I have joined a new soccer team, made up from the guys from the Sunday pickup game I've been attending (well, not for a few weeks I guess, and the snow is putting a damper on things). The Quilchena Park Rangers, named for the place where we play Sundays, had their first showing last night. The indoor arena is somewhere in Richmond. The pitch is a wacky fake grass with rubber dirt bits. The other team has clearly played a lot of indoor soccer before. The score was 16-4. Ouch. But we have nowhere to go but up.
I was late getting to the game, which may surprise my dinner companions from earlier in the evening. As the Jetta is busy in the shop (a less fun update is to some) and I had the wrong number of a possible ride, I opted for the bus. Everything was going swimmingly as I hit Richmond in time for the last bus on the route I thought was going to work out (I had left home in a hurry, and as it turns out, could have spent more time figuring out the bus route).
The 301 Newton Express was on time. You may have heard about the drunk bus driver who got busted in Vancouver a day or two ago. The guy driving this bus was at least that. I asked if the bus would stop at my destination (a big sports complex). "WHAT CITY?" he exclaimed (there was just one rider, a woman, on the bus at the time, so it wasn't exactly noisy). "NEW YORK CITY?!?" he slurred/screeched, as I was answering "Um . . . Richmond?", which is, I might add, where we were. After that, he either decided I was too irritating for asking a question or could not hear me through his drunken haze.
A few more people get on at the next stop. The driver inexplicably refuses to let them pay, making some sort of guttural sound and shooing their hands away from the payment box. One of the guys swaggers on, winks and gives the woman "the guns", and wishes some other dude a nice nap (there are now a total of five people).
Officially one of the creepiest bus rides I've been on.
Despite the thick mud caked on the windows, I was able to make out the sign for No. 4 Road, and knew this was a far walk but we were almost there. Then the city turned to highway, and suddenly we were hurtling along with this wacko at the wheel, and Vancouver started to seem very far away. In fact, even Richmond was getting quite far away.
The next stop was near an overpass where you can go to Annacis Island. There is a warehouse there, a Toyota dealership is in view, and across the highway a clutch of new townhouses, yet to be occupied. And that's about it, apart from the various onramps and offramps. There is no bus to transfer onto. I have no idea why anyone would ever get off at this stop.
The good people at Richmond Cabs were able to track me down, and get me to the game only a little late. I felt like a tool.