# Anyone ever gotten the "free ticket out of town"?



## wokofshame (Oct 19, 2010)

Has anyone ever used those legendary programs where the city buys you a bus or even plane ticket to where someone will house you (or at least says so on the phone)?
i recently heard of a guy getting a free plane ticket to hawaii by using nyc's Get The Homeless Out of Here program or whatever it is.

post your experience with where it was and also much of a delay did u have/ how hard was it to get?

also know people who've had the mormons buy them bus tickets ( i guess this is more like simple traveler's aid which i've recieved before0


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## drunken marauder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ive used travelers aid and had like shelters or what not buy me bus tickets... I had the cops in PA buy me a bus ticket.. Normally there wasnt much of a delay couple of days at most....


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## ProfessorX (Oct 20, 2010)

San Francisco has a program called "Homeward Bound", you can get a free greyhound ticket home or where ever the address is on your ID. Go to the food stamp office on mission, I think it is like 8th and mission.


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## xRastaxRuggzx (Oct 20, 2010)

ive had the chance to get bus tickets for us in fayetteville nc to raleigh, where they used urban ministries for greyhounds. at first they had stopped my friend for flying a median and then saw there were three of us and decided to just get us bus tickets. thankfully we got out of fayetteville. not too fun there.


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## Gudj (Oct 21, 2010)

Here in Salt Lake a few of my friends did something similar where the mormons bought them both greyhound tickets to the east coast. They said it was easy.


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## menu (Oct 21, 2010)

you can do that homeward bound thing at the hayot too. I thought there was an age limit though. like 21 or younger


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## derailed (Oct 21, 2010)

Many, many homeless shelters and drop-ins have these programs. I was able to get a free greyhound ride from North Platte to Sioux Falls through "the connection", requires a small amount of paperwork, but otherwise very easy.


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## Melssen (Nov 11, 2010)

How Else are you supposed to get out of Santa Monica without the headache?


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## emi (Nov 14, 2010)

I hitched from Seattle, Washington to Denver, Colorado and got a bus ticket from Seventh-Day Adventist back to Seattle, Washington. I tried all other resources within the two days I wanted to leave, Seventh-Day Adventist gave me a tick out without question or hesitation on the same day I Spoke with them.


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## shwillyhaaa (Nov 18, 2010)

street outreach in la bought me and my boyfreind at the time a bus ticket back to oly cause they called my mother for a place to stay for us.. took us 2 hours to get it and we left the next morning...


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## gingerbreadman (Nov 29, 2010)

the city of santa monica in LA dose this, got a ride all the way back to florida. they called it project homcoming.


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## Nana (Dec 9, 2010)

I've done this in '99 outta LA to Minneapolis, but I think it was for the 21 and younger.


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## murdermittenkid (Feb 5, 2011)

most salvation armys will give you a ticket if you can call some one have them say you can stay with them.they say its once in a lifetime thing they take all your info down.i got one in missoula mt to glendive mt it was to cold to hitch


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## wokofshame (Feb 6, 2011)

Damn I tried this the day after Christmas and had the lexington ky baptist church buy me a greyhound ride to wherever i wished. i can't believe i never got more than a free city bus voucher before!
just ask around with the homebums in any city and this probably exists.
Now what I really want is the plane ride to Hawaii, that would be the shit. Train>passengerplane but plane>bus by damn far!


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## shaggydope (Feb 6, 2011)

i got a free bus ticket through the police in Brush, Colorado. they didn't let me pick where i was going though. i ended up in Nebraska somewhere. there i was able to get a ticket to wherever i wanted as long as someone where i was going was able to pick up the phone and say i had shelter. it took about an hour both times and i left the same day in Nebraska.


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## SkyeDawg (Apr 29, 2011)

I caught one LA to New York cause LA sucks and I had people in NY to vouch for me lol...


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## Nagrom (Apr 30, 2011)

yeah my friend got one fron sf to fl and she used my sis name. they didnt even ask for her id. and my boyfriend got one outa barstow ca. but the guy at the bus station just gave him one he didnt even have to ask.


