As the mini-van skirted the two block area around the strip, motels with multiple police car presence and loose facing became the foreground to the pastel shades of mountains surrounding the city.

“These must be worth a fortune. Do people live here? Why haven’t they built this up?”

Cab Driver:  Yeah, you don’t want to live there. See all this. You can get an apartment with everything in it, TV— phone, for $175, but you don’t want to live there. (Three cop cars are there and a guy is bent over in cuffs). See, he said. You can get an apartment somewhere else though. It’s cheap here. I live in Henderson.

“I would think that they would keep it all up to date and nice around the area since it is a tourist spot. Henderson is a nice part of town.”

Cab Driver: Yes, it’s a nice part of town. I lived there for a long time. I had a friend move from California. He moved from there and got an apartment here for $1400. Three bedrooms, two bathroom, fully furnished. In California, he was paying $3,100/month. If you can afford $3,100/month, then you can buy one of the casinos on the strip. (Ha!) Money can go a long way.

I worked in the casino for 15 years. First round of layoffs, they laid off everyone who worked under 20 years. I was a dealer. But they traded everyone in for young girls aged 22-23 who deal in bikinis. People would pay me to put my clothes back on. I can’t compete with that.

I’ve been working as a driver for 6 years now.

“Do you like the cab business?”

Cab Driver: I really liked it in the beginning, but now there is a lot more competition. People are coming in from Arizona and California. I don’t like the long hours. I work from 3:30am to 2:30pm because I have to pick up my son after school. It is flexible though.

To make good money, especially if you’re single, you work as a truck driver and you train.

Then, the people you train get a flat fee of $350/week, but as a trainer, you get paid for their miles, plus your own. .45 cents to the mile. You can easily make $400-$500 a day, but your truck is your home. I did this for 2 years.

As a taxi driver here, I work for a company. I don’t own the car / medallion— they do. I don’t pay to service it or anything.

“Can you go back to working as a truck driver?”

Cab Driver: The commercial trucks around here want three years of experience. I am shy a year of experience since I was only a driver for two years. Maybe I will get back into it one day.

So many great conversations are had when riding in a car service. Share a conversation you had where you learned something new or just felt completely understood for 10-15 minutes.