Like many of you, I have been entertaining the idea to use the bus to start a tour. But this story is merely of a simple need to get just myself form Portland, Oregon, to Mt. Shasta, California. There is no Greyhound bus station in Portland, just curbside pick-up. My bus was scheduled to leave Portland at 2:20 AM on Thursday, May 22. The bus was late by 45 minutes, the driver explained that the fuel card necessary to gas up the bus did not work. We left at 3:14 AM.
The bus reeked of dried up old human excrement and Pine-Sol, and it was very near full of passengers. At about sunrise, 5:30 or so, a couple of the passengers got into a skirmish. Each combatant threw one quick and feeble punch, with no sign of any harm to either participant. The driver was obligated by company policy to immediately stop and remove unruly passengers. This meant we stopped in the small town of Sutherlin, Oregon, not normally serviced by the bus companies.
While the bus driver was talking to the police in Sutherlin, the bus overheated or perhaps caught fire. The automatic fire suppression system kicked in, and the bus was no longer mobile. We were told to walk the few hundred yards to the Motel 6, where we would be treated to a free room for the "night". It took five hours - until noon - until the Motel 6 had the rooms ready and graciously let us in.
Greyhound said there was no way to immediately rescue our group of refugees, and that next bus from Seattle to Sacramento, which run every 24 hours, would pick us up between 6 and 7 AM. This was curious, as the rescue bus would need to be very near empty to accommodate everyone.
Nothing really beyond the pale had happened. I gladly set my alarm for 5:20 AM to catch the "next bus through".
7AM came and went, with no rescue bus. Our refugee spokesperson was told there would be another bus arriving soon. At 9AM we were assured there was a bus coming, it was slowed down in traffic. At 10AM we were told the bus is coming, it's almost certainly going to be showing up any minute now. At 11AM Greyhound said that there were no plans on getting us out of there over the weekend, and that the next two nights in Sutherlin Motel 6 would be paid for by them!
By now the refugees had dwindled down to just about 10 people, most of the folks who had a functioning credit card had departed by then. I believe I may have been the last normal person (as opposed to street person) to depart the Motel 6 via Uber. I caught a ride to Roseburg, rented a car, and drove the 4 hours home. Two days and almost $300 wasted on this journey.
Greyhound emailed me the usual "How Was Your Experience?" questionnaire. Then another email came apologizing and offering me a voucher for another ride. They couldn't pay me to ever again set foot on a Greyhound bus again.

Poor old clapped out bus, not properly maintained, run into the ground.