Coca Cola, Starbucks, Dasani: Drinks of Choice on #WMATA Buses

Coca Cola, Starbucks and Dasani water were the drinks of choice by passengers on the G2 metrobus coming home one evening recently. The morning's bus passengers enjoyed iced coffees, water and one rather foul-looking green grassy looking liquid (something very healthful no doubt). These passengers get on the bus openly carrying their big girl sippy cups and enjoy their rides sucking down their drinks of choice. Several of them are regulars (the lass carrying the green-filled glass, for instance, gets on the bus each day with this breakfast drink) and most of them look like they are quite literate -- as in able to read the sign at the front of the bus that says "no food or drinks."  When I see these beverages passing by me I tend to lean away and desperately hope the passenger with the soupy, sugary slurpee doesn't drip it or drop it near me as the bus lurches its way through construction, potholes and sudden stops brought on by those idiots who insist on turning right from the left lane passing across the front of the bus at various intersections. You know when it happens as the bus driver gasps or cusses or otherwise expresses indignation at being put in such a spot.  But rarely, actually never, do I see a bus driver say to the passenger with the drink "don't get on" or "throw it away" or "put it away."   Does the bus driver expect other passengers to admonish these scoff laws?  Am I supposed to bare the glare of youth who think they are entitled to a cold drink on the bus the same way they got a nice sippy cold cup from mum in the family mobile when she picked them up from school? Just what is this expectation that one can eat and drink at will on a public bus?  Is that what freedom means?  Due to this laxity in the regulations, the lovely cloth-covered seats in the newer buses are getting stained with the remains of either these drinks or food or snacks.  More and more often I pass by a seat with something suspicious-looking on the seat and try and find another spot.  I expect I'll end up being a real little old lady and having to bring a little cloth with me to sit on so my work clothes don't get all dirtied up. Really, when are the bus drivers going to start acting like the authority figures they want us to be when an emergency occurs.  It is hard to respect them now when they can't even enforce this simple law. Do they really think anyone will listen when they really try to take control of the bus in some sort of emergency situation?

Hard to believe Las Vegas is in a desert

View from desert approaching Las Vegas

Half-naked men billboard

It's hard to believe that Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert as it's a place where you see giant Coca Cola bottles and motorcycle wheels, half-naked men on billboards, and a disneying array of "landmarks" like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and an Egyptian pyramid, among other pseudo-sites.  A recent visit reminded me of how fantastical this city is; we'd spent two weeks visiting canyons and national parks in the surrounding area and realizing what richness there is a desert land.  Then to drive in from this desert into Las Vegas jarred our sense of place and time. One minute we're looking at petrified dunes and trees, hoodoos, chasms and mountains of rocks and sand and then, hey presto change-o, there's a Subway and 711 store and a bus blinking its route number at us and grocery stores and banners advertising "move in now, one month free rent." It all seemed such a contrivance, so flimsy and false and yet it's clear thousands of people live and work here.  As we drove through various residential neighborhoods on our way to the center "strip" we saw schools and offices and all the buildings of any modern city.  This experience  made  me think how cities and towns can be such contrivances on the landscape and then, what a big energy suck this metropolis is. Just imagining the amount of electricity the casinos use and the gallons of water the hotels flush each day was mind-boggling. This is no green city!

Magic Kingdon, Statue of Liberty, Caesars Palace all jumble together in Las Vegas

Fine Dining in The Dining Car

The Dining Car diner just outside Philadelphia, PA is where we stop for martinis and pies when we drive home.  Well, to be more accurate we stop so I can have a BLT with ONE martini and hubster has a salad and settles for a Pepsi as they don't sell Coke. We stop off here on our way home to avoid the heavy rush hour traffic for about 45 minutes before driving on.  Then afterwards, we usually buy some really terrific butter cookies or a super blueberry pie to take to our Bible study group. It's a nice place to eat and it's always filled up with local customers, mostly old greying couples. And the waitresses are very perky and helpful and the food is priced right. So it's fine dining.

Side Trip to Philly, Dinner in the Dining Car

View from the diner window

Lamp over each booth

On our way back from visiting our son in Pennsylvania, we occasionally stop at a diner, The Dining Car, for a quiet meal and to avoid the local traffic that clogs up Route 95 during the dinner hour. One of the reasons we like to eat here is that the food is edible and cheap, it seems clean, and the service is quick and they serve just about anything you might want in a diner. It's also barely a stone's throw from the main road so we don't feel like we are getting too far off our way and of course, it has lots of parking and you can tell from the car number plates that it's a local favorite. I can get a nice martini with my Cobb salad or french fries and it seems like the portions are not too large and not too small. My husband can get his onion soup too and he will settle for a Pepsi there, although he'll give the waitress a hard time about it being a non-Coke establishment. The customers don't look like customers in DC restaurants:  there's lots of groups of older people eating together, families with teen kids, twosomes of 60 year old guys, or trios of women in their 70s eating together so the ambiance doesn't feel like the capital city.  It makes me realize how the DC Demographic is quite different comparatively.  What's nice is the decor has some very nice deco elements too, such as in the lamps and the overall appearance of the building. We've also gotten our favorite BLTs and bought cookies in the bakery shop on our way out. So you can see, this is a very useful place for us to go on our travels.100 miles away from the capital city and you are in another part of God's country.  As it turns out, this diner is featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives: An All-American Road Trip, a book listed on Amazon.com!  Who knew! I never read it but I hope the author gave them a good grade!