Playing games with public transport

My day driver and his wife came over last night. Peskie, as he is known by other cabbies, routinely pulls in a bazillion bucks a shift and is adored by his passengers.

And his night driver. And the cab’s owner, who would likely marry him if he wasn’t already taken.

Two delightful people and we had a lovely evening – very rare for us to actually have some free time together. Usually we are ships passing in the night.

They brought over a board game to play, and when they unpacked it and set it up, my heart sank. This looked very complex and detailed, and most likely they would wipe the floor with Kerri and I.

As it happened, that turned out to be the case, but we had a lot of fun on the way. The game itself has a lot of diverse components, but play itself is pretty simple. On a map of North America, various rail routes link cities, and each player has to claim rail lines by placing little coloured railway carriages along the routes. You get a series of “tickets” which describe cities that must be linked. Portland to Seattle is not much of a chore, but Vancouver to Miami is stretching things!

This is definitely a game for taxidrivers, where constructing the longest possible path between two points is handsomely rewarded. I did my best, but faced with two quick minds experienced in the game, Kerri and I were outshone in every game.

In the most charming way.

The map of the USA I’d been using to describe the route for our upcoming rip to my son was on the table, and I went over it again with our visitors.

Peskie and I had planned this trip a year or so back, as a charity drive along Route 66 in a New York cab, but the venture gradually turned into something quite different. Maybe one day we’ll have that adventure.

I’m going to miss Peskie. If he picks someone up from the airport in the morning, he’ll likely arrange for me to collect them for the ride back in the afternoon, and the passenger and I will spend the trip telling each other what a wonderful bloke he is.

Personally, I think he’s wasted as a taxidriver – he should be out running the country instead of the current crop of overpaid imbeciles – but as he’s chosen to share my line of employment, I’m glad of his company.