Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
A text arrived at 6 am Saturday morning from our daughter Staci. She asked us to check for a package delivered on our front porch. That’s a strange delivery time for the post office, UPS or Fed Ex and Sue told her she’d check later that morning.
Staci was insistent that we check immediately.
Sue got dressed for the cold, snow boots and all, and opened the front door. I heard her exclaim, “What are you doing here?”
I rushed downstairs to discover our son-in-law Adam stepping inside the house.
He and Staci decided to surprise us, and our son Brian and daughter-in-law Katelin, with a quick trip for the baptism of our latest grandchild, and our only grandson, Matthew Forrest on Sunday.
Adam flew in on the late flight Friday evening and booked a low-cost motel room before walking the two miles or so to our house in the pre-dawn darkness early Saturday.
His clandestine trip to Gasser Road was made possible by something that didn’t exist in Fremont County until a few years ago. He called a taxi. Gator Creek dutifully delivered him to the motel.
“I almost had him stop at your house, but there were no lights on, so we kept going,” Adam said.
It brought up the idea of public transportation out here in the wilderness, something that’s been commonplace in cities for centuries.
The world’s first automobile taxi, complete with a meter took to the streets of Stuttgart, Germany in 1897. Before that, horse drawn cabs were available from the mid-17th century in Europe and Japan. Ben Franklin famously arrived at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia via taxi each morning.
Adam tried an Uber first, but the two that serve Riverton were off duty.
Uber is an interesting business venture. A private vehicle, with a digital contract to a centrally operated “car for hire” service has effectively put taxis out of business in many locales.
Sue and I took our first Uber on a trip to Las Vegas a few years ago. The difference in prices between the notoriously onerous Vegas cabs, and either an Uber or Lyft was substantial. The independents offered faster rides at about 40 percent of the taxi rate.
Ubers are faster because they take the shortest route in Vegas. Cabs operated on a timer, and always take the longest route possible to generate the greatest income. In “Lost Wages”, there is a well-timed stoplight at every intersection, making taxi rides almost the same time equivalent as walking.
It’s a well-known feature of the glittering capital of vice established long ago by a connection between the mayor’s office and the mob bosses that originally controlled the taxis.
Ubers get second class treatment at all the hotels, whether they’re on the strip or not. Cabs get front door, valet access, while Uber and Lyft drivers must park on the side or around back to pick up passengers.
We took a trip to Washington, D.C. via Amtrak a few years ago and used Uber in the nation’s capital as well. It’s efficient, inexpensive and each driver has a unique story to tell. They make bank, as they say as well, with a few knocking down over a 100 grand a year in part time passenger delivery.
They all shared the same experience that the peak revenue came after big concerts or sporting events, or between 4 and 6 a.m. on weekdays with multiple trips to the local airport.
Judiciously using an Uber can save you time, parking fees and miles of additional walking.
In 2017, my birthday present from Sue was a trip to State College Pennsylvania to watch Penn State play Nebraska.
Sorry to all my friends wearing those red, “N stands for knowledge” hats, but I’ve never been much of a Cornhusker fan. With Saquon Barkley in the Nittany Lion’s backfield, Penn State was nationally ranked.
It turned out to be a shootout with Penn State taking a 56-44 win after leading 42-10 at the half, but, as Paul Harvey so famously said, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
We found a nice motel in a little town outside State College, ate at a great steakhouse and per Adam’s instructions, parked at a strip mall a few miles from the stadium.
It was raining and we didn’t have any rain gear. We went inside one of the big box stores at the strip mall and Sue found a rain suit right away. They didn’t have anything in the men’s section, but I walked back to the hunting section and found the longest pair of duck hunting water repellent gear I’ve ever seen. Suffice it to say, it would have fit Shaquille O’Neal. They were so long, I wore my shoes inside them and while it was a bit slippery, I didn’t get wet.
We called an Uber to pick us up and take us to the stadium. He dropped us off a few hundred yards from the entrance and we had a great time watching the game. The rain never let up, but the experience of watching football with 104,000 people packing the stands was far removed from my experience at War Memorial in Laramie or for that matter from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh or Mile High in Denver.
As the game ended, I contacted Uber for a return to the strip mall. There were several dozen Uber drivers on the app, but only a couple responded.
The problem was the sheer volume of people crowding the exits as they left the game. Buses, taxis, and private vehicles jammed the roadways leading to the ballpark.
After 30 minutes, I began calling the drivers. There were multiple wrecks on the slick, wet streets and they couldn’t get to our location.
In a moment of inspiration, I grabbed Sue’s arm and said, “Follow me.”
There was a line of charter buses with various hotels listed on the front marquee. I picked the third one in the row for no reason, and we sat down near the middle of the bus.
Sue was anxious, worrying we were going to get caught riding illegally. “What can they do?” I said. “Throw us off?”
We waited a few minutes. The driver closed the door and we rode through the streets for another 15 before arriving at an eight-story hotel a few miles away.
No one asked us if we were staying there, they all just wanted to talk about the game. The lobby of the hotel had snacks and beer waiting for their returning guests. I had one.
Sue was nervous, but not me. I started clicking the Uber app for a ride back to our car at the strip mall and bantered with the other hotel guests until it arrived about 10 minutes later.
We were back at our car in no time and drove back to our hotel.
Problem solved with a bit of chicanery and a great use of technology.
I highly recommend it.