The Murder Bus to Monrovia's Farmer's Market

     I get a giggle everytime I visit thefcblog and read about the "Murder Bus."  (Foothill Transit #187, which is also the police code for homocide--these are the things you learn when you grow up watching Adam-12).

     I ride 187 about once a month--more in the summer, less often in the winter.  It runs between Claremont and Pasadena, with a stop at the Sierra Madre Villa Gold Line station.  West of Sierra Madre Villa, it mostly runs on Colorado.  But it heads north on San Gabriel, east on Foothill, enters and exits the Sierra Madre Villa Station, then continues east on Foothill.  Then it's south on Rosemead, then east on Colorado.  East of the race track, you find yourself on Huntington.  Three or four miles past the race track, you hit Myrtle.

     From there, it's a short walk north to the Family Festival, aka the Farmers' Market.  It used to be a longer walk, but as the event has grown, now booths make it all the way down to with about two blocks of Huntington.  Vendors set up to open at 5pm and stay until 9pm.  There are plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and plenty of crafts and prepared foods.  They also usually have a petting zoo, a climbing wall, and a few other similar things.  It's a nice way to kill (murder?) a Friday evening, particularly if my wife is off playing cards with the ladies.

     For those of you who don't want to take public transit, there's plenty of free parking in the area.  Personally, I like Maple, east of Myrtle.  After six, there are a lot of open spaces, and you're just a block from the start of the farmer's market.

     For those of you who want to take public transit to the Murder Bus, Montebello Bus Lines #20 heads right up San Gabriel Blvd.  Once an hour (every fourth bus) heading north continues past Garvey and on up to Sierra Madre Villa (on weekdays--on weekends, #20 goes no further north than Garvey).  Incidentally, that's the same bus where I ran into Juan Garcia, who I posted aboue here: http://saveourcommunity.us/?q=node/441

     MTA 266 on Rosemead also runs up to Sierra Madre Villa, but it gets more riders, which means more stops, which means a longer time to get to Sierra Madre Villa.  Plus, Rosemead just doesn't run as fast as San Gabriel.