New York, New York - The Finale

I caught the train on Tuesday evening to Yankee Stadium. The trip was OK except for a group of boys that looked to be about ten years old that were totally out of control in the train car. Their dads appeared oblivious except for the occasional “Don’t do that!” which of course did nothing. I got off the train car at the Yankee Stadium stop and was at the stadium within a few minutes. I wound my way through the metal detector and handed my ticket over to be scanned. The ticket guy said it was rejected and let me know (quite rudely) it was for Wednesday night. So, I had to force my way against the line to walk back to the Stubhub office. I got there and managed to swap my ticket out for the correct one. I wasn’t offered any reasonable explanation just a “Sorry”. It was partially my fault for not looking more closely at the ticket but this was still the first negative experience I’ve had with Stubhub.

I ran back to the Stadium (literally) and the correct ticket worked fine. I had missed the first couple of outs, but that was it. The seat was really good. I wished Jonathan could be there because I know how much he would have loved it. The Yankees scored in the first on a triple and ground-out. In the fourth, former Cardinal Carlos Beltran hit a solo shot to right to make it 2-0. The Yankee pitcher Nathan Eovaldi pitched well. The Yankees picked up two runs in the 7th and two in the 8th and won 6-0. They have a neat tradition where they play the Frank Sinatra rendition of “New York, New York” when the game ends. I walked back to the train station and caught the train back to Greystone and Ubered back to the hotel. Josh had managed to wrap up his work and would be able to go back early (Wednesday instead of Thursday). His flight out of LaGuardia was at 6am though, so he had to get up super early to leave for that. He left and I hung out at the hotel til checkout time (my flight wasn’t til 3pm). I had a nice time discussing the ins and outs of Uber with my driver.

I got to LaGuardia and for some reason was marked as “Expedited Security” which allowed me to skip the whole body scanner and taking my shoes off. I never figured out why. Just FYI, Laguardia’s security is at each gate section of each terminal. This limits where you can go eat (there are only a few restaurants in each gate section and you’d have to back out of security to go to another section). Plus, the gate areas are cramped and seating is limited. I finally just grabbed a cup of chicken noodle soup at Au Bon Pain and watched the episode of Gotham I’d missed on Monday night while sitting at one of the few empty gates. The flight was on time and we had no issues getting back to Nashville. I did fall asleep and jumped up a bit startled when the flight attendant asked the person next to me what they wanted to drink (prompting laughter from both of us). My luggage showed up within a few minutes and I set a record for catching a parking lot shuttle bus. I got to my car and headed out. I managed to get out of Nashville with little trouble – well when I managed to finally go the right way on the Briley.

My plan was to attend at Needmore church of Christ on the way home. It was quite a bit off the Interstate, but I had been there once. Plus, my friend David Carmichael and his family attend there and I looked forward to seeing them. It had started to rain quite a bit but it appeared I would make it. I had gotten off I-24 and was about halfway there when suddenly my passenger side windshield wiper completely broke loose. This made driving quite the adventure. So sadly my new plan was now to get back to the Interstate. I was a good distance from it and my GPS took me quite the back route. The rain started to dissipate but I had a new issue – I was low on gas. I was worried I might run out but seemingly out of the blue, I came upon a gas station which was open! I filled up and managed to finally get back to the Interstate. When I got off at my exit, I started hearing a thumping noise in the rear of the minivan, but I didn’t have any trouble getting home so I tabled that til next morning. When I got up the next morning, the passenger side rear tire was totally flat! I swapped it out for the spare. That was painful since it was stored under the car and you have to lower it by a screw and cable system to pull it out. Looking back I thankful that a) the driver’s side wiper didn’t come off and b) I didn’t have to put the spare on while on the side of the road. I took it to Plaza Tire and they replaced the wipers and tire – turned out there was a puncture in the sidewall.

