Last night, I used the bus to come home from downtown, as I do from time to time. I picked up the 48 to Evergreen on 4th, in front of Bayview Thriftway about ten to seven. Things were normal until we got to Division and Harrison, where the bus driver turned right onto Division. Now, that's one way to get to Evergreen, but the 48 is supposed to go to the mall first.

Passengers from the back asked if the bus wasn't supposed to go to the mall and the driver replied that he'd turn around. Which he did. It was sort of fun to turn left into the Westside Center parking lot, in a bus, and work through the pedestrians and parked cars and back out onto Harrison.

Things returned to normal. The driver took us to the mall, where he then berated one of the group of passengers who had first noticed the wrong turn. It was for horseplay, but I wondered if it was related to shame in his error.

When we left the mall stop, the driver turned left onto the road that heads west out of the mall to Cooper Point (which has a name now -- it's on a street sign at the new light on Cooper Point -- but I don't remember it), and then turned right onto Kenyon.

By the time we reached Harrison and were in the right lane, I realized that the driver had taken another wrong turn. We should have driven straight out of the mall to Cooper Point. This time, I asked if we weren't supposed to go to Evergreen and the bus driver, who had now turned right onto Harrison, heading downtown, said he'd turn around.

Two wrong turns in 10 minutes.

The driver turned around in the parking lot of the strip mall just east of Wendy's and then turned left on Kenyon to pick up the route again. I got off at Cooper Point and 14th, so I don't know the final count of wrong turns, but I wonder what was going on in that driver's head. Either way too much or not quite enough, I'd say.