Creeking More In The ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore) episode #96

I'm not from Atlanta, but I live here, and (because I live here) people who don't live here ask me, "Creek, what's Atlanta really like?"  I don't know what Atlanta is really like, but if you'd like to know what it's like for me I invite you to sit back and enjoy another episode of "CREEKING MORE IN THE ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!!!

[flannel shirts provided by Goodwill and REI]

In the city of Atlanta, one may find that he must (for whatever reason) take the bus to get to where he's going...

The MARTA rail system offers an enjoyable enough ride.  The MARTA bus system does not.  For one thing, it is chronically late.

And I don't know if you've ever noticed, but MARTA will put a bus stop absolutely anywhere.  Sometimes, you'll see a nice one with a bench and a roof, but usually a MARTA bus stop is just a sign sticking out of the ground.

Sometimes that ground is in someone's front lawn:

It may be in a ditch:

...or in the middle of a traffic island...

...or up in the branches of a tree...

MARTA buses don't travel along some secret road set apart from other vehicles, they use the same roads as everyone else.  And that means they get stuck in traffic like everyone else.

No one is happy on a MARTA bus, especially after having worked a full day at a job that doesn't pay you enough to not have to take the bus.  So, needless to say, if you're riding the bus home in the evening during the week, you keep to yourself and so do the other occupants of the bus.

...unless you're this guy:

He just got back into town after having backpacked through Europe (or southeast Asia or Australia) and he wants to say "hi" to everyone on the bus and tell them all about his journey of self-discovery.

He talks about the sites he's seen and the food he ate and the women he slept with and how his mind was broadened and he doesn't notice that the passengers around him just want him to shut up and be as miserable as everyone else.

He even has the audacity to offer a general "goodnight, everyone" as he gets off the bus and goes wherever it is people like him go at night.

And you realize that you hated him because he spoke; because he wanted to share his joy with perfect strangers.  And you wonder what that says about you...

And you definitely don't go home and google all the places he was talking about.

There you have it folks, another exciting episode of "Creeking More in the ATL (with your host Nate Creekmore)"!  Be sure and come back for the next installment and remember that the seats in the front of the bus are reserved for the elderly and the disabled.