All Aboard!

It may not be the trolley that takes you to the land of Make Believe on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but it did take me where I needed to go!

As I mentioned in a recent blog, there is a trolley/electric train here in Buffalo. During our opening meeting with the client on Monday, he gave us the low down on the particulars of this mode of transportation.

The trains run about every seven minutes. They are free to ride, as long as the trolley remains above ground. When the trolley goes underground, there is a fee for that portion of the trip. I don’t have a clue just where the underground portion might be located and I don’t think I’m adventurous enough to find out on my own either.

Since I was the one choosing the hotel for this particular audit, I choose something close by the audit site. Since our audit is downtown, I did not want to be driving into and out of downtown every day. Hence, I chose a hotel right in downtown. Lucky for me, the trolley runs right by the hotel and straight down the same street to our audit site!

I’m trying to make it sound more exciting that it was, but I’m having a hard time with that. We decided that since the audit site was so close to the hotel, it wasn’t necessary to go over as a group since we wouldn’t be driving. Everyone had their choice on walking to work or taking the trolley. Tuesday, we had all separately opted on the trolley! Just as I sat down and got comfy and was ready for an exciting ride, I realized that my stop was only one stop away. Dang, talk about ruining my fun! Tuesday night we all had walked back to the hotel, which in reality is just two long blocks away. But hey! I rode the trolley!

And, I had so much fun riding it; I rode it again this morning! One whole stop away. Now I’m really trying to be a trolley expert. In case any of you are ever in the same situation, there are numerous doors up and down the trolley. You can enter and exit from any of them. I had erroneously assumed that all doors would automatically open. I had to figure out the hard way that there is a button on the side of the door, both inside and outside. First person at the door has to push the button. You know, everyone was watching me this morning, but no one would offer that little bit of advice to me. Go figure. They watched me fight with the door to get on the trolley this morning, just to give up and walk to the next door. These same people watched me try to get out of the trolley at the next stop, again, standing there banging on the door before I saw the button.

Hmm. At least I was good for comic relief for those morning commuters! Wait until tomorrow. I think I have this down pat now. I am a trolley pro over here.