Did he really just try that?

Back in June, when we headed up to Minnesota, we needed to pick up our rental car (minivan actually) at an offsite location.  It was several hundred dollars cheaper there than renting at the airport location.  We caught a cab, and the cabbie had some trouble trying to figure out where we were going.  Fortuntely I was able to pull out my GPS-enabled phone and show him.  I remember thinking at the time, it must be hard for a cabbie to take a “shortcut” given all the technology out there to help people get where they are going.

Evidentlly I was wrong. 

I had to take a cab from my hotel in DC to the airport.   Let me set the scene for you.  Our hotel is just South of town on the East side of the Potomac river.  Washington National Airport is on the West side of the river several miles farther North.  There are two bridges accross the river, one is just North (literally walking distance) to the hotel, and the other is farther North probably a couple miles North of the Airport.  The cabbie takes the far North bridge.  We get to the airport and the fare is $10 more than the fare I paid going from the airport to the hotel when I flew in. 

I’m usually a pretty easy going person, but this kind of irked me.  I had to ask him (of course this was after I got all the luggage out of the car) why he went the way he did instead of taking the nice shiny new bridge that was right there.  He said something about traffic (yes, there was a language barrier).  Traffic?  Please, it is Sunday afternoon.

I handed him $30 bucks (which was what I paid the first cabbie), it was less that what was on the meter, and just looked at him.   He knew I wasn’t happy.  He took the $30 dollars and left.

Technology and Travel

Spending the week at a technolgy conference in DC.  The resort I am staying at is several miles South of the main DC attractions, and as I type this, I am on a bus headed downtown.  This reminds me of how much technology has changed the way I travel.  To make this trip,  I google Earthed all the sights I wanted to see and place marked them in relationship to my hotel.  I checked out my bus and subway trip on the internet and I am following my progress on my GPS enabled phone. If I get lost, damn sure I won’t admit it.