Our first task was doing a marking shoot @ 1000 in the Doctor's office in a neighboring city. I was up, showered, fed and curbside for 0915 hailing a cab. I had written out the address on a slip of paper for the driver and he punched it into his TomTom or equivalent. We were off!

The very first thing he did was pull a U-turn on South Broad Street which is 6 lanes of morning rush hour traffic, it was a portent of things to come. This guy had 2 speeds, full on and full off; when accelerating, even to move 10 feet he floored it. Naturally when stopping from such a state required a lot of braking, and so it went as we followed the GPS cursor, alternately ******* the gas then ******* the brake.

Of course I was car sick in about 2 minutes. Most people don't know this about me, but I have a pretty weak stomach for a lot of things, it drives my wife crazy, I can't even take out the garbage because the smell will make me dry heave. So as waves of nausea came over me I asked the cab driver if he could drive a little smoother, less harsh inputs on the controls, and I was met with a blank stare.

The GPS had led us to a remote wooded area, and up a narrow winding road. I could see the display on his dashboard and watched as we followed a serpentine path which eventually led back to our starting point. When we got there he headed up the winding road again, even though it was obvious that there was a left turn option.

As he was about to go on the circular road for a third time I spoke up, he checked his GPS and made a sudden left turn in the middle of the intersection that made a pedestrian literally have to jump out of the way to save his own life. I asked the cabbie if he saw that guy and got the same blank stare.

Eventually, after driving through some neighborhood side streets I wouldn't go back to the houses started to get nicer and bigger and knew we were getting close. The surgeons office was in the best neighborhood in a lovely office.

When it came time to pay there is a CC reader in the back seat controlled by a touch screen. The first question is cash or credit? As soon as I pushed credit, the cabbie asked if I could pay by cash instead. I found out shortly thereafter that the credit system does not have a step where you can enter a tip, but it does add a 2 buck fuel surcharge to every trip. Although I did have a few bucks on me, I did not tip the driver, and explained that I was sick and felt my safety was in danger numerous times. His reply; blank stare.

The surgeon had told us to be there by 1000 for an 1100 shoot, but we ended up starting late, although it only took about 30 minutes. I grabbed the memory cards and called a cab for the return trip.

This guy was local from the Ardmore area, and was a Rastafarian complete with dreadlocks and a toque, despite the 95+ degree weather. Naturally the ubiquitous Bob Marley was playing on his CD player, he turned it up very loud, asked me if the volume level was a problem, mun? I said no, I wanted this guy to be in his element, I was just hoping he wasn't going to spark up some ganga weed!

One of my many talents (besides dry heaving at the slightest provocation) is the ability to sleep anywhere at any time, so I laid back and put myself to sleep. When I woke up we were stuck in road construction traffic with a fare of $50.00 bucks on the meter, and the driver wigging out at the slow pace. After 5 more minutes of a snails pace I told the driver I wanted to get out as I could see my hotel was only 1 block over.

He filled in the credit card slip for the full amount on the bottom line, thereby shorting himself out of tip, who was I to argue, that wasn't the most pleasant of rides either!

Fortunately the facility where the install was taking place that afternoon was walking distance from the Hilton, that was the reason I had chosen that property. I showed up late for the install as I had some matters to attend to, but I knew the video crew had already done a site inspection and they had said they didn't need my help to load in. When I arrived they were already well setup, things just needed a little tweaking and we were done by 1630h.



I was walking back to the hotel when I took a wrong turn and got a little lost. I sorta knew where I was but decided to fast track the correction by using the GPS on my iPhone which gave me walking directions and I was back at the hotel in 5 minutes. How did we ever live without SmartPhones?

That night for dinner I was in search of the authentic Philly Cheese Steak, sadly I found out during my time in the area, that the definition has been somewhat diluted. Anybody, it seems, can put dry crumbled beef on a bun, cover it with melted CheezWhiz and call it a PCS. The one I had in the hotel bar was so bad I only had 3 or 4 bites. The barkeep took it off my bill, and said it happens all the time!

So Philadelphia, the so called birthplace of the nation and city of brotherly love I give you 2 tasks: fix your cab system, its not just bad it is dangerous! Fix your Cheese Steak standards, if you are going to call it your signature dish, it has to be served with some quality and consistency!

I ended up at an amazing 'by the slice' pizza joint next door that turned out to have been featured by Guy Fieri! 5 bucks got me 2 very large slices and a drink. I has back in my room and fast asleep by 2230.