day pass wander forgetting to pack a meal

thinking that baltimore with its infrastructure a complete basket case, would be ideal to force me not to rush and allow time for making snaps.

this realisation came from trying to simply travel five miles using public transport and finding that it is quicker to take as indirect route as possible than the logical direct one.  i thought that i would leave that to another entry.

t0-day armed with a day pass, i walked into pikesville to wait for the 53 bus which would be along in 20 minutes by the schedule. i could also take the 59 bus which would be along in 21 minutes. logic would have it that if you have two buses along the same route for a while you would stagger - ah logic and baltimore. it seems that when two different buses share a route they come within five minutes of each other - ah now i have started. i was trying to hold off to broach this another.

the 58 and 60 duplicate their route to a great extent and run within 10 minutes of each other. that would sound good if the buses didn’t run every hour. miss one chances are you miss both. 

i’ll try to stop and get back to how i made use of this. 

i was heading up to pikesville to go to the post office. that task completed i would await the next bus in either direction to head over to what is becoming a serial ding don ditching - my uncle must be getting gun shy whenever he opens his front door. 

because a bus in either direction wouldn’t be around for a good 20 minutes i could wander the alleys of pikesville and marvel at the empty shops along reisterstown road. 

a southbound 53 left me off at mondawmin where i asked three people where i could catch the number 51 north and got three different answers. i took the 52 instead. 

having successfully leaving the package unseen, i again played the waiting game for a number 51 again either north bound or south bound. another 15 minute wait - more opportunity to make when two north bound 51’s came. 

it is here where the game begins. i could try to catch a number 33 across town to the light rail but who knows when it would arrive. in baltimore it is best to cover one’s bus betting by finding a stop with as many options as possible. this would be the rogers avenue metro station. 

thought that i would be in luck as there was a crowd at the 27 stop but i could also catch the 33 to the light rail. again a 20 minute rate but here no real place to make snaps and i was held prisoner of the schedule as the 27 was overdue.  so 33 it was retracing the route of the 51 to cold spring road then watching the bus pack up with students i finally get down at the light rail to head to lutherville only four stops while there are quite a few stops in the less desirable parts of town the good people of ruxton make sure there is no chance of all those rowdy swarthy people get down in their neighbourhood. 

one would think that light rail having its own right of way would be reliable. ah but this is baltimore. after a 30 minute wait i made the 15 minute ride to lutherville.

while i am only through the outbound part of the wander, what i had been expecting was that with regular transit service i could hop off and on buses to make snaps and while i knew that this would not be possible the way it is in chicago where buses with all their problems run with a schedule that germanic in precision compared to baltimore. there i can get down in a neighbourhood that i am not sure about make a few snaps with the assurance that there will be another bus along shortly. along lower reisterstown road there were all sorts of potential photographs but not being assured of a bus coming any time soon i didn’t get down. 

i am sure that if i sent photographs of this area of baltimore to the favelados in rio de janeiro they would be more than happy to send funds to help out those less fortunate than them. i also forgot how there are great swaths of the city that would be considered poor in the poorest of the old third world. i forgot about the devastation along lower park heights, liberty heights, druid hill avenue and mccolloh streets, all of west baltimore, the alemão complex was less depressing and actually more life affirming.  

i diverted again.

i also found that thinking that the infrequent bus service would free me up to make snaps was wrong when buses come so infrequently and irregularly, i tend to hover around the bus stop not even venturing from one to another, fearing i’ll miss one and will have to wait another thirty minutes to an hour.

even with the diversions the total distance of the wander was only 10 miles maximum. it took four hours. this was four hours of not missing a bus - meaning letting a bus go by as i would catch the next - it was four hours as even though the longest time i was on a bus was from pikesville to mondawmin - the total wait time was over two hours. the return trip was 30 minutes of actual travel, an hour waiting. nevertheless a few snaps that seem to have potential.