This sounds like a joke, maybe it will be:
Did you hear about the professor, architect, and lawyer who attempted — in a single day — to ride all of San Antonio’s VIA bus routes — covering more than 500 square miles?
Well, you are about to, now!
THE DETAILS.
On Saturday, January 20, 2024, yours truly (the professor), Paul Franklin (the architect), and Raj Aujla (the lawyer) took on this absurd adventure/challenge/Wonderment.
Paul, Raj and I wondered how many of these 77 to 89 bus routes were possible to ride in a single day.
THE RULES.
Our Wonderment had three rules:
(1) It did not matter how long we were on a bus for it to count toward a route being ridden as long as we were on the bus when it was moving.
(2) No other forms of transportation besides our feet could be involved. Thus, transfers from one bus to the next could only be from walking or running or crawling.
(3) A single day was operationally defined as from when the buses began running in the morning at about 4:30 am till when the buses stopped running at around midnight.
LOGISTICS.
Planning the Wonderment was a logistics-nightmare that even IBM’s Deep Blue likely could not have figured out.
So, our logistics plan was simple. (It should be noted, this simple plan came from me who had never been on a VIA bus before.) The plan used three tools: Google maps, the “Transit” app, and the digital VIA bus schedule with map. This plan gave us our starting point (VIA bus route number 552 at the 410 E. Access road and Crownhill intersection bus-stop at 4:58 am — walking distance from my home) and then guided us for 17 hours and 42 minutes getting on and off buses as quickly as we could to make connections with other bus routes and so on and so on — and so on…
COSTS.
The bus fare was $2.75 for the whole day. (Although it was $5.50 for Paul since he lost his VIA card BEFORE getting on the first bus!) All the experiences we experienced — guaranteed to be remembered (with or without Alzheimer’s) for lifetimes — and about to be shared with you, cost us less than a gallon of gasoline.
It just does not get any better than this.
REPORTING.
We gave real-time updates about our bus Wonderment with Facebook postings throughout the morning and day and night; you can find these Facebook postings here and here and here and here.
LEARNING TWO THINGS.
Our Wonderment quickly taught us two things:
The first thing: It would take a several days, not a single day, to ride all of VIA’s bus routes.
The second thing: The silliness of this Wonderment was grounded in things not silly at all: Hardship, Poverty, and Homelessness.
12:06 P.M.
Seven hours and eight minutes into our Wonderment, we had ridden 15 of VIA’s bus routes: Numbers 17, 25, 68, 75, 82, 89, 90, 93, 97, 103, 509, 522, 524, 534, and 552. And, it had taken us 6,150 steps of walking to do these 15 routes and 88 miles of bus riding.
At this pace, it would take 36 hours to complete 77 bus routes and 42 hours to complete 89 bus routes.
EARLY A.M.’s
During the early morning hours of our Wonderment, the bus ridership was mostly composed of homeless people trying to stay warm.
I was born and raised in Chicago. I KNOW what cold is.
I swim in ice water. I KNOW what cold is.
San Antonio can get cold. San Antonio was cold on Saturday, January 20, 2024. The air temperature ranged from 28- to 41-degrees F, and it was windy all day, making it feel between 21- and 36-degrees F. I know what you “Northerners” are saying, “it ain’t cold till it’s below 0-degrees F.” True, until you have no other place to go but outside without a jacket. Then 21- to 36-degrees F is colder than your perception of ANY temperature below 0.
The morning hours were especially cold. But the buses were warm. When a homeless person got onto a bus without bus fare, the bus driver simply nodded their head, and the homeless person found their seat and warmth.
No fanfare. No photos. No videos. No awards. No “Hero” designation.
No words spoken.
Just, one of the most beautiful things I will ever see in my life.
5:09 A.M.
After getting off our first bus, we met a gentleman at the Randolph transit center. He shared with us about just getting kicked out of his sober living facility and asked us what we were up to. When we told him about our Wonderment, he said “that’s impossible! That would take you three days!”
(How right he was.)
He continued, “What a complete waste of time and money!”
(Of all the things a professor, architect, and lawyer should be doing, maybe this gentleman was right about this too?!)
When we asked him if he would like to join us on our Wonderment, he said, “no,” but then told us to “ask the guys carrying around trash bags downtown for help — they know how to get around on the VIA buses.”
(Indeed, he was right again in being a great prognosticator of things to come on our Wonderment about “who” would be on the buses with us.)
6:07 P.M.
