Logan Buesching

Just after my move to Seattle, my Indiana license plates expired which has left me without a car.  Although an awesome benefit from Microsoft is a free bus pass, they also have this amazing bus that picks you up and takes you to work every day called The Connector.  It has been over two weeks now since I have been riding it every day, and while it’s not as convenient as driving my car, it’s good enough for me not to make getting my plates a priority.

For perspective, I ride the Queen Anne / Belltown bus, getting on at 1st and Wall.

Scheduling a Ride

In order to ride the connector, you must schedule the time for it to pick you up and drop you off.  This can be a bummer at times for two reasons.  The first is that you must remember to schedule your bus ride, and most of the “best times” (i.e. not departing at 6:45am or leaving at 7:00pm) are going to be taken by the time you actually remember to schedule it.  The second reason is that although you don’t need a reservation, you will most likely be able to ride the bus if you don’t sign up.  There have only been two times that I have seen people denied access due to not having a reservation.

The Ride

The ride is fairly nice.  This isn’t any luxury vehicle you are riding, but it’s not a school bus either.  The seats are comfortable but the ride can get a little bumpy at times. There is free Wi-Fi on the bus, so you can actually do some of your work while you ride the bus.  Another option that I tend is to read that book that I never have time for.

The traffic in Seattle isn’t as bad as Chicago, but crossing 520 isn’t a breeze without being in the car pool lane.  So any time that I save by driving my car is quickly negated by having to wait in the stop and go traffic.  From the time I walk out of my office to the time I walk into my building is about the same weather I drive to work or take the bus.

Routes

Grechen over at Microsoft’s JobsBlog just posted the stops that The Connector takes, so feel free to take a look at those.  I know that this information would have been helpful as nobody seemed to know the exact routes that it took.

It has been more than a month since I last typed up a post, and I have decided to write about my more recent experiences in a multi-part blog series.

Graduation

As many may know, I was offered a position at Microsoft within the Windows Live team which I accepted.  Just after graduation I went home, and enjoyed my couple of weeks off to prepare for the long road trip ahead of me.  The plan was to leave Thursday, May 15th and arrive in Seattle on Saturday, May 17th.  On the agenda was visiting two friends and Mount Rushmore before arriving in Seattle.  The trip totaled around 2500 miles, and over 30 hours of driving.

Day 1

The first day I met up with two friends, Sarah and Dave before finally resting for the day in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Day 1 was probably the exciting due to it involved driving through Chicago and Minneapolis, but frustrating because I got a speeding ticket for going less than 10 over :-/

Day 2

Day two was long, and boring.  If you have never been to South Dakota, consider yourself blessed.  The land in South Dakota is completely flat with no tree’s.  During one point in my trip I found a structure and wondered how far it would take me to drive to it.  It ended up being a little over 15 miles away!  Near the end of the day it started to get interesting as my brother and I were starting to enter the Rocky Mountains.  At the end of the day we stayed in Butte, Montana.

Day 3

The third day seemed to by incredibly fast.  We were going through the beautiful Rocky Mountains, passed by Idaho, and flew through Washington on our way to Seattle.  In total, this was probably the most breathtaking day of the whole trip.

In my next blog post, I will talk about searching for my new apartment, (boring topic, won’t post) then I will finish with my experiences working at Microsoft.