Greyhound has put worthless voice recognition on their main phone line. I recommend never trying to phone Greyhound. Phoning a local office is your only hope if you have to go Greyhound.
It was an experiment to take the bus. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get to the Phoenix, AZ airport by bus from Quartzsite, AZ and it turned out more difficult than I expected to get a bus out of Quartzsite to go anywhere.
To make a long story short: On October the 11th my Quartzsite neighbors took me to the Pilot Gas station in Quartzsite to catch the bus which was supposed be there at 7:05 PM. We were there a half hour early and stayed till an hour after it was supposed to be in, and it never came.
I don't know what is going on between Pilot and Greyhound. A year ago there was a small Greyhound sign, but now there is no mention of Greyhound; and the people at Pilot act like they don't know Greyhound exists.
I had cleaned out my refrigerator and turned it off before we went to put me on the bus, so when it never came I returned and spent the night and next morning without food. I called Greyhound and eventually talked to a fellow who quoted me higher prices than I had gotten the day before when I talked to the agent in Blythe, CA. He told me there is no way I could buy a Greyhound ticked over the telephone with a VISA card. I only became frustrated and hung up without getting any information or knowing what I should do to get to San Jose, California.
During the night I decided to walk to the Mountain Quail restaurant for breakfast and then drive the mini-RV to Blythe, CA and wait at the Greyhound stop until an attendant came in and buy a ticket. Hoping that if I had a ticket they would stop in Quartzsite and pick me up.
So at 7 AM I got a good breakfast, and told the neighbors of my plan to go to Blythe and buy a ticket. Fortunately, JoAnn was interested in riding along. When we got there, there was a sign pasted on the door: "Will be back at noon." We killed some time going to the local hardware store and K-Mart.
At noon the sign was still on the door. We waited and eventually I went to the door to see if anything was added. The door was opened, the attendant said she had forgotten to remove the sign. She said the bus the night before was over 2 hours late, and if there are no passengers getting off it may not even stop at Quartzsite. Furthermore, there are more scheduled stops in Blythe. JoAnn said they would be happy to bring me to Blythe to get on the bus. So I bought a ticket for a 5:15 PM departure from Blythe, CA to San Jose, CA for that day. We drove back Quartzsite, and I had some peanuts and a can of V/8 for lunch.
Going from Quartzsite, AZ back to Blythe, CA we were held up by "Road Construction" for about an hour and a half. But, that is not the fault of Greyhound; and we knew the bus had to be behind us so I would not miss it. We had planned on having a Mexican Dinner in Blythe which the delay killed, but we still got to the Blythe Greyhound station a half hour before its' scheduled departure. JoAnn and her husband left, and about two hours later I got on the bus and got out of Blythe heading for Los Angles.
I was lucky in Los Angeles and almost immediately caught a bus leaving for San Jose. I got into San Jose around 6:30 AM and got home, via the Light Rail, by 7:30 AM.
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