After a great trip last week on Megabus from Philadelphia to Washington, DC and back, I was looking forward to another productive three hours this morning when I arose at the crack of dawn to catch a 5:50a bus to Washington.
As Sean warned last week, though, Megabus might not be all it is cracked up to be. The bus left on time this morning, but the in-seat power was turned off and WiFi was not working. When we reached Baltimore (the bus make one stop on the way to DC) I asked the driver if she could turn on the power and she sheepishly apologized for not turning it on earlier.
So far, so good. I had a book and a paper to read, so it’s not like I was twiddling my thumbs for the first hour and a half. I returned to my seat, plugged in my laptop, and the WiFi popped up. Great! But when the engine started, the signal disappeared and did not return for the remainder of the trip.
I had time to check Ben and Gary’s blog (BTW, Gary has a great piece on StarNet blocking this morning) and that was it. Poof. It was gone. And it wasn’t my laptop that was the problem: the girl in front of me and the guy across the aisle also lost the signal. It seemed as if turning on the engine cut the WiFi.
The first installment of my trip report to South America will have to wait till next week. It was ready to go this morning, but without internet on the bus it became rather problematic to post anything.
I’m mooching WiFi from an Alexandria hotel right now but will soon be traveling deeper into Virginia and will likely be unable to update my blog till Monday evening (assuming my return journey on Megabus will have working WiFi).
Enjoy the Labor Day weekend and remember to always bring something to read when you take Megabus.
And my return trip had no WiFi as well…