I’m glad to be back in Miami. But it seemed like I would never make it home from the airport. The Uber drive from the airport almost took as long as the plane ride from New York, and it should only take about 15 minutes!
My plane ride home was uneventful, the best type of plane ride. It left on time and arrived earlier – can’t get much better than that. Except, then there is Uber.
I summoned an Uber and waited and waited and waited. The app showed she was right near me, but I couldn’t find her. And apparently, she could not find me.
The last time this happened was last December, during Art Basel, where the airport is a madhouse, but this was a quiet Tuesday afternoon in October, so the airport was dead, there weren’t many people in the place, but yet we could not find each other.
I kept looking for a gray car, I can’t remember the type now, but there were no gray cars and the thing with Miami cars is that we don’t have front license plates, so it’s sometimes impossible to find your Uber.
In places like NY, you see the car coming simply by looking at the front license plate.
I sent the driver a message or two or maybe six or seven. And I called her a number of times. Nothing. No response. After half an hour, I canceled the call and they are trying to charge me something for the cancellation, which I’ll fight.
I summoned another car. This one was “green” and the guy was apparently deaf. That’s what his profile said. So I thought what could go wrong. He arrived fast and turns out he wasn’t deaf. So that was good, I was picturing a Seinfeld episode in my head trying to communicate with him, but that wasn’t a problem.
The issue with this guy was that he took me on a long trip through Miami. Basically, on a sightseeing tour. We went through Doral, Little Havana and other areas. I asked him why. He said he was trying to avoid traffic.
Finally, when we got to my neighborhood, I told him to go straight ahead to the main street and not make twists and turns through the neighborhood, as Uber usually does with their maps.
After an hour-and-a-half, I got home. An hour and a half after we landed at the airport! I may start going back to yellow cabs for a while.
COMING UP:
My brush with Urban cops – NY and Hoboken
Friday’s Tomversation toons of the week
What’s behind my Publix self-checkout scrutiny?
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