Greyhound Leaves Bend

Like Jon, I remember when there was a bus station downtown. The last few years, the station’s moved around, mostly situated in the back of Gas stations — the now non-existent 76 station on the North End of town, and the current location at Hwy 97 Gas, across from the Red Oak Square, come to mind — or in small little stops like on the East side of Bend in a little strip mall plaza across from a car dealership. But those big buses with the big shiny Greyhounds on the side won’t be coming through Bend anymore.

I’ve used Greyhound several times — a few times in Bend — but I used it a lot when I was trying to court my then-girlfriend (now wife) as she lived in Monmouth, I lived in Eugene, and I had no car. When I wanted to surprise her with a visit, I’d take Greyhound to Salem and hitchhike into her college. The bus was just nasty and dirty, but I met some fascinating folks on that bus — fascinating in that “if this white-trash redneck sitting next to me spouts off any more anti-Hispanic racial slurs as loud as he is, I’m going to be in the middle of a serious ass-kicking” kind of way.

In the grand scheme of things, it probably won’t hurt our tourism-driven economy too much, as the people that traveled via Greyhound didn’t generally make too much of a dent in the local economy with their spending. I’m just hoping Hwy 97 Gas doesn’t close, because they have really cheap gas.