I missed y’all! The last blog I published was in mid-January. I mentioned that I’d be taking a few months off to work on my book. I’m cautiously hopeful that it will be published sometime in late May. The title is “Ride of a Lifetime – Stories from an Uber Driver.” I’ve included eighty blogs scattered throughout seven chapters. I appreciate all the encouragement from you and my riders.
In March of last year, my wife and I moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida, to be close to two of our oldest daughters and their families. In Uber’s wisdom, I could either drive in Alabama or Florida. When I began driving for them more than eight years ago, my ‘territory’ was the Gulf Coast from Mississippi to the Florida panhandle.
Under the new rules, my territory can be the entire state of Alabama or Florida. If I chose Alabama, I could drive to Huntsville and back. If I chose Florida, my options include Miami and Key West. However, I can’t get rides from Mobile if I choose Florida, and vice-versa. So, Florida it is!
Meanwhile, the rides continue. During the last four weeks along the Emerald Coast in the Florida panhandle, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting folks worldwide. Most people believe that spring breakers are college students, but they’re from all over and all ages.
Since I drive primarily during the daytime now, I miss a lot of the college crowd. One exception was St. Patrick’s Day. I delivered more than a few coeds to McGuire’s Irish Pub in Destin. Some of my riders were disappointed that some of their fellow travelers never made it past the “Eggs and Kegs” event at sunrise.
For me, though, the ‘older’ crowd gave me the best stories.
I picked up a lady in Milton, Florida, for a ride to the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport. She was returning to her home in Cincinnati. She works for a Renaissance Fair as a singer and a percussionist. She has traveled throughout the country for a few years now, entertaining huge crowds. But she doesn’t consider this to be her full-time job.
She is a radiation technician for a hospital in Ohio. She’s engaged to be married in about a year and a half. That seems like a long time to me, but now that I think about it, my wife and I married more than a year and a half after I proposed. (The difference is that she turned down my first proposal. She made me wait another whole year before she said yes!)
Another interesting woman intrigued me from the moment I heard her voice. I grew up around Irish nuns, and I recognized the accent immediately. She was taking a month off before leaving her position as a nanny to newborn babies. Her current family had encouraged her to stay well past the infant status. While she loved the children, she felt a call to return to children in their more helpless stage.
I told her a story of a ride I gave years ago to gentlemen from Ireland, Scotland, and Hungary. While I’m not a fan of the f-word, the Irish and Scottish fellows could not complete a single sentence without it. They were trading insults non-stop in one of the funniest-sounding conversations I’ve ever heard. The Hungarian and I could only laugh and listen!
My lady rider could only agree that the word had become part of the lexicon in Ireland. Before exiting my car, she regretted not having time to tell me some fascinating stories of her time in Saudi Arabia. She said she may have to write a book of her own!
Last week, I picked up a British fellow who travels the world enjoying the game of golf. He loves the weather in Florida and believes Destin and the Emerald Coast have some of the world’s most beautiful beaches.
He worries about the future of Great Britain. His hometown for most of his life was London. He moved his family to Spain to enjoy better weather and a more free lifestyle. He worries about the United States for the same reasons, he said.
Spring Break riders included people from India, Brazil, Canada, and Japan.
I picked up four gentlemen from Australia to wrap up this ‘international’ version of spring break. Again, the accent is contagious. These guys couldn’t stop talking about the beautiful ‘sheilas’ everywhere on the panhandle. Sometimes, I think these folks use their more famous terminology to impress the locals.
I’m impressed.
Please stay tuned for more news about my book release. I’m working on a new website. So far, the developer has inserted some of the goofiest AI versions of me I’ve ever seen. As weird as I appear in real life, that’s who I am, so I’ll stick with the flawed version! I’d love to hear from you, so drop me a line!
God Bless,
Tommy
P. S. – If you enjoy these columns, I would appreciate you asking friends or family to subscribe. It’s free, and I certainly appreciate your support. Here’s the link to send – Subscribe to Tommy’s Blog