um, the taxi is broken down

the boston gals left very early this morning. :-(

of course a very typical dominican thing had to happen to them on their last day here. the taxi driver that had been arranged to take them to the airport called at 5:58am to say that the taxi had broken down. he could be there by 7am. (YEAH RIGHT! I DON'T THINK SO!) it was actually the wife of the driver who called me. their pickup was to be at 6am.

veronica and i were a bit concerned about having to spring this news on the gals, as we knew that they had been very happy with the previous driver. they had used the same taxi guy on their way to cabarete from the santiago airport and had been pleased with his non-dominican driving skills (meaning he had skills) and his careful pace through the windy mountain road. his wife and baby had been along for the ride too, thus easing their fears of being driven off to some remote part of the island and not knowing what may happen then.

luckily at the hotel this morning, a guy was there whose father was a taxi driver. so a quick call to the dad, and the taxi showed up 1 minute later. before i think we all had time to grasp what had happened, they were in a new cab on an (undesired) adventure to the airport.

i touched base with sheila at 9:15am to make sure that had made it safely. they had - albeit with LOTS of diesel fumes in the taxi, a lot of passing of other cars, speeding up to each pothole, and conversing with other taxis along the way about the state of their passengers (perhaps worse off than the boston gals). sheila, good thing you wore your electric stimulation bracelet!

the gals are probably nearly touching down in NYC now and connecting on to boston from there. i think they have snow to greet them - a definite change from the continuation of the spectacular weather we had for all but one of their days here.

happy new years, ladies! hope the taxi ride was soon forgotten! perhaps you started planning for your party this evening! have fun!