When ride sharing, some moments can be glorious, yet some can be absolutely awful. Some can also be quite confusing. Like my first customer. An African American who works for one of the oil and gas refinerys in the county. He had returned from California for one the many jobs he works on. We got into a discussion about the oil and gas industry and how I worked for several mining companies as an archaeologist in Australia. Seemed quite a normal discussion then I told him that I have worked with indigenous people in Australia and the USA. He went on this huge rant about MAGA hats and that people are too sensitive. In this country you should have the right to wear anything and not be touched. I mean that’s a fair statement, but what has that got to do with who I have worked with? It was rather confusing and I guess he was referring to the incident about over a year ago when a kid wore it and stood near a native American on camera. I remember the whole thing was blown out of proportion and it made the kid with the MAGA hat an instigator of a massive incident. Anyway my passenger kept ranting on about how climate change doesn’t exist from anthropogenic point of view. It’s all natural according to him and he also asked me if he found a new species of animal dead or alive can he name it? It was one of the most perplexing rides I’ve ever had. I moved away from politics immediately because my stance was completely different to this gentleman. It’s fine everyone is entitled to their opinion and what not, but crikey don’t get me started.
The conversation ended when I dropped the bloke off and he thanked and tipped me. He was nice and all, but I couldn’t understand why he went on about such big political issues straight off the bat. I honestly wasn’t ready for that straight away. My next passenger discussed survival of the fittest with me on a general scale. It’s almost as if my previous passenger told the next one to talk about deep and meaningful topics. Sometimes I don’t want to delve into extreme information so early on in the peace.
Next was a bloke who I had picked up once before who works as an environmental engineer for a trucking company. It has connections to Kenworth in Australia. He remembered me from my accent.
After plonking him off at his destination I spied a semi trailer and a high performance vehicle in a car park right next to each other. Both facing in the opposite direction to one another. Drivers sides practically touching. It looked like they were making a deal. “Here’s the no dose for ya trip to New Mexico”. “Thanks buddy, here’s the $5000 in a brown paper bag”. That’s what it looked like to me anyway.
At the airport I picked up Kirk not the captain, but head of a tech company. A Canadian who made it in the USA. Born and raised in Victoria, the man had hardly any hair. He had wanted to go to Australia back in the day, but went to Europe instead. Next year he’s planning on going downunder.
Next was a lady who works at the University as a student research services professional. Then a whole bunch of students followed. Including five students who can’t count the number of seats in a vehicle. I can only drive four people. FOUR! I am the 5th person in this 5 seater. Crikey crumbs! One bloke was dressed as a cartoon character from a shoe call Fairly Odd Parents. He had to explain it to me. The show rang a bell, but I think it was way past my childhood viewing days. The other passengers were just loud, but would occasionally say Australia is cool!
Then a huge rugby fan waltzed into my car. “You’re Australian? I was going for Wales in the Rugby World Cup”. I apologised for him, but he was proud they went so far. He said he had met some of the Welsh players before they became big. He couldn’t tell me specifically who though. He just knew Welsh rugby players came to Whatcom County before.
Now my next four passengers were a load of fun. One was from Hungary, one Canada and the others were from the USA. The Hungarian teaches fencing (the sword kind). He said Americans love stereotypes, I agreed with him. Hey, but they loved that I was Australian and requested some music. My phone was plugged in and on shuffle. First song was a Pink Floyd song, which one lady appreciated because it reminded her of her father. After the song finished TNT by AC/DC started to play. My passengers got into it “oi, oi, oi!” Next thing you know my first uber karaoke experience eventuated. It was hilarious, they were yelling the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Bon Scott would be proud.
My passengers wanted me to have a beer with them, but my night was far from over. I was flattered of course. Then I got a ping from a civil engineer who knew my former boss. Small world, but it’s bound to happen. I found out I had helped write the report for a pump station near the Nooksack river that he was the engineer for. Ha what an extremely small world. I mean I did work on over 100 projects at that one company. I’m bound to cone across someone I may have written a report for.
After dropping him and his wife off. I had a ping from an amateur hockey player. We talked at length about hockey and how entertaining it is. I love it. It’s like rugby, soccer and cricket on ice.
Next was a bloke called Joaquin Phoenix. OK it was just Joaquin. Same spelling though. A student studying business.
Two more students one studying land surveying and the other HR. They didn’t believe I was Australian. Then the guy in the back said “name an Australian surfer”. “Mick Fanning”. Boom! They started to believe me after that. They wanted to know my life story, even while going through the drive thru of Taco Bell. I told them as much as I could, from my acting career to archaeology. They want to take me surfing on Whidbey Island. They gave me their number. Haven’t texted them back, it’s too cold surf right now.
After dropping them off I had a bloke called Tucker needing a Lyft. I commented on his name, “Tucker are you Australian?” “No, as in tuckered out”. I said “in Australia Tucker also means food”. We had a long drive to Ferndale on the western side near the casino. A train obstructed us for about 10 minutes. Kangaroos are apparently pretty cool animals and would be I coll to see in the wild. Yeah at first, not so cool when they hit your car.
Driving along I saw an owl rapidly flying overhead. It was incredible. Another moment where I wish I had a dash cam. Then a ping for a lady dressed as a mermaid. She was super quiet. Then afterwards I picked up a couple by the Village Pub. Two people were embracing near the cars, one lady balling her eyes out. I asked my passengers “what happened?” “Drama”. They didn’t elaborate, but alcohol was the fuel for the drama. One of my passengers asked me if I had ever punched a magpie, I replied “of course! The bugger hit me in the back of the head, mid swing with a golf club”. My passengers laughed, and highfived me.
Getting close to the end of my night I went back to downtown Bellingham where I picked up a few drunk students who were desperately trying to eat their slices of pizzas. I told them no food in my car, I don’t want to charge you a cleaning fee if you spill. Then one of my passengers starting arguing with a bloke in a Batman costume. It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen. Not sure what it was about, but the rider went on about it. “He whispered something under his breath about me before we left”. “Sure he wasn’t just in character?” I responded. “No he was being a bastard, Batman was being a dick”. Hilarious the rant when on for the entire journey. “I could have beaten him in a fight”. “Dude he’s Batman and you’re no super villain”.
Then my last passenger the creepo. I’m not going to go into detail on this one, but feel free to sign up to my patreon account if you want the gory details of what this man said to me and why I banned him from my car. It’s too graphic to post here.
Anyway that’s it for now. Till next time. 14 trips uber. 11 rides Lyft.