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## Murf (Jun 4, 2011)

Did some lookin and found out wilkes-barre dosent have anything like that . Our homeless are part of what makes it great here. Maybe they do , but i highly doubt it , its a poor city. Good to know though , never heard of it intill i first read this so ill be doing research on my future locations


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## kai (Sep 5, 2011)

got pulled off in white river ontario and the cops gave me a welfare voucher for a bus ticket to thunder bay....whoohoo from one shit hole to the next!


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## TheUndeadPhoenix (Sep 26, 2011)

Yeah, this is common. There's a MAJOR problem with it. They look up the area code your friend is in. I used them in SF to get to El Piso

FYI: I didn't read any replies of this topic, so its probably just a repeat of everybody else


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## Carey 5000 (Sep 26, 2011)

A place called Adam's House in Prince George's cnty MD was accross from the loc at one of the fairs I worked for, gave me bus fair and amtrak tix. Some type of social charity shit, im still not sure exactly what they do. They referred me to DC travelers aid also but I never had to check it out


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## Weston (Oct 18, 2011)

> San Francisco has a program called "Homeward Bound", you can get a free greyhound ticket home or where ever the address is on your ID. Go to the food stamp office on mission, I think it is like 8th and mission.



Ya, this is legit. They also give you $10 cash per day for your trip. I got a ticket to PA and they gave me $40 and I didn't even have an ID. One good way to get a free ticket from Homeward Bound to anywhere you want to go is to just get a cheap Net10 prepaid phone and when you call in to activate give them the zip code of wherever you want to go. This allows you to have a phone with the area code of your destination... Give that phone to someone right outside the social service office and have Homeward Bound use that number as your people's contact number. Have whoever it is tell them bogus info and then you are good.

Shit, might as well do this even if you don't want to leave SF... Get a ticket for somewhere on the East Coast so it will be a long 4 day ride so you can get the $40 and just get off the bus at the first stop. That's a little money in your pocket and all you lose is a few hours. The first stop for me was in Oakland so you would have to hitch back to SF if you wanted to stay there.


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## IIIbonesIII (Oct 21, 2011)

oxnard to san luis obispo, at the st vincent de paul thats pretty much as far as that coast line runs anymore.


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## Kim Chee (Jan 5, 2012)

The two times I was in SLO jail I was offered bus rides out of town without asking. I have spoken to several people that have been in jail
there and I haven't heard of anybody else who has been offered this (I guess they really have to have a dislike for you, or maybe just
asking might work). First time they offered a ride to anywhere (even oklahoma), the second time kern county was offered (bakersfield). 
I never accepted either offer. waaaaa waaaaa waaaaaa


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## Blaine (Feb 27, 2012)

iv been in SLO jail twice and never been offered a ticket to anywhere but back to SLO and thats a one day pass, so anyway fuck slo cops fuck slo and fuck trying to go North from here lol


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## acer910 (Feb 27, 2012)

i had a cop drive me and my friends from jasper fl to lake city fl. they REALLY wanted us out of jasper.


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## LeftCoast (Mar 26, 2012)

INTERESTING STORY HERE BRO:

I got pulled off a unit in Fargo. I walked for eleven miles into town, where the fuzz scooped me up and booked and released me. Then, I was told I needed to get the fuck outta town. All to my lonesome, nothing but me and my pack, i started walking. Then the fuzz called the state troopers on my ass. Fuckin bulltits. Had to walk more. On day two the SAME trooper saw me. I had walked maybe 32 miles in 48 hours. Fucking bastards. THEN he drives me all the way back to fargo. Trooper (Mathews?) was nice to me surprisingly. Sad If i were to have kept walking I would have surely died. There wasn't SHIT for MILES. He drove me ALL THE WAY BACK TO FUCKING FARGO! then him and all his copper buddies pitched in a got me a ticket and said don't come back for a year. Thinking he was just trying to make an impression on me or some shit. But anyway, he was nice, got me a ticket out of his own buddie's pockets. Kickass right? Crazy as tits if you ask me.

Traveler's aid sucks catshits. But then again, bus rides are no fun. Unless you got a hot momma next to you with a fat ass and food stamps. Just sayin.


