In February I learned that I'd lost my driver's license as I was standing at the TSA counter at the Lubbock airport. I was able to use alternate photo ID & credit cards to establish my identity and I was able to clear security. While alternate mean of identification works for the TSA, rental car companies are only interested in you if you can produce a driver's license. Thus began my crash course in mass transit. Considering I had little time to prepare, I managed to get around alright and made all my meetings. Seattle's got a decent mass transit system. I spent a lot less on bus fare than I usually did on rental cars and parking. I told my boss (and bookkeeper) not to get used to it…but that I would give it another shot during the nicer weather of summer.
I finally made good on that pledge last week. After parking my car at the Lubbock airport, I traveled by airplane, train, bus (Seattle Metro, Sound Transit, Mason Transit Authority, Microsoft Connect), and ferry. Just to make things even more interesting, I stayed somewhere different each night (family, friends, hotels). The snapshot below is a partial summary of just two days of public transportation excursions.
The trip took me to neighborhoods I'd never visited before, but I didn't had any difficulty getting to meetings on time. Apart from reducing my carbon footprint, It was a good object lesson in learning what's really essential (Note to self: lose the briefcase next time).