I’d had a great time, but I was glad to be home. Would I go back? Probably. I’d really like to take Jonathan at some point so hopefully at some point in the future the Yancy men can make a trip there.

Weekend in Chicago..

I had noticed several months back that Kentucky would play in Chicago the weekend before Christmas in the CBS Sports Classic. I knew Josh could get there in a couple of hours so we decided we could meet there and make a weekend of it. Jonathan was iffy about going with us because there was a chance the place where he worked might strike. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on three lower level corner seats when they got below list price. Jonathan finally got word that no strike would happen til the first of the year so he was finally in for the trip.

Jonathan and I headed out on the Friday before. The trip up went smoothly. We got past Champaign before looking for a place to eat. We called up Road Ninja. The next exit had several choices including one that warned us not to go because (I kid you not) one of the waitresses has “meth mouth”. We actually found a Just Hamburgers that appeared to be similar to the one in Paducah. The logo was the same but it was strictly a take out place. The burgers were good though. We got to our hotel by O’Hare airport with no problem and settled down to rest. There was a Steak and Shake next door and given it was Happy Hour, I grabbed us both a milkshake plus some cookies for later. We rested in the hotel until it was time for dinner. I wanted to get pizza from Giordanos so Jonathan could try Chicago deep dish style pizza (and because I like it). We got a medium meat pizza (which easily would feed the three of us). Jonathan loved it and we managed to hang on to a few pieces for Josh. Josh ended up taking the bus to O’Hare from Madison so he could come home with me to visit for the holidays. Picking him at O’Hare was a bit tricky. The airport is huge much bigger than BNA in Nashville. We finally managed to find him and get him back to the hotel. He even came bearing my favorite candy – Chocolate Stars. He also brought his Nintendo 4DS which Jonathan promptly latched onto for the evening.

We got up the next day and had breakfast. We decided to try Uber again. Jonathan signed up via my link so he got a 20.00 credit and so did it. He summoned a driver via his phone app. Murray showed up in about 10 minutes. He was about my age so we talked all kinds of sports from the 70s on. As we got close to the United Center, traffic was backed up. Murray hopped off an exit and took us a back way (that he said his dad had taught him) and we got to our destination with no trouble. We went inside and found our seats which ended up being excellent. The United Center is the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks so there were numerous banners hanging up celebrating their accomplishments. We settled in to watch Ohio State and Carolina. Carolina had absolutely no trouble with Ohio State. In fact with about 10 minutes remaining, we all got up to roam the concourse. Jonathan and I found that the Naismith Trophy for the best college player of the year was on display so we got pictures with it. We also were able to get pictures with Coke Zero props which they turned into a magnet. We got back in time to see Ohio State try to mount a run, but they still lost by eight. Finally it was time for our team (the Wildcats) to play UCLA. Aaron Harrison nailed a three and got a steal for another basket. UCLA called timeout down 7-0. Kentucky kept on rolling jumping ahead 16-0 forcing another UCLA timeout at the 16:24 mark. Kentucky kept pouring it on and were up 24-0 before UCLA finally scored at the 12:21. Kentucky kept piling on points and holding down UCLA. The halftime score was 44-7! I felt a little sorry for UCLA (but not that much). It was easily the best half of UK basketball I’d seen in recent memory. The game was more competitive in the second half but UK still won 83-44. We of course stayed til the end.

