Where Do You Really Want the Bus To Take You?

Tshnavia Smith, 20, is bored.

Recently out of school, still living at home and looking for a job, the Bridgeport resident doesn’t even have a cell phone to keep her occupied. It recently got stolen.

So when a reporter asked her a whimsical question — if the CT Transit bus could take her anywhere instead of her scheduled stop in Bridgeport, where would she want to go? — Smith picked a place as far away from Bridgeport as she could think of.

“I would take the bus all the way to Cali and never come back,” Smith said. ​“I would find a job and an apartment and just stay there. Maybe make some friends while I’m at it.”

Taking the bus can wear on you. It can be late. It can be crowded. It can drive right past you when you’re standing at your stop.

The ​“where would you want to go?” question let people escape the daily routine for a moment and imagine their perfect destination — even one separated by an ocean or two.

Matt Napierkowski, a 24-year-old graduate of the University of Maine, said he’d like to get away to Elbow Beach in Bermuda.

“It’s my favorite place to be,” said Napierkowski.

Napierkowski has been to Elbow Beach a few times before, and pictures it as a nice escape from the cold weather in his home town, Wallingford.

“I would love to go to Italy,” said Jodie Davis with a wide grin.

Davis, a student at Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, said she’s never been there before. It’s one of her many dreams.

“My goal is to not have to take the bus for the rest of my life,” Davis said. ​“I want to be successful one day. Doing what, I don’t know. But I will.”

Wayne Williams, 19, a Southern Connecticut State University history major, would like to go to West Jordan, Utah, to visit his long-distance girlfriend.

“I was on a cruise with my family, and I ended up meeting her,” said Williams. ​“We started off as friends, and then it just grew from there.”

Williams, who is studying to become a teacher, said he has been extremely happy with his girlfriend, and would like to see her as much as possible.

Isis Davenport, a 23-year-old freelancer and model, would take the bus for personal reasons as well. Davenport wants to go to Rhyl, a town in Wales. It sounds like a crazy stop, she said, but that is where her girlfriend lives. They started dating in May after being friends for a while first.

“I really want to go there. I would love to just go sightseeing for the day to see where my girlfriend lived,” said Davenport.

Jose J. Perez said there would be no limits for him, if given the chance to visit any place.

He’d especially like to go to the Rocky Mountains.

“It’s one thing to see the Rocky Mountains on the television, but to be there in person would be great,” said Perez.

Perez, 39, who lives in New York, was visiting his family in Connecticut. A trip around the country would cost him more than he’s used to spending, Perez said.

“I normally spend about $50 on travel,” said Perez. ​“It’s called balling on a budget.”

The CT Bus Diaries project is a collaboration between the New Haven Independent, the Valley Independent Sentinel and students from the multimedia journalism class at Southern Connecticut State University. The students are blogging about experiences on CT Transit’s bus lines in order to give a glimpse into the commutes of the people using the bus system.

Share your CT Transit experiences with us by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) photos or videos to Jodie Mozdzer Gil or tagging #CTBusDiaries on Twitter posts.

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