My 10,000th Ride

I knew it was coming up in February until I figured out I was wrong.  When I stopped driving for Lyft in 2000, I had received a very nice jacket when I hit 1,000 rides with them.  It was shortly afterwards they told me that my model car was no longer acceptable. In preparing for my 10,000th ride, I went and checked my first couple years of driving and found out that I actually did 1,157 Lyft rides.  I was only 18 rides away from 10,000 and Friday would be the day I would hit the milestone.

I wanted to do something special to celebrate the day and I asked other drivers on the Myrtle Beach and the Charleston Facebook sites for suggestions.  Previously, a female rider in marketing suggested, "You should celebrate your 10,000th ride with firecrackers, have your riders hold them." A much more creative response came from a driver who said,  I should get a ,"McDonald's license plate that says, "Over 10,000 served." The craziest suggestion was the guy was said, "Run naked down Ocean Boulevard near the sky wheel, then do  a back flip into a split."  A few other suggestions were getting a gift card or getting larger confetti in the car so it wouldn't make a mess.

I decided to do three things, I got a $20 Uber card for the rider, put up a gold banner with gold confetti  hanging down around my car, and wrote on my side window, "10,000 Rides Today."  Below is the window on Friday morning at 5 am.  My wife wrote it on my window on Thursday night and then it rained and completely washed it away.  I had just re-written it before going online to start my day.

The banner was another story.  I put part of it above me in the front part of the car and it was hanging down. You can also see the gift certificate hanging down from my mirror with a personal note.

I tried to tape the banner to my ceiling going down the middle of the car.  I wish I had it filmed, because it was hilarious. I was lying flat on my back and the tape kept coming off.  I was trying to tape it, but I was pulling it down just as fast.  My wife came up with the idea to cut it in half and put it on the sides and it looked good in the second picture below.

I had a lot of fun promoting it all day.  The last few riders I told them what number ride they were and number 9,999 I told her, she missed it by that much. (With two fingers slightly apart)

I drove into Mt. Pleasant, my favorite place to drive and took a break and cleaned the car up.  I picked up two guys in commercial real estate for a nine minute ride into Downtown Charleston. The winner told me that they had flipped a coin on who would order the ride and he lost.  I think I paid for the ride for him and he gave me a generous tip.

I think they were here on business from Florida, but it was so fast it might have been a different state.  He was formerly from Westchester, New York and he is a big New York fan like myself so it was perfect.  I didn't tell him he won, but I had him read my note hanging from the gift certificate before I told him the good news.  I think he is in his mid to late twenties and his friend took the picture.  The words on the window did not come out well due to the glare, but it's still a good picture.