The Big Ride

RantMom beat RantWoman in the "be the first in the family to ride the light rail" game! RantMom imparted this news to RantWoman via cellphone while RantWoman was in a car tooling west through MT and ID. RantWoman had taken to heart news of the hordes expected for opening weekend on Link Light Rail. RantWoman had found a nice easy excuse to be three states away during the entire festivity.

RantMom on the other hand is exactly the sort of party animal who, when her pastor asked after church whether RantMom would like to go with her on a Light Rail adventure said "of course." Apparently they timed things phenomenally well: they stood on one leg of a trip to Tukwila. Then they were able to get right back on (RantWoman is allowing herself to wonder whether the sight of RantMom tooling along with her cane was persuasive, though RantMom said they actually had seats back to Sodo. RantWoman is unclear about details of any line at Sodo to get back on going south. RantMom mentioned that by the time they got back to Rainier Beach there were definite lines forming. The point is their timing was great and RantMom was thrilled. Now she is also calendaring the promised expedition with Irrepressible Grandkid.
Yeah Link. Yeah opening weekend.

As for RantWoman...

RantWoman took her inaugural ride today. RantWoman intended to ride to the station nearest her home, Mount Baker, and to bus from there. RantWoman was carrying groceries which was one reason for this experiment. What RantWoman actually did is grist for another whole rant, but let us start from the beginning.

First RantWoman dutifully located an ORCA reader and touched her ORCA card to it. The reader beeped with the single tone RantWoman associates with reading correctly. RantWoman thinks the placement of both ORCA card readers and ticket vending at the ID station is weird but with that out of the way, RantWoman descended to the platform.

The train RantWoman got on at the ID was crammed full of boisterous children at one end chattering so loudly RantWoman was having trouble hearing the stops being called. RantWoman found herself wondering whether the loudspeaker system had been tested under anything like analogous conditions.

One of RantWoman's riding companions was a Metro employee. He speculated about how many people on the train actually paid. RantWoman had not inquired of others, but was definitely in a position to speak for herself. Mr. Metro driver was not forthcoming about whether he has an ORCA card, and RantWoman lost interest in probing further.

RantWoman got off at Mt. Baker and bumbled around a bit looking for the elevator. Then after a tirade worthy of its own post, RantWoman came back, went up to the platform, and rode to another stop! Party!