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## hobogestapo (Mar 26, 2012)

Melssen said:


> How Else are you supposed to get out of Santa Monica without the headache?


walk.


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## hobogestapo (Mar 26, 2012)

cops bought us all tickets ( there was five of us) from Battle Mountain NV. to Winnemucca NV. which is the next town over because and I quote. " We are absolutely 100% done with your bullshit".


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## LeftCoast (Mar 29, 2012)

i have seen this happen before too. i think it's because of the whole vagrancy thing going on in lewis county or wherever the fuck that town's in.


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## Eager (Apr 24, 2012)

The Nashville Homeless Power Project has a program like that; and they don't ID you. I've used it two different times under different aliases. They require you to have stayed at a shelter/rehab in town for at least 3 nights (they check) before they'll give you a Greyhound voucher. The program was set up by the cops and the "downtown commission"; but its administered by the homeless advocacy group, who are all too anxious to help you out and send you wherever you want without verifying anything. I tried to get them to send me to Hawaii; but they can only use Greyhound, which doesn't leave the continental US.


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## onym (Apr 28, 2012)

two years ago some friend and i went to the loaves and fishes in sacramento and got free greyhound tickets to Santa Fe, NM. waited no longer than 24 hrs.


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## RockerBilly (May 2, 2012)

Got all kinds of free shit. food, dranks, soap, coffee etc and a ride from this place called "Calvary Chapel" in Live Oak, California. They also gave us gift bags that were little wooden baskets filled with weird religious shit (and a candle and some chocolate). In order to procure this they made us sit in their church for an hour while we watched their fucked up service. it was somewhat traumatizing, there was that "speaking in tongues" weirdness. The worst part is they locked the doors so nobody could leave and we had to watch their service, a 90 year old woman was screaming and crying right next to me, and afterwards all the towns people crowded around us, so excited to see outsiders, they almost didnt let us leave. But hey this ordeal kept us fed for like the next week. and they drove us to the next big town.


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## ped (May 2, 2012)

RockerBilly said:


> Got all kinds of free shit. food, dranks, soap, coffee etc and a ride from this place called "Calvary Chapel" in Live Oak, California. They also gave us gift bags that were little wooden baskets filled with weird religious shit (and a candle and some chocolate). In order to procure this they made us sit in their church for an hour while we watched their fucked up service. it was somewhat traumatizing, there was that "speaking in tongues" weirdness. The worst part is they locked the doors so nobody could leave and we had to watch their service, a 90 year old woman was screaming and crying right next to me, and afterwards all the towns people crowded around us, so excited to see outsiders, they almost didnt let us leave. But hey this ordeal kept us fed for like the next week. and they drove us to the next big town.


 
That's like one of those time share things where you get a free hotel stay with a mandatory attendance to their sales pitch conference.


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## RockerBilly (May 2, 2012)

Yeah except at the sales pitch you worry they might sacrifice you lol. I just remembered that I was reading their little church bulletin newsletter thing and I gathered that the town of Live Oak was repeatedly trying to get this Church shut down and there had been several arson attempts! haha


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## ped (May 2, 2012)

The town was actualy trying to shut them down or they wanted to believe it was to play out their "christians are under attack" delusions that have become extremely popular lately?


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## RockerBilly (May 2, 2012)

Well the arson attacks were definitely for real, there were pictures, there was also offensive graffiti. But I got the vibe that the people doing the attacking _were_ "Christians" themselves, they just weren't down with this crazy sect in their town.


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## RockerBilly (May 2, 2012)

no i just realized it wasn't calvary chapel it was called "victory chapel" and it was its own sect, the symbol was a burning sword


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## RockerBilly (May 2, 2012)

just found the website http://sermonsofvictory.com/home.html i seriously recommend you stop by if you're ever taking the 99W through Cali on a Sunday morning. The place has a massive outbuilding full of apocalypse supplies and no joke- a shipping container filled to the brim with nothing but bottles of _Snapple_. they will stock you up.


