May 25, 2026

The Drivings

Today's drivings may or may not have been worth the effort. 3 drives. I started by driving to downtown. No rides requested. I went through Downton and into the hills down Hwy 280. Still no rides requested. Near the botanical garden, I got my first request for a courier trip. I accepted the request and went to pick up the package. When I had the package in hand and tapped on delivery accepted, I was surprised to see that the destination was over 2 hours away, more than 100 miles. After dropping off the package, I needed to get gas, so I chose the closest option for a cash back deal with Upside. It was nearly 30 miles away, but it was back toward Birmingham. Immediately after getting gas, a ride request came in. Thinking that I'd be unlikely to get any rides at all this far out of town and that the day might be a bust, I accepted the ride. I assumed incorrectly that the ride was headed back toward Birmingham. Instead, it turned out that it was to Georgia. That's how I got to see Fort Benning for the first time. It's am imposing place. The landscape is beautiful with rolling hills and thick woods. There are trees along the entry road that are tall and old with moss hanging from their branches. The first gate rejected my entry because I didn't have a pass. The guard gave me directions to another gate where there was a visitor's center where I could get a day pass. That was another 30 minutes of driving and time spent inside the visitor's center, inserting my driver's license into the machine, taking photos, etc. The whole process felt unsettling, but it was what needed to be done so that I could drop my passenger off at her barracks. I couldn't set a return destination in the Uber Driver app. It gave me the error that I was outside of my earning area. I had to wait until I was back in Alabama to start accepting trips again. Thankfully only one more request came in on my way back to Birmingham. It was for a ride from south of town to the airport. Easy enough, and not too far out of my way. By the time I got the airport to drop off the last passenger, I was exhausted and gave it up for the day. All in all, I brought in just enough money to cover the day's gas. It feels like I wasted hours and hundreds of miles of driving. Oh well. That's how it goes some days.