This is a bus ride worth taking
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Carol Mitchell can't believe she once had qualms about trading her spot in the parking deck for a seat on the express bus.
It's true her daily round trip takes about 20 minutes longer by bus than it did when she drove her car from her home in Hillsborough to work at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
Otherwise, Mitchell comes out way ahead by riding the bus.
Instead of 45 miles a day, she drives about 15 miles round-trip between home and a park-and-ride lot at Hillsborough's Triangle SportsPlex.
The savings on gas and tire rubber alone would roughly cover the bus fare -- but her bus ride doesn't cost her a dime. UNC is among several big Triangle employers that subsidize public transportation for their employees.
That parking spot hadn't been free. It cost $611 a year. Now relieved of that expense, Mitchell can afford a SportsPlex membership.
She stops at the health club two or three afternoons each week, after she steps off the bus.
"I work on the elliptical trainer or the stair-step machine," said Mitchell, 60, who works as a nurse at a UNC Hospitals clinic. "Or I lift some weights."
All these benefits would make it easy to put up with a dreary bus ride -- but her bus ride sounds like the sweetest part of the deal.
"I have a great group of people to ride with," people she had never known before, Mitchell said. "We've even had two retirement parties on the way home, complete with cupcakes!"
She doesn't sound like a commuter when she describes the weekday journey. She sounds like a tourist.
"It's stress-free. It's relaxing to watch the lovely countryside. We can watch the sun rise when we cross over Interstate 40 -- we've got a great view," she said.
"Sometimes I read. The other night, we traded information about financial issues."
Mitchell is one of about 90 riders each day who take the 24-passenger express buses that run about 12 hours a day between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Sometimes every seat is filled, she says.
Before Orange Public Transportation and Triangle Transit Authority teamed up to provide the service two years ago, the county bus agency handled the job on its own, with only about 20 riders a day.
"The commuters love it," said Al Terry, Orange County's transportation director. The white buses carry campus workers south from their homes in Hillsborough, and they serve Chapel Hill and Carrboro residents who have business in the county seat.
Mitchell was eager to share her experience when she learned that Triangle leaders are considering proposals to extend new bus routes from work centers to other outlying towns -- from Pittsboro and Mebane to Wake Forest, Zebulon and Clayton.
"I encourage people to push for this service," Mitchell said. "Once you try it, nothing else makes sense."
The Special Transit Advisory Commission (www.transitblueprint.org/stac.shtml)
February.
A Garmin GPS update
John Melling is still out $70 he spent on the 2008 database update for his Garmin Nuvi, a $480 GPS navigation gadget that rides on his dashboard. He was steamed when he discovered the new mapping database does not include a number of North Carolina bypasses and freeways -- some of which have been open to traffic since 2006.
Other Garmin customers profited after reading of Melling's misfortune. David Ayscue and Del Gallion decided the software update wasn't worth the money.
So did Mia Hawley.
"Reading your article is preventing me from buying the update I had in mind," Hawley said by e-mail. "So thinks for saving me $70!"
Meanwhile, Melling has received an apology from Garmin, and the promise of a free update when the next one is available.
Garmin pointed Melling to a place on its Web site where customers can inspect new mapping databases before they buy them -- to see if they're worth the money.
Check my Crosstown Traffic blog, at the address below, for a link to Garmin's "MapSource Map Viewer" and Garmin's obsolete image of the 540 Outer Loop.