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## lilith (May 6, 2012)

the homeward bound program was how i got from frisco to ft. lauderdale. i was hoping to find something similar to leave maryland soon but no such luck yet


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## BriannaLee (May 6, 2012)

I'm literally sitting in some families living room on my phone while they are buying me a ticket to nola haha they are super nice and sure do love jesus, but damn a $106 ticket to nola! I love it. I didn't ask they just invited me over for lunch and when I started saying stuff about riding trains and sleepingout at night they said no way weare going to buy you a bus ticket to where you are trying to get to.


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## BriannaLee (May 6, 2012)

I'm literally sitting in some families living room on my phone while they are buying me a ticket to nola haha they are super nice and sure do love jesus, but damn a $106 ticket to nola! I love it. I didn't ask they just invited me over for lunch and when I started saying stuff about riding trains and sleepingout at night they said no way weare going to buy you a bus ticket to where you are trying to get to.


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## RockerBilly (May 6, 2012)

BriannaLee said:


> I'm literally sitting in some families living room on my phone while they are buying me a ticket to nola haha they are super nice and sure do love jesus, but damn a $106 ticket to nola! I love it. I didn't ask they just invited me over for lunch and when I started saying stuff about riding trains and sleepingout at night they said no way weare going to buy you a bus ticket to where you are trying to get to.


thats pretty rare. Christians actually doing something "christian"


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## BriannaLee (May 6, 2012)

RockerBilly said:


> thats pretty rare. Christians actually doing something "christian"


Haha seriously. They were really nice. I was just flying a sign to make money and it turned into a quick way to nola fuck yeah!


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## Agron12 (May 11, 2012)

anyone know anything about nyc? because I'm legit sitting here trying to find a way back to oklahoma, came up here with fake ass friend that I thought I could trust. He stole all my money out my wallet and just left. any help would be welcomed.


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## bradbradidea (May 19, 2012)

i actually just got off my "free ride" about 3 hours ago from minneapolis to anaheim. had a sign asking for money for a greyhound and this was a straight up dick about it but i found out about that shit so its all good


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## schmutz (Feb 1, 2013)

Salvation Army in San Jose did this for me....only catch was I had to show them an id with a street address to where I was going. (I was trying to get home to visit my folks at the time so it worked ok)


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## Deleted member 20 (Feb 1, 2013)

I have had luck with Travelers aid. They always ask for someone at the destinstion & then give you a lecture about paying them back etc.


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## Sebastian Ballard (Jun 5, 2014)

shaggydope said:


> i got a free bus ticket through the police in Brush, Colorado. they didn't let me pick where i was going though. i ended up in Nebraska somewhere. there i was able to get a ticket to wherever i wanted as long as someone where i was going was able to pick up the phone and say i had shelter. it took about an hour both times and i left the same day in Nebraska.



I know this post is 3 years old but LMAO at the cops giving you a bus ticket to a random place. Wtf. 

Salvation army is still doing this, heard about it in Vegas, you have to let them call someone to verify your housing. Keep that in mind if any of you get stuck in the hell that is las vegas!


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## hitchingpdx (Jul 21, 2014)

Vegas requires proof of residency for the last 6 months to get the ticket. Three places that I've traveled over the years that actually rush to buy you a ticket anywhere with a simple phone call..

Santa Monica,san Francisco, New York, everywhere else it seems like you have to jump through hoops.

Surprised more cities aren't quicker to bus out and save on the social services..

Time to get the hitching 

Going to head out to a truck stop about 5 miles off the strip..


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## hitchingpdx (Jul 22, 2014)

Update on vegas, apparently catholic charities also offers a ticket without the 6 month wait. I arrived at 6am, waited until 830 to get called. Told to come back between 12-1 pm.. Will update how it goes.. Definetely sleeping out near the truck stop about 5 miles from strip tommorow and flying/hitching as early as possible. Vegas is unfriendly too travelers, and I understand why to an extent, but damn, can't even lay in a park during the afternoon..


