Retirees taking NYC taxi to Arizona
Verena Dobnik
Associated Press Writer
Apr. 10, 2007 08:11 PM
NEW YORK - A New York couple and their two cats were preparing to pile into a yellow cab Tuesday for a trip into retirement - 2,500 miles away in Arizona.
Like many New Yorkers, Betty and Bob Matas don't drive, and they didn't want their cats to travel in an airliner cargo hold.
Their solution: "Taxi!" - one of the most-used words in the city.
The septuagenarians met 45-year-old driver Douglas Guldeniz about three months ago, when they hailed his cab in Manhattan after a shopping trip.
They got to talking about their upcoming move, and, "We said, 'Do you want to come?' " said Bob Matas, 72, a former audio and video engineer for advertising agencies. "And he said, Sure.' "
They were kidding at first, Matas said, but as they talked over the ensuing weeks the gag became reality. Betty Matas, especially, is adventurous, and they both like the idea of a road trip, taking pictures along the way.
The three, plus cats, planned to embark on their four-day journey to Sedona, Ariz., on Tuesday night from the couple's home in Queens' Forest Hills neighborhood. By mid-afternoon, an accompanying truck was packed full of cardboard boxes, but by evening departure had been delayed by at least a few hours to allow for a final flurry of packing.
Guldeniz will drive his canary-colored Ford SUV cab about 10 hours a day for $3,000 plus gas, meals and lodging. Since the SUV is a hybrid-electric vehicle, gas should cost about $300 one way.
As for the fare - it's a deal. The standard, metered fare would be about $5,000 each way, said David Pollack, executive director of the Committee for Taxi Safety, a drivers' group. But city Taxi and Limousine Commission rules direct drivers and passengers to negotiate a flat fare for trips outside the city and some suburbs.
It's also a good deal for Guldeniz.
"This job is not easy, and I want to do something different," said Guldeniz, who has been driving a taxi for two years. "I want to have some good memories."
The cats, Cleopatra and Pretty Face, will ride in the back in their travel cases. The taxi will follow the U-Haul truck transporting the family's belongings.
"It's a great way to see the country, see all the people, quickly," said Betty Matas, 71, a retired executive administrative assistant.
She added: "It's fun. We'll take pictures, relax, read, eat."
When they hit mountainous areas where cell phones don't work, they have walkie-talkies to communicate with the friend driving the truck.
The couple trust their driver, whom Bob Matas described as "a very honest, sincere man." Guldeniz, a native of the Turkish port city of Iskenderun, came to the United States in 1995.
"When people take my car, everybody is happy. They say it's clean, and good for pictures - you see well because it's higher than other cars and brighter inside," said the cabbie, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, 17-year-old son and 15-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.
They plan to take Route 81 all the way to Little Rock, Ark., "and if the weather is good, we take Route 40," he said. "If the weather is bad, we'll take Route 10."
It should be a looooong conversation. Guldeniz is the real thing: a chatty New York cabbie.
AP-WS-04-10-07 2055EDT
Thema: Was macht der Amerikaner ohne Auto? (Gelesen 2785 mal)