I’m back home, and I have a crazy cab ride experience to tell you all about. My flight was at 6:10am, so I get a cab for 5am. He didn’t show up until 5:15, but that was still in decent shape since it only takes 15-20 minutes to get to the airport. We hop onto the New Jersery Turnpike (I-95) for a few miles, and after paying/exiting the turnpike, we get a flat.

He slowly pulls over to the side, and I asked if we should call another cab to take me there, as there might not be enough time to swap out a tire and get me on time for the flight. He said that he had a machine, and I was thinking it was an automatic lift jack, so the tire swap would only take a few minutes. But instead, he pulls out a air compressor, and tries to fill up the tire (which has a small hole in it) up with air. He puts his hand over the hole to get the tire filled up, which took about five minutes. We move the van about a foot, and we both know the tire has no air in it again. I ask again if we should call another cab, or actually swap the tire out. He said he would get me there on time, as long as the tire held in place. So he starts to drive at 10-15 mph, with a flat tire, on the highway!

Good thing this was early in the morning, so not a whole lot of traffic was around. There was one instance that scared me when a big truck zoomed by with his horn on. At that point the driver turned on all the interior lights to give us more visibility. I’m not exactly sure how far we drove with a flat, but we did get the flat right after exiting the turnpike.

My guess is that we exited I-95 to 1, which would mean we drove around seven miles with a flat. I finally made it to the airport at 5:50am, but checkin was closed. I had to change flights in order to get a ticket, run through security, and then try to get a ticket on my original flight at the gate checkin. The morning flight really helped me; going through security was quick as there was only one person in front of me, and there was plenty of seats available on the 6:10am flight.

I’m happy to be home, and without any harmful incidents!