[photo by nookly]
My trip back from New York was memorable, to say the least. It involved one of those mythical New York City cab rides that one only hears about, but almost never directly experiences.
I had been spending the afternoon with my friends Erin and Dan in Flushing, Queens and down in DUMBO (a hideous new acronym cobbled from Down Under Manhattan Bridge Onramps, enjoying Grimaldi’s Pizza, when the hour became late and I needed to get to my flight at La Guardia. Dan dropped me off at the terminal right at the appointed time (90 mins before my flight would supposedly depart). I got inside, and as I went to the self-check-in kiosks, I was intercepted by a customer service rep. He asked me if I was headed for Portland, Oregon. I replied that I was. He said that the flight that was to go to Atlanta was delayed by weather and that I would likely miss my connection to Portland. Still mulling over what to do, I saw that Joël, Inès and Greg were ahead of me in line, and were about to speak to a “real” person about what to do. As the line snaked forward, they suddenly yelled for me to give them my ID. I did, and found out that the ticket agent was putting us on a direct flight to Portland that would arrive two hours earlier than our original itinerary. The catch? The flight was leaving from JFK at 6:35. It was 5:00 and we were at La Guardia…
They said that there was a bus that shuttled between airports, but as we looked over to the Van Wyck expressway, we knew that a bus was only going to get us stuck in New York for the night, so we headed for the cab stand. We told the guy “in charge” that we needed to get to JFK asap. A couple drivers looked at each other like “I don’t wanna do it, do you?” until one brave soul who appeared to want to get out of eating dinner at home with the wife and kids volunteered. We piled in to the cab, with me drawing shotgun. We told him of our plight and he gunned it. What followed was a near-mythical NYC cab ride. We weaved in and out of traffic with inches to spare, often driving in the breakdown lane, and once going up an offramp and back down the onramp at highway speeds to avoid standing traffic. When we got to JFK, we went through the 20 mph zone at over 70 mph, arriving at our terminal at 5:55 p.m. Our trip took 45 minutes at peak rush hour on a Friday afternoon. Plus we saved over $5 per person over the cost of the “shuttle”. Needless to say, our driver got a good tip!