Uber Stories: 10,000 rides: “Reality vs escape”

Early morning Uber rides can go either way. Most of the time, I let the passengers set the tone and the rides are quiet with few words exchanged.

On this morning, I headed off to Woodstock for an airport run and expected to drive back to Rutland in silence, but a mom and two young children, ages 2-6 loaded into my car. The mom was obviously tired (who wouldn’t be) but the elder daughter exuded energy only youth can provide.

“What kind of music do you like?” I asked her.

“Miss. Rachel?”

With a one-year-old niece, I only know what babies like, and the cute little girl just shook her head.

“She likes Taylor Swift,” mom interjected.

“Oh, that I can do!” I exclaimed, quickly switching the radio to Taylor Swift 360 on Pandora.

I tried to calm down as they did some prep for the start of school in the back seat. Once the youngest had nodded off and the elder was occupied I decided to ask some questions.

They were from Nantucket – interesting as I’d driven a sweet older woman from Nantucket the week before – but as I learned more, it became apparent they were more local than tourists. A few more journalistic inquiries and I’d find out she was the wife of one a guy a went to high school with. After the fact I googled him to find he was now a celebrity chef with three restaurants in Mass — which doesn’t surprise me at all. 

It’s an awesome success story that left me smiling as I prepared to head home for a bit.

I was nearly back at my house when the app pinged again and I was off to Comfort Inn. There I found a CDL truck driver just trying to get the hell out of Rutland. A short fare to the rental car place and I figured it was probably the last I’d get, as midday approached and Rutland uber is generally dead.

Imagine my surprise when another ping brought me right back to comfort Inn, where a thru-hiker I named Sunfish (didn’t get his actual trail name) was waiting for a ride to the airport.

“Thanks so much for coming to get me,” he said with a slow Wisconsin drawl. “I thought I was going to have to walk to the airport.”

“I think you’ve walked enough,” I laughed.

“1,700 miles,” he said. “But I’m heading home.”

He was older, I’d peg him at mid 60s-early 70s and told me he’d spent the past six years hiking the PCT, Arizona Trail, Continental Divide Trail and had made it all the way up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia but just felt like it was time to go home. He planned to do the rest next year, and I can’t say I blamed him.

We chatted about all his favorite places in the country (too many to count) and I agreed with most of them.

Even though I’d accessed by them car and he was on foot, I still felt cool to be able to go tit for tat with such a well-traveled guy. Plus I got to bust out my, “I’ve been everywhere, man, just call me Johnny Cash” joke to which he laughed and replied, “you’re a lot prettier than Johnny Cash.”

As I dropped him at the airport with a smile on my face the app pinged again, with a pick up at the Days Inn headed up Route 4. More hikers, I figured, and I was right. 

I’d already had a great one, but the last ride of the day was by far my favorite. It was a trail couple known as Feral and Breadcrumbs. I instantly connected with Breadcrumbs, as I said, “you guys just saved me so much money, I was headed to Michael’s to use my $5 off voucher and buy some pushpins.”

She laughed. “I had to restrain myself from going in there. I’m hiking 2000 miles, I don’t need to carry anything else. But I am the coupon queen!” 

She was from Tennessee and Feral was from Montana. He was an ex marine with 6 daughters and a horse ranch and he was a non-stop riot. I laughed all the way to the dispensary and then the rest of the way to the trail head as he regaled us with one-liners and innuendos and Breadcrumbs and I added our own witticisms.

As we neared the drop off, I told them not to forget about the full moon the next night.

“Everything will feel different in the morning,” I said.

Feral just laughed.

“I turn into a werewolf, actually. She’s going to unzip the tent and see me skinning a live deer.”

“Yep,” she replied. “And I’ll just zip the tent back up and go to sleep.”