Sonora-area woman finds freedom on public transit

Barbara McClelland, 77, was alone for the first time after her husband, Doyle, died in August.

She married just out of high school and shared the next 60 years with her husband and children.

After her husband’s passing, there was no escape from the lonely prison McClelland’s home — between Sonora and Columbia — became because she doesn’t drive.

She relied solely on her children or grandchildren, who drive hours from the Central Valley to escort her.

But last week, McClelland — wearing bleach-white sneakers, khaki pants, a windbreaker, and accompanied by a suitcase on rollers and a bag of snacks — rode public transportation to spend Easter with her family in Isleton, Sacramento County.

“I was moping around,” she said. “I thought … I’m going to get on with my life.”

With a little patience and careful planning, McClelland has the world at her fingertips with a few transit tickets.

Calaveras Transit, which Tuolumne County residents can pick up at Columbia College, crosses into Amador and San Joaquin counties.

The transit system connects with the Amador Regional Transit System in Jackson, where three buses a day run to Sacramento and back, and with several transit options at the Lodi bus station — including Amtrak, which can be taken across California, Grape Line, which carts around Lodi, and the San Joaquin Regional Transit District, which travels all the way to Pleasanton.

In Pleasanton, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, widely known as BART, can be ridden to all corners of the Bay Area, including to international airports.

Using these transit systems, a trip to San Francisco from Columbia College would be a bit more than $10. A trip to Sacramento costs about $5.

McClelland’s recent journey started at Columbia College where she caught a Calaveras Transit bus. She switched buses in Angels Camp and rode to Lodi. She then boarded a bus to Isleton, where her family eagerly waited.

McClelland has a lot of people to visit — children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren — whose love for McClelland was evident by the constant calls to her cell phone on the journey.

Each call, McClelland gave an exasperated look — similar to a 16-year-old girl reacting to overbearing parents.

“They’re worried about me,” she said.

She was doing fine — in the world of area public transportation, McClelland is already a veteran.

“She gets around pretty well,” Calaveras Transit driver Karen Phillips said.

The trip to Isleton was her second long-distance attempt.

“I’m going to try to make it further each trip,” she said.

With a smile frosted on McClelland’s face, she peered out the large bus windows overlooking the vibrant green hills and blooming wildflowers that stretched to all horizons near New Melones Reservoir.

“It’s so beautiful this time of the year,” she said.

She’s also discovered there’s a world of entertaining characters who ride the transit system.

Like Brett Ashworth, 25, who takes the bus six days a week to his seven-year job at Mike’s Pizza in Angels Camp from his San Andreas home.

Ashworth can talk about folding pizza boxes and anything sports-related for hours.

“I ride the bus everyday except Wednesday,” Ashworth said.

Or, gray-bearded, thrift-store-loving Marlow Holloway, who rides the bus for hours to enjoy a good Thai lunch or get vitamins from Trader Joe’s in Stockton.

“They’re way better vitamins than those you find on the Internet,” he said.

Rachel Mann, who lives in the Columbia College apartments, was taking the bus to visit family over the holidays in the valley.

“I don’t drive,” she said, adding that she’s had very little trouble with area public transit.

“Everybody on this bus is different,” McClelland said. “You get all walks of life.”

Of course, everyone has an idea on how public transit could be better.

Holloway would like to see more routes. McClelland wishes there was a fixed route on Highway 49 near her home — she usually has to hitch a ride with a neighbor to get to the bus stop in Columbia.

“I’m lucky to have such great neighbors,” she said.

But McClelland is thankful for her new lease on a very-independent life via public transit.

“It’s a godsend,” she said.