Ride Share Fail
Over spring break we spent a day in New Orleans as part of a long road trip. We crammed in as much of the food, sights, and (kid-appropriate!) experiences we could into a beautiful day in the city.
We decided to take the St. Charles streetcar all the way up the line to experience the old wooden cars and beautiful southern houses and sights outside of downtown.
The trip was supposed to be about 80 minutes round-trip, but we accidentally went on a Friday afternoon at rush-hour. The weather was beautiful, and the ride was relaxing and enjoyable. Then it got long.
We were all ready to be done with the ride and head to dinner, but we still had about 10 more stops to go. And then Harper had to go to the bathroom. Of course.
After trying to convince her to “hold it” for several minutes, we ultimately hopped off and ran into a McDonald’s to visit the facilities. Now we are just at a random McDonald’s in a part of the city that’s pretty far from where we want to be.
We could have waited for the next trolley and finished the ride, but by this point, everyone was kind of over the charming wrap-around porches and just wanted to eat dinner.
So we decided to head back into 2019 and trade the old, wooden streetcar for a ride-share.
I reserved us a ride with Donna (5 star review!), and we stood on the curb outside McDonald’s so she could just pull up and we could hop in.
We see Donna’s car approaching, and Donna’s not slowing down. Donna flies right by us! Where is she going? If four people are standing on the curb right in front of me, I would probably think, “Those are likely my passengers.” But this is not how Donna thinks.
The car turns around, again passes us, and turns around again. At some point in these moments, I should have just cancelled it. Obviously there are some concerns. But I also didn’t enjoy my family waiting on a curb in a city we didn’t know as it’s starting to get dark.
We hung in there with Donna and on this third time to approach us, as I’m waving my phone in the air, she does in fact stop to pick us up. Progress!
I told Donna where we were headed and she said it’s no problem. She puts the destination in her GPS and off we go. It becomes clear in the first few moments that Donna is not very comfortable with GPS or with driving in general.
Then Donna announces, “Today is my first day!” Oh. OK, great! It turns out she rented the car from her company and has only lived in the city a few months (Read: Doesn’t know her way around and isn’t used to driving). And that 5 star review? I guess the only two rides she gave before us must have felt sorry for her.
The ride was only about 10 minutes, but it was filled with more interesting moments. The GPS would be showing her next move, “Exit in two miles,” and Donna would slam on the brakes and yell, “It’s telling me to exit now!” Nope, there are still two miles to go.
As her next right turn was approaching, she would stop at each cross street to read the street signs, trying to find the right street. I kept having to reassure her where turns were, where GPS was saying to exit, when she needed to change lanes…I also contemplated asking if she just wanted me to drive.
At one point she needed to be in another lane in congested traffic, so she rolled down her window, leaned her head out of the car, and yelled back to another driver to see if he would let her in. Meanwhile I was praying we wouldn’t get shot.
Traffic was getting heavier and we wanted to keep living, so we finally just had her drop us off a few blocks from our final destination so we could walk the rest of the way.
We got out of the car and all four of us just burst out laughing. We were grateful to be alive and also grateful to (almost) be at dinner.
Thinking back on the situation and how I needed to coach Donna reminds me of my role with clients, although not as scary.
More times than I can remember at the end of a meeting a client has told me “I’m sorry this turned into more of a counseling session than a financial review.”
It’s funny how all of my “education” never taught me how to comfort a client who is crying because she’s worried they will run out of money.
Or how to talk to a client who calls to tell me his wife just had a heart attack and they will be facing some out-of-the-blue medical bills.
Or how to be professional when the couple in front of me is fighting over who stole money out of their joint checking account while they are working through a divorce.
Money is emotional and can be stressful. And because I help clients with money, I also help them with the emotions and stress surrounding money. The answer is not always a textbook answer. Often my role is to listen, process, and guide people to make the right decision for them based on our relationship and what I know about their unique situation.
On our ride with Donna, we talked a little bit about her life, although I also didn’t want to distract her. I quickly identified my role in the situation to help her take one step at a time. I finally said, “Donna, forget the GPS. You watch the road! I’ll tell you when to turn.”
If you’ve gotten in a situation where you feel like you need some more guidance on what turn to take next with your finances, reach out to me! I will gladly coach you, and I’m confident it will be easier than helping Donna drive around New Orleans.
