Once our bags show up, the fake Samual L. Jackson, an independent town car driver, offered to drive us for a set price. With reluctance, we hired him for the ride. Well, rather than take us out to a car on the curb, we walked our luggage out to a distant parking lot to a 1983 Lincoln Town Car. Anxiety crossed our minds thinking we were going to be robbed, but Antonio quickly changed our minds with his over politeness, the smooth sounds of his “Kenny G” cd playing in the background and his very subtle whistling.

Antonio made a definite point to learn our names and us learn his, and then told us that right then he was our driver, but the minute we hit the city, “we’re his friends!” (insert strong Bronx accent) And he went on, “Yeah, there is a $200 per infraction charge if they catch anyone offering rides outside of the taxi union. So we met downtown on 10th street and he’s just giving us a ride”. Of course, what were we suppose to say?

To follow up on this experience, after all the time we spent with him going over the fact he was “Antonio” and we were “Matt & Ron”, as we were pulling into our hotel he says, “Now it’s Brian & Ron, right?” And after all the promises of taking care of us whenever we needed rides during our stay, it was very surprising that he never checked up on us.