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## wokofshame (Jul 24, 2014)

i agree to an extent, as a tourist town LV wants the homeless nowhere near. But if you go to the main social services office, they are awesome. They will set you up with a homeless ID that you can then use to apply for different social services. There is even financial assistance with housing available


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## Art101 (Sep 16, 2014)

Man Vegas used to kickass. The crew change was like 4-5 blocks of the strip and stopped behind some dang casino.Used to be an old baggage car back there you could lay about in waiting for your next ride. I heard it has gotten pretty brutal with the cops and the homeless laws passed. That sucks tough. Used to love that town.


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## CelticWanderer (Jan 6, 2015)

I had a dude in Texas that bought me a bus ticket to Oklahoma city. That was pretty cool. Some charity called feed the homeless kids or something like that. I think i've still got his email somewhere.


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## kevin pancetta (Jan 7, 2015)

MURT said:


> Has anyone ever used those legendary programs where the city buys you a bus or even plane ticket to where someone will house you (or at least says so on the phone)?
> i recently heard of a guy getting a free plane ticket to hawaii by using nyc's Get The Homeless Out of Here program or whatever it is.
> 
> post your experience with where it was and also much of a delay did u have/ how hard was it to get?
> ...


Ha. Homeward bound is like once a life time if you gotan address and phone number to csll and claim you...
But why easy to grt a ride other ways! Thatsthe poi t right? No doubt i understand in a pinch using it but not fun on an 8 day greyhound. 

Im trying to figure out a garbage barge ito dtowaway on heard about once.....


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## GonzoLizard211 (Oct 28, 2015)

ProfessorX said:


> San Francisco has a program called "Homeward Bound", you can get a free greyhound ticket home or where ever the address is on your ID. Go to the food stamp office on mission, I think it is like 8th and mission.


Holy shit I wish I knew that when I was stranded in san francisco.


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## Julie generic (Jan 2, 2016)

Any free tix out of tampa? Help?


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## Santiagoramos (Feb 6, 2016)

How about in Denver Colorado, and during the weekends? I'm literally stranded here and need to get to Jackson Hole Wyoming for work


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## deleted17310 (Nov 12, 2016)

I know Reno Nevada will slap your happy ass on a bus real quick with just a phone call heck you could have your buddy outside on Google Voice to it

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using the Squat the Planet mobile app!


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## PIE (Nov 23, 2016)

ProfessorX said:


> San Francisco has a program called "Homeward Bound", you can get a free greyhound ticket home or where ever the address is on your ID. Go to the food stamp office on mission, I think it is like 8th and mission.


They also give you ten dollars for each day the trip will take. It is once in a life time though.


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## SophiaII (Nov 23, 2016)

hobogestapo said:


> cops bought us all tickets ( there was five of us) from Battle Mountain NV. to Winnemucca NV. which is the next town over because and I quote. " We are absolutely 100% done with your bullshit".




LMAO too good


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## Kim Chee (Nov 23, 2016)

dontpanic said:


> I know Reno Nevada will slap your happy ass on a bus real quick...



I was offered a ticket as well.


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## Ridire (Aug 29, 2017)

Greyhound does a thing if you're relatively young that'll hook you up with your folks. Kind of a runaway outreach thing, I used it to head to Florida to crash with my mom so we could get me closer to my boyfriend in Gaines. The official cutoff age is like 23 or something, I think.


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## BryannaTL (Sep 21, 2018)

No I haven't but I really am in need of one but to be honest I don't have any money to get home plus I'm stranded and I need to get home badly.


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## Detour (Dec 4, 2018)

2017 N. Little Rock a sherriff paid for a greyhound ticket for me to where I said I was going. Pretty decent but just today in Utah cold A F while traveling with a couple that isn't geared up for the cold we got Mormon help got a motey tonight and 3 bus tickets for tomorrow to Tulsa hell yeah that's cool even though I am not really heading that way... Well guess I am now. In Iowa almost every town I walked into kicked down a motey and meal ticket for a night some really nice spots too. I am cool outside but if you offer most times I won't say no but my luck has been that I haven't searched out the help


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## BusGypsy (Jan 9, 2019)

There were some squatters in Seattle who built a "tent mansion", made a big political hoopla... and were given two tickets to GTFO because they were causing a stir and making people think.
https://komonews.com/news/project-s...getting-city-paid-plane-tickets-to-leave-town


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