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.

Taxi 66

We talked Route 66 and the USA all the way. The food, the cars, the motels, the people. I mentioned that I’m planning my own father-son trip along Route 66 next year. From the other side of the generation gap. Myself, my son and my daughter.

A lonely hunter

The last houses disappeared and then we were on the Cotter Road and soon on Lady Denman Drive, past horse paddocks, bushland, the zoo and the dam. Not quite your howling wilderness, but neither was it a busy road. I started wondering about someone scrawling a name on a bit of paper and luring an innocent cabbie out into a deserted layby.

Driving on the other side

Trying to get back to the airport after a lamb burrito in Zambrero, I was approached by a couple of jaunty folk. “You free?” they asked. Avoiding the obvious riposte, I indicated that I was available. “EPIC,” they said. I agreed. Exhibition Park in Canberra. Not on the way to the airport, but a nice [...]

Co-driver, co-writer

I’d like to welcome my long-time colleague and co-driver, PeskiePete, to the blog, with this wonderful dream run. We share the same car, but he has all the fun and takes the great photographs. Dawn over Canberra and Pete’s out on the road, camera in hand, angling for the perfect shot. Me, I’m punching out [...]

So long, Blank Top?

I’ve been looking around for other taxi blogs. There are some crackers around and I get tingles running up my spine at the way that people in distant places share my life, unknowingly. One of my long time favorites is “Blank Top Chronicles”, the blog of a taxi despatcher from Arlington, Virginia. Between the endless [...]