I took Greyhound exactly once -- from Tampa to Orlando, several years ago, when my car broke down and I wanted to visit my girlfriend for the weekend.

I got to talking with a guy on the bus who was traveling to Lakeland (between Tampa and Orlando). He had come all the way from Oregon and had been riding buses for three days. When I asked him why, he said that he was moving to take up a new job, that the one-way bus fare was about $400 and that the cheapest one-way airfare he could find was much higher than that. I was tempted to start a discussion about throwaway ticketing but decided that it might not be a good time....