"I'm Running for President "

Saturday, its still Cincinnati hot, for some reason pools close Sept 4th, yet by the end of the month its still swimming hot for Oktoberfest. This Saturday the first of September there is a hoge poge of events all attracting young gals in extremely short shorts, and short white shirts, mainly to support the college football team and to cause car accidents. There is also a baseball game, my least favorite because of the traffic jams caused by those who have to park right next to the stadium. At some point early afternoon I'm in the vicinity of aka Over the Rhine west of Clifton and start to Notice the many Catholic mini Cathedrals built atleast a hundred years ago and the surrounding neighborhood with stone walls. I immagined the German immigrants building these whos families are long gone and have been replaced. I noticed these Catholic churches and adjoining buildings, maybe old monasteries now apartments buildings for the first time everywhere as I grew more comfortable in my navigations on a very rare consecutive cloudless sunny afternoon. Add the cherry to the day of the busy day was a Soccer game or football as its called in the rest of the world. Maybe it was named soccer in the USofA as a way of describing the poor simple suckers (kids like myself), that played it. Its busy. Its hot for Cincinnati. The pings for rides are relentless. I tried my best to avoid Kentucky because its a dead end. Im an Ohio driver with a CDL A but have to take Kentucky defensive driving re-teaching every year for 40$ in order to pick up in Kentucky. Sounds like another government scheme to generate Bahama vacations. So as a small protest I refuse to re-teach myself a language that was drilled into my head over and over during my CDL days and Im an Ohio driver. Only those laws apply to Kentucky drivers. As I got closer to the 60 rides in 2 days grind, grinding out 33 today hopefully by midnight. I get a ride to the dreaded tipless west side. I see one pop up for 15$ I ignore it, after a few minutes yet it popped up again. So I grabbed it. 15$ with out a surge is a 30 min to 45 min total ride. Im on Baltimore street its dark, its sketchy its run down. A large African Male with a bag is waiting. My first thought given the surrounding area and having witnessed true Baltimore City level violence during the daylight hours, I was very skeptical of this ride, or the intentions. Ive had plenty of drug deals needing rides. When he first spoke, he was alittle broken like my speech tends to be as his mind is way ahead of his mouth making it difficult to keep up or articulate his high horse powered mind. He was very observant, he expressed his passion to learn about other cultures and life in general as he talked about his frustration of the last Uber driver who chickened out from picking him up as they where 3 minutes away they turned around and started to head away, back towards mad max thunderdom after midnight aka Downtown with 2 hours to go, so he dropped the ride. He was praying someone with the ability to drive to arrive. The thought to cancel had crossed the back of my mind, but something told me to continue before my arrival. Maurey was destroying every bias ive developed from west side rides. He was a Gentle Giant. we talked about Uber drivers and past travels. He stated at one point, "I had a lady with a hijab who was asian pick me up once. I thought she must be Indonesian." Ive also noticed a huge uptick in Muslims in Cincinnati. By forceful design not a natural change as I've picked them up all over town like purposely placed transplants. A few families live in one house in my neighborhood as of last year as the Government had bought the house for them. I have no disdain for them but they follow strict rules for social things, those woman who wear the hijab , who have been passengers for the first time this year out of four.5 years of rideshare. Maurey had 2 women in hijabs pick him up. One 2 times. Each one did not wish to engage in conversation. I told him its considered flirting or cheating on a spouse if they are married. Im certain its forbidden. It was my intuitive thoughts as Ive ingaged in basic communication when interacting with the half dozen in 4 weeks now from all over the area. His asian one turns out had converted to marry her current husband. "I had another driver who was Asian with a German accent, it was so bizzare , as I told him, you have a German accent, he acknowledged that he was raised in Germany." I called out Maureys name as being French in origin. He dittoed my observations and then we dived down the french rabbit hole for awhile from cooking to his preferred Vegetarian burgers we shared so many small similarities from food to observing people. As the subjects changed from my weeks long conversation fatigue he blurted "We need an Independent Party President, I should run for President. " he said after a short discussion his statement was after I had asked who he preferred in the current cards of candidates. "Both parties are the same" I agreed , " You need to run now for the next one, as in 4 years." was my suggestion. He thought about it for a second as the political discussion started to dissipate we moved onto a rider I had who meditated the entire ride, a Chinese lady who spoke 0 English. " I practice Qi Gong, and meditation " he chimed in to make her odd ride less marginal to more mainstay. " Your not the average rider, your a special person, thank you so much for the talk and meeting you." he was warmly quiet and said thanks quietly. When we arrived to his night shift job at the horse races at Beltaire the local casino. I tried my best to verbally show my appreciation and how much he captured my respect on his intelligence and observations. He was a mon friar, my brother, as he got out and hugged one of his co worker at the gates at about 1030pm dark, as I pivoted to go on to pick up Hunter....just another rider who is as normal as all the other Cincinnati Midwestern people. Earlier in the ride I tried to help him understand that inside him is a seed that will blossom 🌸 in its own time as he begins to write his stories, his observations. I felt a French connexion with him, on an ole Louisiana style, one of a deep unseen familiarity many are unfamiliar with. He was and probably will be my best ride and one of my favorites.