After a long journey the other day, I was sitting in a bus shelter waiting for the final leg, which was the city bus from the Philadelphia train station to a spot two blocks from my house. The lady sitting on the bench next to me said, “Could you help me with some money for a sandwich?” and at first I said I didn’t have any, then recollected.

“No, wait, I’m wrong,” I said, digging in my pocket. “I thought I was going to have to take the regular bus in Baltimore, but then the free bus came,” and I handed her the two dollars I had put in the pocket to feed the cash box. “Not enough for a sandwich, but it’ll get you part way there,” I said.

We chatted a little. She told me she had some setbacks lately, and I sympathized; we both agreed that you have to take your problems as they come, and turn them over. Her setbacks were worse than mine, if she was asking strangers for money at the bus stop, because I had just spent a chunk of dollars on an overnight trip to Baltimore, what with hotel fare, train fare, a pen repair, three new fountain pens, and a couple of meals. I didn’t say that, because it wouldn’t have been polite.

But we got to talking about bus fare, and I showed her my senior citizen bus pass. “I love this thing,” I said.

“I just turned 64,” she said sadly. “I’m not old enough yet.”

“When you do, you should get one. It costs a little bit of money and they have to take your picture,” and I showed her the completely illegible photo on mine, “But then you can take the bus any time you want for free. Sometimes I get tired walking, and a bus is coming, so I get on and get warm. I can go anywhere I want.”

“It costs money?” she said.

“Not much,” and then we saw my bus was coming and I got on.

One thing I was thinking after that was I’m eleven years older than she is. Another thing is that America isn’t really set up for people to get places if we don’t have a car or a lot of money. I gave up my car, which is part of why I do have a little bit of money and how I can afford things like an overnight trip to Baltimore for fun.

I had traveled cheaply, but none of the ways I used to get from place to place this past weekend was exactly convenient. It wasn’t even all that walkable.

For instance, the Philadelphia train station is just across the river from my house, maybe a mile and a half, but I have to take a specific bus to get there and it doesn’t run as often as I’d like. The train station in Baltimore isn’t convenient to the airport; I had to take another train several stops to the so-called airport station, and once at the airport station I had to take a shuttle bus ride to the airport. Once at the airport, I had to find out about the hotel shuttle, which luckily came every twenty minutes and was also free, but which was off in the middle of nowhere.

On the return trip, which involved a little sightseeing in Baltimore, I had to repeat the process, and then figure out how to catch the free bus to the Inner Harbor. The bus didn’t stop next to the museum I was visiting, so I had to walk along a stretch of four-lane divided highway to get there. Luckily, the museum (The American Visionary Art Museum) was worth the trip, and I spent a couple of hours there.

Then, after I moseyed around the Inner Harbor a bit and had a bland burger at Shake Shack, I just had to catch the free bus to the train station and catch the train to my city. Once back in my city, I checked the bus schedule and had time enough to run over to the bus stop, sit down, catch my breath, talk to the nice lady, and catch my bus to my house.

If, like a lot of people I know, I was afraid to take the bus, or afraid to travel by myself, or afraid to sit for an hour in various train stations waiting for my train to be announced, or disinclined to take three hours to take a one-way trip that would be an hour by car, and if, like that nice lady I gave two dollars to, I didn’t have any money to spare for a hotel room and train fare, I would be stuck. And if I couldn’t still walk pretty well, I would be double stuck.

(I do need a little time getting up and down long flights of stairs, mind you.)

People sometimes say that if you’re unhappy somewhere, you should leave. I invite them to be old and poor, in that case. Or even just old. There’s nowhere to go, and no easy way to get there. It’s all just too inconvenient, and too expensive.

I had a lovely weekend though, thank you. I spent a little money, but I didn’t spend much money on food (I packed trail mix) or rideshares (though I did spend a little extra on a faster train from the airport to downtown Baltimore). My conservatively invested 401(k) went down twenty thousand dollars because there’s a stupid and unjust war on, but I already took out my distribution for the year and I don’t have any acute ailments that I know of, not yet. I’m okay. I’m not asking strangers for a little money for a sandwich, or lying asleep in another bus shelter swaddled in my color coordinated blankets, like another lady I know (she has serious style, even if she’s homeless).

What do I think? I think that train stations should be closer to public transit everywhere, and airports should be convenient to both. I think it all should be cheap as hell, or even free. I think hotels on unwalkable highways in desolate suburbs are a disgrace. I think individual cars are a very silly idea, and that people shouldn’t have to be afraid to walk the earth or take the bus, because there are nice people everywhere, even if they ask you for money. I think people should not have to choose between living on the street or being shoved into something between jail and a youth hostel. I hope that lady’s okay. I hope I’m okay, too.

Oh, yeah, and I wish companies all spent a lot more on maintenance, because that Baltimore train station is one beautiful place, and with just a couple of employees and some money I bet they could keep it real shiny. We’re spending our money in the wrong places.