFF!!!!)

:)