Thirteen hours and nine minutes into our Wonderment we had ridden 31 VIA bus routes: Numbers 4, 8, 9, 14, 17, 20, 25, 26, 28, 32, 44, 46, 67, 68, 75, 82, 89, 90, 93, 95, 96, 97, 100, 103, 509, 522, 524, 534, 552, 647, and 651. And, it had taken us 10,880 steps of walking and 138 miles of bus riding to do these 31 routes.
At this pace, it would take 35 hours to complete 77 bus routes and 40 hours to complete 89 bus routes.
While riding these 31 bus routes, we also visited six of VIA’s nine transit centers. Transit centers are major transfer stations. They have enclosed waiting areas with restrooms, vending machines, and staff to assist customers. Transit centers are spread throughout San Antonio — which is vast, having more than 500 square miles.
Visiting VIA’s transit centers was a Wonderment of its own. The third transit center we visited was South Texas Medical Center, where Paul almost got arrested.
10:11 A.M.
Being the architect that he is, Paul has a large-scale printer and printed out a 25x36 inch poster-size map of VIA’s bus routes. As he was looking at the map in the South Texas Medical Center transit center, a VIA security officer saw him, and literally tore it out of Paul’s hands, while exclaiming, “is this the map from the wall?!” Unbeknownst to Paul, Raj, or me, the EXACT SAME SIZE MAP is posted — behind glass, on the walls of the transit centers. The security officer thought — reasonably so, that Paul’s map was RIPPED from the wall of the transit center. Let me just say this about how this “little” episode ended, it was quite difficult explaining to the officer how and why Paul’s 25X36 inch poster-size map was NOT the 25X36 inch poster-size map from the wall of the South Texas Medical Center transit center, but it worked out to the extent we were not put in VIA-bus prison, and we were able continue the Wonderment.
6:13 A.M.
The second transit center we visited was Centro Plaza, this changed everything.
Being early in the morning, it was still dark when we first arrived at Centro Plaza. According to VIA’s website, the following photograph is what one should expect to see when visiting Centro Plaza transit center:
As we exited the bus, we did not see what VIA’s website presents as Centro Plaza, instead we walked into, as Raj put it, “one of the most desperate places I have ever seen.” A mass of homeless people — inside and outside of Centro Plaza’s main building. I am not talking 10. I am not talking 100. I am talking at least 1,000 homeless people in this one place. Homeless families with children — some in strollers, were huddled inside the main building while homeless individuals were outside.
The Wonderment brought us back to Centro Plaza two more times. During these three visits nothing much changed other than the dark to light and light back to dark. Tremendous sadness and tough and difficult living remained the same in the heart of downtown San Antonio.
12:10 P.M.
Our second time at Centro Plaza, Paul experienced the kindness of strangers and discovered how the homeless sometimes can find a meal to eat.
5:50 P.M.
Our third and last time at Centro Plaza was the most powerful for me. While waiting for our next bus, I was standing outside, and in the middle of Centro Plaza’s open space — some two and a half acres in size, surrounded by homeless people milling around and about; although it was beginning to get dark again, I noticed an elderly lady in a wheelchair making her way through the crowd and towards me. I smiled when she got to me, she smiled back and said, “can you help me get to my bus?”
Without pause I said, “Absolutely! What route number?”
As I was pushing her, I learned she was coming back from grocery shopping at H-E-B — the three buses it took to get to H-E-B, and the three buses it took to get back from H-E-B had taken a toll on her, so it was “nice” to get some relief by having someone push her for a while.
As I watched her safely get on her bus and drive off, I felt “honored” to be a small part of this lady’s day, then I turned around and saw what I had forgotten for a few moments — the sea of sadness I was in. But the time I was with this gentle lady, I was reminded, caring, empathy, and helping can be found anywhere.
Spend one day into night into day again at Centro Plaza. Your. Life. Will. Be. Different.
8:32 A.M.
VIA buses are vital for the stories of people — and their “children,” that are never told. So much for never being told: Shortly after the sun came up, but still bitterly cold outside, a tiny lady without a bus fare got onto the bus. Although the bus was relatively empty, she sat down next to me and began talking about “Chula.” Who, I quickly figured out was a chihuahua in a dog carrier she had with her. She shared with us about Chula having a rash on her back and she and Chula were going to the veterinarian to get the rash treated. But as she spoke more and more with us, it became clear she did not think she could afford whatever treatments were going to be necessary for the rash. Before we could offer her help, she got off the bus with no money, but with pure love for Chula.
10:40 P.M.