Chest press machine
Chest push-sitting
Sover machine
Cross-training machines arms (for the birds) Military press
Shoulder-elected
Seated row machine
Sitting rowing machine
Rotary torso machine
Rotating training planes
Multi-hip machine
Composite training planes suffered lacerations
Outer thigh abductor machine
Legs, bending machine
Inner thigh adductor machine
Legs, bending machine
Vertical leg press
Vertical Leg Press for practice
Decline Olympic bench
Olympic tilted under a chair
Incline Olympic bench
Olympic Incline chairs
Roman chair / back hyperextension
Rome Benches
Hyperextension
Fubei training Benches
2-tier horizontal dumbbell rack
Dumbbell Rack
Standard weight tree
Ling--
Olympic weight tree
Ling--
Stretch corner
Shenla Kok
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Shen La Center
Leg press
Lunge for his leg
Leg extension
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Standing tricep
Point-triceps Training
Standing bicep
- Stop training with biceps
Dip chin ab
High bar to the knee -
Preacher curl bench
Qubi training Benches
Lat
Composite Drawing Machine
Row
Composite rowing machine
Abdominal
Abdominal Training
Cable column
Composite drawing machine
Hamstring
Low Drawing Machine
Utility bench
Triangle chairs
Adjustable bench
Adjustable chairs dumbbell
Barbell
Barbell -
Double tier dumbbell
Double Dumbbell Rack
Recumbent cycle
Horizontal fitness cars
Treadmills
Stepper
Display stem: External circlip display supporting bar:
Display lower: under cover display
Flush head press in stud: immersed stud bolt
Seat carriage sliding-seat
Pozi Broadway stage, professional dancers, but also is well-known presenters fitness experts
IEC Free plug, the shutter snap fit: Universal Plug
Caplug covered Cypriot
End plaque cap porcelain flower rear cover
End cap rear cover
Pedal leaver arm: pedal arm
Rubber bump stop: rubber buffers
Crutch tip:
Nutsert Nut
Toothed belt idler plate: belt idler serrated board (reservations English)
Step hole trim L / hand: Left-pedal accessories
Step hole trim retaining block: Pedal hole ornaments fixed block
Runner assembly rotating components
Roller member pivot: roller components Pivot
Logo wheel: wheels (with logo)
Crank plate: curved plate (reservations English)
Ribbed insert: handrails link
Cover center section: Flat central part of
Countersunk socket set screw: immersed PEC machine screws / butterfly
Butterfly machine
Incline press machine
Incline push-thoracic
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Biceps training planes
AB machine
Abdominal flexion machine
Lat machine with mid row
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Leg press machine
Lunge for his leg
Leg press / hach squat machine
Inverted tread / oblique tread machine
Pro-smith machine
Safety barbell exercise machine
Counter-balanced smith machine
Smith Machine
Seated calf machine
Sitting leg exercises machine
Dip station
Parallel bars for exercise
Military press
Shoulder-elected
Tricep press down machine
3 muscle training machine
Arm curl
Biceps-elected
Standing hip / multi-hip machine
Composite training planes suffered lacerations
Abdominal
Abdominal flexion machine
Bi-axial chest press
Biaxial climbing machine pushed chest
Seated chest press
Chest push for the ride
Dual cable column
Arms training planes
Bicep
Biceps training planes
Tricep
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Functional lift
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Calf
Calf -
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Flat bench
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Squat rack
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Stepper
Level -
Rubber earring moulding: rubber base
Allen wrench Universal Wrench
Cord bracket plate folder Line
Freeweight dumbbell load dumbbell
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Strength training strength training
Endurance training endurance training
Path movement path of motion
Overhead Tricep three high muscle training machine
Sets Case
Chest press
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Shoulder press machine
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Tricep press down machine
3 muscle training machine
Back machine
Back training planes
Lat pull down
HIGH-training machine
Leg extension machine
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Flat bench
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Adjustable chairs dumbbell
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Vertical knee raise
High bar to the knee -
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Wab board
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Seated calf machine
Calf -
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Shoulder Lateral machine
Hip abductor
Legs, bending machine
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Chest mid-row
Waterloo-ship
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High-slip boat
Roman Chair / back hyperextension
Rome Benches
45 hyperextension
Fubei training Benches
Vertical knee raise
High bar to the knee -
Upper back
Lat -
Incline trainer
Climbing treadmill
Squat
Squatting-composite training planes
Chest
Composite chest Training
Shoulder
Composite shoulder training planes
Step
Load Stepper
Quadricep
Composite leg training machine
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Chip pegged squat machine
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Upright cycle
Vertical Fitness cars
Rubber boot: rubber bearings
6.3 Amp time Lag glass body: 6.3 Amp fuse
Wiring loom: Wire -
Poly V drive pulley: V-pulley drive
Full dog point socket set: special screwdriver
Reps. (Repetition) group
Weight stack weight -
Cycling equipment-riding / fitness cars
Related: This is a bus ride worth taking
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