Bad Day for a MUNI Ride

You know, you live in the City, you try to do the right thing.... you take public transportation when you can....

...and usually that's okay.

But not today.

Dick had a dentist appointment late this morning in Union Square. I like to keep him company at any of his doctor/dentist appointments.

We left the house in plenty of time (40 minutes before his appointment), planning to take MUNI from Castro to Powell Street. Ordinarily, this would have been more than enough time. We walked down to the Castro MUNI station, only to be turned away.

A Guard at the station informed us that a train had derailed, and that all service was closed down.

Well, we're pretty MUNI savvy, so we head across the street to try to catch the F Train (which goes down Market Street). We missed the light at the intersection, so we missed that train. Drat.

Then we find out that MUNI is running shuttle busses above ground to help make up for the problems underground. Again, we miss the light at the intersection (going back) and again, we miss the shuttle. Double Drat.

By this time, we have about 20 minutes to make it downtown, so we hail a cab. This of course, completely defeats our intentions of taking public transportation in the first place. Had we known, we would have taken Dick's Vespa instead. The streets are crazy today - traffic, blockades, emergency vehicles... It takes us 15 minutes to make it downtown.

We made it to Dick's appointment in time, and hoped that the MUNI service would have been restored by the time we were done. No luck.

This time, we were able to catch the "F" train, and head back home. According to Christopher, the "F" stands for "Ferries, Fish and Fags". (The F Train goes from the Castro down to the Ferry Building, and along the Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf) I've only taken the F Train once before (a much slower alternative from the MUNI underground) but I do have to say that it was a very pleasant ride. The old streetcars are so cool.

By this time, it's lunchtime, so Dick and I decided to hop off the F Train at Church Street, and we went to The Woodhouse Fish Co. for a delicious lunch. (you should check it out)

After lunch, we walked the rest of the way home. When we passed by Market/Castro we saw a very long line of people waiting for buses/shuttles. It seems as if MUNI will be out of commission for quite a while.