26 Valencia: An Homage

On my way home from work today, I caught what is sure to be my last glimpse of a dying beast: the 26 Valencia.  It totally made that mraaawwwghhhh sound that dinosaurs make when you shoot ‘em as it lunged away from its stop.

Unlike KevMo, I’m a longtime Muni lover, Fast Pass collector, and old lady seat offerer, so am sad to see this piece of shit bus go.  I think it only proper I write up an homage of my own to add to Kevin’s post (I’m the nice one, he’s the mean one, haven’t you been paying attention?).

Riding the 26 always made me feel like I was taking public transit in Santa Barbara.  I saw it referred to as the “rich man’s 14″  somewhere online today, which I thought appropriate.  One time I was on the 26 and a Norwegian woman started telling me about how certain types of  hamburger meat paralyzes you for life and also that I have really good skin.  Yes, this bus is totally useless, but how awesome was it to conveniently bump into it and ride the 4 blocks down Valencia you were planning on walking?

RIP, 26 Valencia.  There will be tears in my beer and on my Fast Pass tonight.

17 Responses to “26 Valencia: An Homage”

  1. Mission Mistaken says:

    Heaven forbid we have any civilized Muni routes left in the City. Someday, it will be the bedlam express or as an alternative the slow route to hell bus.

  2. johnny0 says:

    Wow, Kat, that pic is Allan-lowrez-quality.

    The 14 and 49 are going to be an utter clusterfuck. Mark my words, the 26-Valencia will be back.

    • Thanks for noticing! My Nokia flip aspires to Allanphone quality.

      J Church is about to get fucked in the butt as well. Don’t matter though, as long as you get stabbed.

  3. [...] Mission Mission Tagged: 26 · bus · muni · sf transit · street · valencia ← Hello Forever, goodbye weekend. blog comments powered by Disqus var disqus_url = 'http://www.docpop.org/2009/12/04/muni-is-dead-to-me-long-live-the-26.html '; var disqus_container_id = 'disqus_thread'; var facebookXdReceiverPath = 'http://www.docpop.org/wp-content/plugins/disqus-comment-system/xd_receiver.htm'; var DsqLocal = { 'trackbacks': [ ], 'trackback_url': 'http://www.docpop.org/2009/12/04/muni-is-dead-to-me-long-live-the-26.html/trackback' }; [...]

  4. Maya says:

    Dear Kat,

    My friends and I are disappointed you and Sex Pigeon did not join us on the final run of the 26-Valencia – any true Mission-ite would have.

  5. el Guapo says:

    Public transit in Santa Barbara!!!?! I spent 4 years taking MTD 20 from Carpinteria north to State Street; record shopping at Deep Groove and Morning Glory, gyros at the Greek-American Deli. That bus was my passage to culture.

    • Alicia says:

      I hate to tell you this, but the Greek-Italian Deli (aka Johnny’s) is gone now too. And as a life-long public transit rider and former Santa Barbarian, I agree with Kat even if she was just making that shit up. In fact, you could draw some excellent parallels between SF’s 26 and SB’s 6. Both redundant, both travel from downtown to the hinterlands, both have less down-and-out riders than average…

  6. allanspop says:

    In ’74 and ’75 I lived on Fairmount, then Dearborn and went to SF State; took the 26 almost every day. Noisy for sure, especially going up Chenery, but virtually door-to-door for me.

  7. pixeltan says:

    I already miss you 26, you were my sunday 14.

  8. subby says:

    Those 4 blocks of Valencia that you were going to walk anyway always felt like you’d stumbled into a real-life bonus level, where everything went faster and there were no evil turtles and it always ended too soon. R.I.P occasionally-awesome 26, R.I.P.

    • anna says:

      “real-life bonus level” – so true! and along those lines, you never really knew when it would show up, but when it did, it was an awesome surprise.

  9. johnny0 says:

    36-Teresita, I knew the 26-Valencia. And you, sir, are no 26-Valencia.

    I do not like you, idling aimlessly at the corner of CC&V waiting to start your route, facing the wrong direction.

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