Rider stories

THE THANKSGIVING INVITE: It's not unusual to be invited to Thanksgiving, but when your invite is for Labor Day and the person just met you, that is unusual.  My rider was going to Wal-Mart the day before Labor Day to buy some things to make for their Thanksgiving Feast on Labor Day in North Carolina.  It's a tradition her family has and she invited me to join them.  I told her I wouldn't be able to since I was spending the day with my wife and my brother who was visiting. She invited them to, but she never gave me an address so we missed out on the fun.

MEMORABLE MORGAN: As soon as I started driving her and her two friends she said, "I think you drove us in January."  She then remembered me, my van, that I was from the northeast, we talked about the football Giants and her team the Eagles, and she knew the bar I brought them to.  When she pointed out the bar I did remember dropping someone there, but I did not remember her. She said she remembers all kinds of insignificant things. Then, she called herself  "Memorable Morgan," after I forgot her.  She was memorable this time.  She told me that the three of them were hit on by married guys from West Virginia last night and the guy talking to her had a pet raccoon.  The guy sent her a video of him and his raccoon on his shoulder and she showed it to me.  She was enthusiastic and a lot of fun to talk to and the next time she comes back I promise, I will remember "Memorable Morgan."

PROFESSIONAL SAILING TRAINERS: After working for 35 years in an unrelated field, the man started his own business with his wife. They train people on how to sail and they have clients who come from all over the world for the three days of training.  They take off four months every year to sail and they were on their return trip to Key West, Florida when I gave them a ride to a Wal-Mart.  The cost of their three day training for a couple is $6,000 and they train about 120 people a year. They do not own a house, only two boats which they live on.  What an unusual life!

THE NEW GOLFER: His boss was concerned about him physically since he played softball five times a week.  He suggested that he start playing golf which would be less strain on him.  My rider wasn't interested until the boss said, "if you hit under 100 in the first year, I'll give you a $5,000 bonus."  He started playing golf and without lessons scored a 99 in seven months and collected his bonus.

DR. DOOLITTLE'S SON:  About a hundred years ago there was a series of children's books about a fictional character, Dr. Doolittle.  He loved animals and was able to communicate with them.  My rider did not tell me that he talked to his animals, but he did tell me that he's had about 200 pets.  He is in his early 20's and he's from New York.  About 140 of them were fish and the other 60 were pets of all kinds.  I did ask if he had a zebra and he said, "unfortunately no."  His Australian German Shephard is a big dog and sometimes wakes him up by punching him in the face.  He said, "my life would be so much better without the dog, but I love it."  His advice on getting a pet, "you're better off with a cat than a dog."

THE ARMY GUY: I picked up two successful guys in a very nice neighborhood.  One guy served three years in the Army and was stationed in Baghdad.  He enlisted immediately after 9-11 and decided not to re-enlist when there was too much politics involved in what they were doing.  We had an interesting discussion on gun control issues.  He has about ten guns in his house and has trained his son and wife on how to use them in an emergency.  The attitudes towards guns are very different in the South than in the north.  He carries a gun with him almost all the time and said, "I'd rather have a gun and not need it, than not have a gun and need it.

THE MARRIAGE RIDE: Sometimes people are surprised to hear that someone is married for a long time, but this ride was very unique.  I was driving four women from Wisconsin who were all married between 18-25 years.  Of course, I told them I was married for 36 years and I added up all the numbers: the five of us had been married for 125 years combined.  I'm sure that's a record for one vehicle.

THE FLIER: I drove my rider to the airport so he could head north in his plane.  For the past fifteen years he's been a Crisis Management Consultant, helping companies overcome significant problems.  I could tell he was very knowledgeable about his field and I would have enjoyed talking with him another ten minutes.  I also knew that his real passion was flying.  He said, "every day is a great day to fly, it's a great way to see the country."

THE GOLF PRO: He spent a number of years in Myrtle Beach and then moved to Ohio since the pay was a lot better.  He works in an exclusive club giving golf lessons to members.  He had me laughing when he told me that the club set up a special group for him to work with.  He had 22 children who were three years old!  He had to hire two other people for those sessions.  They used plastic golf clubs, although some of the parents had already bought their three year old a real golf club.  I would have loved to see him training that group!

THE PORTLAND SALESMAN: The very outgoing guy caught me off guard when I asked him, "what's it like living in Portland?"  He told me it's been very difficult, because of all the protesters which I've read about for the past couple of years.  He told me that the city government is very weak. He said that they don't want to offend anyone and they won't let the local police do their job and keep groups like Antifa(very liberal protesters who dress in black with masks and believe in violence to disrupt peaceful rallies) from causing problems in Portland.  After his short rant he stopped and said, "you're not going to drop me off in the middle of nowhere, because of what I said, are you?"  I told him I agreed with what he said and I knew what was going on.  I would have enjoyed a longer ride with him since he was so passionate about the topic.