Mental Health Charity Lyft Drive Day 3: 700 miles to Georgia
- Today (June 25):
- Miles Driven: 650
- Cities: 3
- Time Taken: 14 hours
- Total:
- Miles Driven: 1225
- Cities 10
- Time Taken: 34 hours
- Read more about my trip across 65 Lyft cities here:
- How you can support or donate:
I managed to stay at my friends place but got another late start. I got into my car around 11:30 and drove down to Virginia Beach. I hit a lot of traffic with construction and accidents. It probably seems to be normal for a Saturday afternoon. I got stuck in about an hour worth of traffic, so I didn’t get down to Virginia beach until about 4:30. I didn’t have to go all the way out of Virginia Beach since Lyft is also available in Norfolk. I stayed around there and got a short trip there. I got a weird no-show before that. I got to his address and he texted me he was going to be outside. I waited about 10 minutes and gave him a call and he said he was coming out. I waited another 5 minutes and marked him no show.
About 10 minutes later I got another ride. I picked up a mechanical engineering student that was going home after getting a haircut. He wants to be a patent lawyer but working at an internship for the summer. I recommended that he look into getting a job at the patent office since he was from Washington DC. He also noted that I was the only driver so far that could pronounce his name correctly (Ibrahim). The name is in the Bible so I can’t imagine too many people not familiar with it.
I wasn’t until 5pm that I left Norfolk to go to Raleigh. There wasn’t much traffic and I started to see the speed limit at 70 so it definitely made my drive faster. I made it to Raleigh around 8pm and it took me a little while to get a ride. I wasn’t sure where to go but after about 20 minutes, I stopped at the Whole Foods to use the bathroom and grab some dinner. As I was finishing my first slice of pizza, I got a request right from Whole Foods. I walked over to her and told her I was her Lyft driver. I drove her about 15 minutes to her home and we had a long chat. I found out that she was working 55 hours a week across 3 jobs. She was trying to save up for a car. She uses Lyft a lot of commute to her two jobs, but her job at Sephora (her dream job) was too far for Lyft so she has to take two buses to get here. It normally takes her about 2 hours to get there. She noted that she can’t really move since she has a great deal on a 4 bedroom house she shares with one roommate. I encouraged her to try Airbnb (with her landlords permission) and get some extra cash for the spare bedrooms she has.
After this trip, I drove out to Charlotte to get a ride in the busy Saturday night. I got there right around 11pm and drove right into downtown. I drove down W 5th (busy bar area) and got a ping, but she was already behind me and I couldn’t loop back for her. She cancelled in about 30 seconds and she definitely made the right choice since I couldn’t even get back to her until about 5 minutes later due to traffic and restriction on turns off of W 5th. I got another ping pretty close by at the Hyatt and drove two girls back home into a Charlotte suburb. It took me about 20 minutes outside of Charlotte and I drove the other way back to drive down to Savannah, GA.
At this point, it was about 12:30am so I drove as far as I could, and slept at a gas station for the night. I slept at around 1:45am and got some good sleep in the car. Luckily, I’m used to sleeping in seats since I normally fly a lot and I felt as if I was on an airplane, but with much more room.
How Can You Help?
I have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise additional money for charity. It will be running for the next few months. Below is the link to the campaign:
GoFundMe Rideshare Dashboard Mental Health Drive
Even a dollar will go a long way so give what you can and it will be deeply appreciated!
You can also help by emailing ridesharedashboard at gmail.com with travel advice, what to see in each of the below cities and your best food recommendations. I have travelled extensively abroad, but I will be visiting many of these states for the first time.
Want to Know Where I am now?
I will continue to post regular updates of my trip on my Facebook Page and my Twitter feed so look there to keep track of where I am! I usually move through 4-6 cities a day so I’m definitely a moving target.
Have more questions about Uber or Lyft? Head on over to our Rideshare Driver Training Course! Driver Promotions- New Uber Drivers will get up to a $800 bonus after signing up: Sign up for Uber.
- New Lyft Drivers will get up to $800 if you sign up here using this link.
