Snapshot: picking up friends before our DC adventure

At a greyhound bus station

My Toyota hummed along — right past the right turn into the station. I keep my cool, flicking the radio to off, signaling and shifting onto a side street. Rerouted, I have another go. Bumping over the uneven downtown road and into the bus station’s parking loop. There are only a handful of parallel parking spots next to a 20 minute parking sign.

I creep the car up past a snaking line of automobiles, only to realize that the way around the tail end of the loop was filled with traffic and poor bus parking. The car behind me whipped into a handicap spot and I followed suit. Only for a moment though, before I clicked into reverse and threaded the needle of aluminum and steel.

A lap completed, I drove back into the entrance and parked in the 20 minute parking. I popped out and asked a balding man with a while beard when the bus from Pittsburgh was coming and he said, “Any minute now”. A bus arrived and I went out of my car and it was the wrong one. Eventually, they came and our adventure began.