Seventeen hours and 42 minutes after beginning, our Wonderment ended with having ridden 35 VIA bus routes: Numbers 4, 5, 8, 9, 14, 17, 20, 25, 26, 28, 32, 44, 46, 67, 68, 75, 82, 89, 90, 93, 95, 96, 97, 100, 103, 502, 505, 509, 522, 524, 534, 552, 647, 648, and 651. And, it took us 13,294 steps of walking and 165 miles of bus riding to do these 35 routes.
At this pace, it would take 40 hours to complete 77 bus routes and 46 hours to complete 89 bus routes.
8:09 P.M.
It took Paul, Raj, and me more than 15 hours of bus riding to recognize something that had been going on the entire time we were riding the buses: Thank yous.
It was amazing the number of bus riders — by far the majority, who said, “thank you,” to the bus driver, upon exiting the bus. And these thank yous were real and intentional — the bus exit is near the back of the bus, some 25 feet away from the driver. Despite this distance, no matter the rider — homeless, working-class, rich, Black, White, Hispanic, young, old, Male, Female or other — San Antonians shared aloud their thankfulness for the ride.
Funny how the three of us were sharing our thanks to the bus drivers for the whole Wonderment, but it took us till near the end of the Wonderment to recognize we were a part of a thankful whole.
2:32 P.M.
In the afternoon, we boarded a relatively crowded bus, and sat near a group of three young people — two men and a woman. Almost immediately after sitting down, one of the young men said, “guess my age?”
I quickly answered, “29.”
The young man’s male friend started freaking out, “you’re exactly right! He turned 29 two days ago!”
We then began to chat. The group asked what we were up to, and we shared about our Wonderment.
The 29-year-old young man — a “talker,” then shared his story. And what a story it was. Before our bus stop — which was only three bus stops away, he told us: we were not the first to attempt riding all the VIA bus routes in one day, he spent 17 years in foster care, and his sister was murdered.
In fact, he shared, “how I know you are not the first to attempt riding all the VIA bus routes in one day is because I have ridden all the VIA bus routes in one day.”
So, I guess, maybe one does not need between 40 and 46 hours to ride all of VIA’s bus routes?
But, let me wait to read this young man’s Medium article for confirmation.
7:17 A.M.
Lots of things happen when you ride Via buses all day. One of those things is you will see some people more than once — more than twice — several times on the buses you are riding. We saw lots of people more than once on our Wonderment. One of these people stood out from the rest.
We first saw him early in the morning, sitting by himself in the back of the bus — he liked the very back seat of the bus. The second time we saw him was later in the morning and this time made him stand out and be remembered for the rest of our Wonderment.
He was again sitting in the back of the bus, but this time he dropped a penny. We were sitting near him and tried helping him locate it. As we were doing so — the three of us recognized the pain this man was suffering. He was not old. But he looked old. He tried to bend and twist his body down enough between the bus seats to seek out the penny. The pain we recognized now though was not the obvious physical pain this man was in — but the emotional pain. There was literal anguish on his face painted there because of the possibility of not finding this penny. It was difficult to see this. It was difficult to know this. It was difficult to feel this. We eventually found the penny. But the pain — the anguish — did not go away upon the penny’s return.
…
I am sure you noticed the TIMES in this story are “out of order” — they are not linear; they are not chronological.
When you are homeless there is no time. As the physicists and psychophysicists will show, time is outside of us. It is rooted in friends, family, jobs, self-concepts — our homes. Although outside of us, these things ironically define us — so without these things, us and time, disappear. 7 am is not different from midnight which is not different from 6 pm. What time comes before or after another “time” is a nonsensical question to pose and answer. Without time, if today is bad, then you can only know tomorrow and yesterday and the day before and the day after can only be as it is today: Bad.
Without time, there is no hope.
If you know what time it is, then you know tomorrow is different from today and yesterday. Because you know tomorrow can be different from today, if today was bad, then you know tomorrow can be good. You have the capacity for hope. Consider yourself blessed.
In addition to meeting lots of new acquaintances, friends, and “interesting” characters; gaining experiences never to-be-forgotten; and having yet another reason for being inducted into the non-existent San Antonio Hall of Fame — what Paul, Raj, and I gained from our Wonderment was literally life confirming:
Life as such, if you are not wanting to participate, then step-off (the bus) — and if you do step-off, be sure to say, “thank you.”
…
Dr. Don Lucas, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and head of the Psychology Department at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio Texas.
If you like this article, then you may like Don’s videos on his YouTube channel or his articles on his Medium channel.
San Antonio, Bus, Homelessness, Life, Meaning, Adventure, Wonderment, Time
