More travel fun

Standing in line shivering outside the airport in the “taxi line”, I couldn’t help but wish it would move a little more quickly.  Finally, it was my turn and I was grateful when the door was opened and I could escape the winter chill.

I gladly jumped in and situated myself, happy that it was clean and didn’t smell like dirty socks.  The heater was on high, loud and doing its job well.  The driver was female; an absolute first for me in my taxi riding adventures and I’ve had quite a few.  Maybe this ride would be interesting.

She had on a jacket and scarf and seemed very comfortable with the heat blasting relentlessly in her face.  I was already beginning to re-think the heater.  From the backseat, feeling a little queasy already, I was dying to roll my window down and hang my head out.  Most normal people would have just told her that perhaps 100 degrees was a little too warm, but not me, I just sat there and griped in my head.

She pulled over to type the address into her cell phone GPS, and then we were off.  She operated the gas pedal like she was tapping out a beat (think whip lash) and made me nervous with her constant fiddling with the phone.  I wasn’t feeling too secure that she knew exactly where we were going, because every once in a while I would hear the phone say, “new route”.

She wanted to chat (I really didn’t) so we began to banter about where I was from and why I was here.  I asked her how long she had been in this business and she said 10 years.  She appeared to be quite a few years older than me and I found myself looking at her time worn hands.  I thought, “she looks very weary”.  I began to feel something more akin to compassion for her than irritation at her driving, poor choice of proper temperature and the inability to tell that I was not in the mood for mindless chitchat.

As we pulled up to my hotel, after passing it and having to turn around and go back, I was glad that I had been kind to her.  I’m sure that she deals with rude travelers all the time, but, by the grace of God, I wasn’t one of them.  It’s not so difficult to put others first and it always ends up being a blessing.

Oh and she asked me to call her for my return trip; I’ll have to think about that 🙂