We left the United Center and I had to get a look and picture of the famous Michael Jordan statue. We walked away and tried to summon an Uber. It recommended we walk a few blocks east so we did. As we tried to get a car, we found one of the fatal flaws of Uber. When there are times of “high demand”, Uber will raise prices to “get more drivers on the road”. They were quoting prices that would be 3-4 times their normal rate. Being cheap, we didn't want to do that. We tried Lyft, but they were doing a similar thing and quoting 100-150% increases in regular prices. I keep trying on my phone and the prices stayed like this. We continued pressing east towards downtown Chicago. Jonathan grumbled all the way saying “we’re gonna die”. However, there were enough people around us most of the way, so there wasn’t much to worry about in my mind. My phone died finally so we decided to see if we could grab the “el” to O’hare where we could catch our hotel’s shuttle. We finally reached Union Station where we could get inside (it was pretty cold) to look at what seemed to me a very confusing map. Between Josh checking Google maps, we decided we needed to get on the “Blue Line”. We found a station a couple of blocks away and managed to get tickets and get on the train finally. The tickets cost 9.00 total, so it was a good deal. It took about 50 minutes to get to O’Hare (the end of the Blue Line). I called the hotel from the courtesy phone in the shuttle area at O’Hare and they told me they’d be there about 6:30. We got picked up and got back to the hotel no problem. We ended up getting Culvers (so Jonathan could try cheese curds) and then going back to the hotel for the evening. We found out later we walked 2.3 miles from the United Center to catch the train. Fortunately, we are all runners so going that far didn't bother us at all.

We got up the next morning and ate and checked out. We went to Bible Class at the Bridgeview church of Christ. We enjoyed being there. We did have trouble getting out because someone had blocked us in. Several people very nicely found the person owning the car and we got out. We only made two stops on the way back – once to get lunch and once to gas up. We made it back in time so Jonathan could get to Maple Hill and Josh and I to Central. We really enjoyed ourselves on our trip. UK plays Duke at the United Center next fall, so we are already planning to go to that one as well. I also learned that you need to have a backup plan when you Uber somewhere just in case. We should have found somewhere to eat after the game to let the crowd die out and then summon a ride via Uber/Lyft.

Uber

One of the podcasts I listen to regularly is Clark Howard. He discusses a wide variety of items concerning personal finance and spending money. Something I've heard him extol is the the ride sharing service called Uber. The idea behind Uber is the ability to quickly call up a ride (similar to a taxi). There is an app on your phone that used the GPS in your smartphone to allow a driver to come right to your location and pick you up. The cars are driven by people who simply sign up as a driver usually to make a little spare money in their spare time. The drivers are given background checks. No money changes hands, the app charges your debit/credit card once the ride ends. I've also read about a similar program called Lyft. You can get a fare estimate online to see about what your ride will cost.

I was in Indianapolis last week to see Kentucky play in the Champions Classic. I was about a mile away from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The wind chill was 4 degrees, so I decided I'd give these ride sharing services a try. I tried Lyft first. I was disappointed to immediately see that a "Prime Time" banner appeared that would add 25% to my regular far.e. So, I tried Uber instead. I pulled up the app on my phone and selected my location. You then select the type of vehicle you want. You can go with UberX which is the cheapest standard type of car up to UberBlack which is their luxury mode. I chose UberX and then tapped "Request a Driver". I got a message saying a driver would be there in less than five minutes. I then input my destination. I was able to wait in the hotel lobby until I got a message from Uber saying my driver was arriving - along with a photo of my driver and the make and model of his car. I then saw him pull up and headed out.

He opened the door to his car and said "Stuart?". I could see he matched the picture I was given plus the car was the correct one. I hopped in the front seat and we took off. We chatted about the upcoming game and I found out he was originally from Wisconsin so we immediately began discussing an obvious topic. My driver effectively weaved in and out of traffic and within a few minutes we were in front of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. My driver told me to have a good time and I got out. By the time I was inside, I received a notification in Uber to rate my drivers (I gave him five stars). I also got an email receipt detailing the path my driver took, the time it took and the cost (a reasonable 5.25).

Would I use it again? Absolutely I would. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's much easier than summoning a taxi (Taxi companies don't like Uber as you might guess). There is an issue with airports (airports want Uber drivers to buck up for permits) so you need to be sure Uber can give rides to any airport you want to use. It's only in bigger cities (you can get a list on their web site). If you are ever in one the cities they serve and you want a ride, I'd say give them a try.