Problems with the Highlights By Bus tour started immediately:
Most of my life’s “strange happenings” experiences have involved buses. On a Highlights by Bus tour, for example, our bus was run into by a car. We used CTA city buses in those days—imagine people at bus stops thinking this was their normal bus and wanting to board—so an accident meant all the CTA procedures and paperwork came into play. We sat on North Michigan for over an hour, but we still made it back to the CAF right on time.
Another time, the Highlights by Bus tour was to leave the CAF on Michigan Avenue at 9:30, but the bus didn’t show up until 10:40. During the hour plus wait I gave the tourees a walking tour of North Michigan Avenue. CAF returned everyone’s money, but nevertheless we completed a somewhat abbreviated tour.
On another occasion, we exited the IIT Student Center, intending to meet our bus in the parking lot just north of the building. We rounded to corner and found—no bus! It took 45 minutes on the phone to get another bus so that our group was not stranded at IIT.
On another Highlights tour, we were in the IIT Student Center when I asked a middle-aged couple how they liked the tour. They caught my eye early on as they were dressed quite conspicuously in White Sox outfits. They both said that the tour had been a complete waste of their time, and they had no idea why we were wasting time seeing Rem Koolhaas’s building. Turns out they thought they were taking the Stop and Go downtown bus tour. I made sure they received refunds, and my guess is they will never, ever take another architectural tour!
I love these stories, which demonstrate admirable ingenuity and impeccable people skills. Yesterday I narrated a River cruise on a cold, wet, and windy afternoon. Only two passengers stayed on top with me, but by the time we were returning to the dock, even these hardy souls had decamped, so I had to channel my inner radio announcer. to conclude with a flourish.
Docentry 101: “Be flexible.”