Road memories

Everytime I count my blessings, I count travelling safe and sound three times. About 10 percent of my year, last year was spent on the road and for many of those times, they were so many experiences I had. Some good, some bad, and some left me wishing I never went through them.

I remember the first time I travelled a long distance journey. I was so moody and even cried on the way. The first thing that made me smile that day was when the driver calmly parked the car halfway to the journey and told us he needed to go answer the call of nature in one of the bushes. This man spent over an hour doing whatever he was doing in the bushes and when he came out, he looked so refreshed, that everybody bursted out into laughter at his return.

Then, there was this one particular bus I entered that I've found the experience hard go forget. When I used to travell with my mom to the South, I always admired how easily the passengers related with each other but boarding a bus going to the South alone, had always been different for me. Many of the buses I boarded, the passengers were mostly always students who didn't mind sitting through the whole journey, airpods in ear, oblivious to whatever is going on around them. But I'm not that kind of person. It doesn't even help that I can't use earphones or whatever ear plugins during a journey. I'll be attacked with a splitting headache almost immediately. So now, this particular bus contained passengers who boarded from another state and since there were still free spaces, it decided to pass by my park and so, I boarded.

In that particular bus, the passengers were so outgoing and being the last to board the bus, I wondered if they all like knew each other before boarding. We had someone nicknamed first lady. We had the first Lady's crush. Wait, let me explain how these nicknames came about. First lady, was a very pretty lady who sat in the passenger seat, next to the driver. And being the first passenger, she earned the name first lady. Her crush was this guy that connected his Bluetooth to the bus's speaker and kept on playing blues. According to him, the blues were meant for only first lady and not the rest of us in the bus, even though we could hear it. We had this guy we called importer and exporter who earned the name just because he sounded and talked like an igbo businessman who talked too much.

As for me, I was named last born. Apart from the fact that I was the last to board the bus, I was the youngest member of the board and so, it earned me that name. The members of the bus were so fun and the driver was in on it too. A very chubby and dramatic Bayelsa man. Although we spent only about 7 hours on the journey, it didn't feel like I was on a journey all by myself. Anyways, we completed the journey and I was surprised to see a journey of regularly 10 hours took us just 7 hours. That must have been my most fun experience travelling.

It might interest you to know that I've been using only one particular transport company ever since and although their services aren't the best, their safety and reliability is something I enjoy. So far, I think the worst experience I've had when it comes to transportation was spending about fourteen hours on a journey as a result of the driver's lackeys. We were going very smoothly, at a steady speed and suddenly, the bus stopped moving. We asked the driver what was wrong and he told us he needed to repair the fan. We spent about three hours on that spot, not because it took so much time, but because the driver, refused to pay the amount requested by the vulcanizer, and instead, kept begging for it to be fixed at a ridiculously cheap amount. The vulcanizer, who had more important things to do, went ahead with his business, ignoring us. It wasn't till we realized what had happened, that we, the passengers had to contribute to get the bus fixed. By then, it was about 6pm.

Aside that, the bus few hours later, needed fuel for us to continue the journey. It stopped at a very lonely and dark area. It wasn't until another bus offered to push our car to the fueling station, that we were able to escape that. Then, we got to this park which is about one hour drive away from our intended location. This same driver stopped the bus, and told us to alight. That he can't go to our location that day. So it's either we slept in the park or sorted ourselves out. We all thought it a prank, not until this man left us and went to sleep on one of the rest couches. Another driver, later on, seeing what had happened, offered to take us and that was how I reached safely. This had to be my most dramatic experience on the road but it all adds to the ever growing memories, doesn't it?

This is my entry to the inleo prompt day 4

Image is mine

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