I plan to post what I can and then fill in all the blanks later tonight.

After my morning meeting in Winter Haven I needed to head to Lakeland for two meetings. A lunch meeting at Café Roti near LRMC and then another meeting at Panera Bread in South Lakeland.

I left Clark/Nikdel/Powell and walked to the Winter Haven Terminal. While waiting at terminal for the 10:15 connection to Lakeland I noticed a Santa standing by one of the buses.

They were filming a commercial for WHAT. I overheard something about ‘Ride Saturday Free.’ There were a few people from the BOCC overseeing and acting in the segment. I say acting because they were sitting in the bus as passengers. One of the staff circulated around the terminal to ask if anybody wanted to come be in the commercial. She asked me but I told her that I needed to be in Lakeland by noon. Obviously, if I hung around to be in the commercial I would have missed the 10:15 to Lakeland and would have needed to wait till 11:15. This was a similar answer she received from a number of other bystanders. They had someplace they needed to be.

When getting on the bus I encountered my first major issue. I had purchased a 20 segment pass when I boarded my first bus this morning. (A segment normally costs 75 cents, but you can buy a 20 segment pass for $12 or 50 cents per segment).

As I boarded the driver told me that pass was not valid for Citrus Connection buses, I had to convert it over to a new magnetic pass at the Citrus Connection office in Lakeland. He let me on anyway though. I then realized that the $2 I had would only get me a few more rides today. Getting to the Citrus Connection office was not really an option today. What frustrated me is that all the literature I had read all said that the 20 segment pass was valid on all buses. I guess they have not updated their web site. (As a side note, in prep for my experiment I e-mailed the contact listed on the Citrus Connection web site. The e-mail bounced. That person doesn’t work there anymore.)

Besides the pass snafu the transfer to Lakeland was straightforward. The #12 connection was scheduled to depart at :15 past the hour but we ended up leaving at 10:23.

I was told to be prepared for the buses to be running late. Hearing this makes you nervous when you know that the connection you need to take leaves at 11:15 and by 11:15 your not at the station yet. But it’s all relative since all the buses are running late.

I counted 13 people on the connection. We picked up a few and dropped off a few on the way to Lakeland but in all there were few stops. We did pick up one individual with a bike. He utilized the built-in bike rack on the front of the bus.

I arrived at the Lakeland Terminal at 11:15 (5 minutes late). The next bus I needed to take, #52 North Florida Ave, was not at the station. But remember it’s all relative time :-) The #52 pulled in at 11:20. During my short wait I asked a off-duty driver about the 20 segment pass I had. He said I should take the West Memorial bus to the Citrus Connection office to get the pass switched out. There was no facility to do this at the main Lakeland Terminal. Like I said before, this wasn’t an option for me. Luckily I had those two dollars.

I boarded the #52 and we departed at 11:23. This bus was much quieter but had a good bit of graffiti on it. It was mostly sharpie-stuff on the windows and interior panels. Once again there were 13 riders (not including me).

This was a short ride. Having never ridden this route I did not know where the stops for LRMC were located. I got off at the first one and soon realized that there were approx 2 more further down the road that I could have used. As it was, my walk was probably longer than it needed to be. I stepped off the bus at 11:32 and arrived at Café Roti at 11:44.

I had planned to meet a client/friend for lunch but his schedule changed yesterday. Rather than re-arranging my plan any more I decided to still spend ‘1 hour’ at Café Roti. As it happens another client e-mailed me and wanted me to sit in on a conference call, so I spent quite a bit of the time on the phone and writing up this report.

When I pay my tab via debit card I’ll have to ‘buy-back’ a few dollars from the server since I don’t know when I’ll be near an ATM to get more cash for bus fare.

Next up is the #52 back to the Lakeland Terminal then the #31 to South Lakeland. If I have time I will try to walk within range of SurfLakeland to post this between my two connections.