Day 4, Daytime Part 1 (Surge: Low)

I had a couple of non-driving days after Day 3, but on Saturday it was time for a weekend day and serious driving - and the Boston Pride Parade, just to make things extra crazy. I got on the road right around noon (this is a hobby, after all).

I was hoping for good surge pricing due to the parade, but it turns out every Uber driver in the area must have been thinking the same thing, because by and large there were limited surge opportunities around. There did appear to be some surge out near Southie as I was getting on the road, so I headed in that direction again to get started.

The Trips

My first pickup was a couple at a restaurant on the edge of Southie, a couple with a destination in Roxbury. After confirming the name and destination, they informed me they'd actually be going to Cheers, they just needed to go out to Roxbury to pick up a wallet that had been left behind this morning (whoops).

I of course needed to clarify (and let's be honest, show off that I do at least know a little bit about what I'm doing driving around Boston) to find out if they meant the "real" Cheers. The woman confirmed that yes, they meant the real Cheers, which I reconfirmed as the one in Beacon Hill. The gentleman then inquired about the existence of more than one Cheers, and we explained that there's the exterior that was used for filming, that they're going to, which looks nothing like the film set inside, then there's the replica of the film set for tourists out in Fanuiel Hall Marketplace.

So, off we went to Roxbury. From their conversation I gathered that the gentleman was just visiting, but the woman had lived in Boston for a while, working at one of our many hospitals. It sounded like they were both leaving / had left the area, though, maybe having one last hurrah or visit with friends on the way out. There was considerable mirth discussion of expected jeering from friends about the leaving of the wallet, plus discussion of how exactly to correctly get in and out of the wallet's location.

We got to Roxbury, the gentleman headed up, then not too long afterward, the woman followed him. Turns out she may have forgotten something as well. A couple of minutes of waiting ensued, and then we were off to Cheers. I informed the riders that I wasn't certain how close I could get them because of Pride Parade closures, but that we'd do the best we could. As it turns out, we got right there, no closure problems, thankfully.

Trip count: 1. Trip earnings: $12.24

I got an immediate fare after going back online at Cheers, and the pickup was right on Beacon St on the next corner - score! I arrived very quickly and picked up a young woman who was heading to Southie.

This was a semi-chatty but otherwise not noteworthy ride. The rider asked me about how long I'd been driving for Uber, and I gave her the short story of who/why/etc. Soon enough we got to Southie, another ride successful.

Trip count: 2. Trip earnings: $8.78

Picked up the next trip on a tiny street in Southie, and headed back in towards the mess of the start of the Pride Parade in Copley Square. First, though, we had to make a Dunkin' stop for the rider, which was conveniently right after we got started.

I informed the rider we might have a hard time getting exactly to her destination because of parade shenanigans. In the end it looked like we were going to have to loop way around Copley Square, so I suggested and the rider agreed to a drop off that was about 2 blocks away from where she was heading, but was going to cost her way less than navigating all the way around. A successful trip despite the parade fun.

Trip count: 3. Trip earnings: $7.10

Next pickup request came from the Cheesecake Factory in the Pru. I got a little nervous here because I was waiting a couple of minutes and didn't have great visibility to make sure I was picking up at the right spot for the rider. I haven't really talked about it much yet, but finding the right pickup spot can be a bit stressful. I want to wind up as close to the magical map pin as possible, but have to balance that with keeping the street passable, traffic flow to get to the right side, etc.

Fortunately, the rider showed up before I got to the point at which I was going to call, and all was well. It was a pretty straightforward ride to the Science Park area, man and his daughter (I presumed). The daughter asked if she could eat her cookies/crackers/something of that type, and I said sure. The father ended up cleaning up the seats a bit after they got out, but it didn't seem like that much of a mess.

One sort of interesting interaction, our logical route was Storrow Drive, but Waze was saying there was a bit of traffic there and it might be a minute faster to take Memorial Drive instead. But that's a quarter mile more, so I wasn't comfortable just calling an audible, and checked with the rider, informing him about the traffic. He said he'd rather stick with Storrow, which we did.

Trip count: 4. Trip earnings: $9.95

Next request was back in Beacon Hill... this one was a bit of an adventure, so I think we should split to another post... To Be Continued!