the terrorists won last night...a post by james

We arrived at the Best Western a little bit before 11PM last night. After going over 700 miles through five states and taking a few hours to explore St. Louis we did what any wise traveler would do: go out and sample the local night life. I mean, bars are open until 3AM; we would be fools not to go.

After a quick call to the front desk we have our number. The front desk swears by Yellow Cab Company and says they are the quickest in town. We pull out the local hospitality guide and give the cab company our address and the address of the bar where we want to start out at. Read it right off the paper, as it was written – remember this part. Flash forward 20 minutes and a few cocktails later, the cab is here and we are ready to roll. Being as observant as I am I cannot help but notice our driver is not from America. That’s cool; we already won the war on terror so I doubt he is going to do anything too drastic with us in the car. What am I worried about? I am sure that this guy is as American as apple pie AND I have been told by a local, whose job responsibilities include helping out of towners better understand the city.

The cabbie has the address from our original call and begins driving. About two seconds after our doors shut he continues the phone call he was on when we got in the cab. Part of me is offended as I have always thought cab drivers should at least attempt small talk with their customers, perhaps even becoming friends by the end of the ride. Not to mention I am a talker, particularly when I am out of town I try and meet as many locals as possible. Once again, no big deal, I got two other people to flap my gums to.

After about ten minutes of driving and talking on his cell phone, our driver stops at a local residence. The neighborhood was very well to do and I would have love to have spent more time there but dammit I am only in Kansas City for one night and I planned on drinking some beers. I don’t think that’s going to happen here. Justin, Mat and I all look at each other wondering who is going to tell this guy that he is lost, slow, or both. After, he puts the phone down long enough to talk to us and ponder why we don’t seem happy about our proposed destination. He claims that this is the address we gave his dispatcher and we were wrong. Customer service is alive and well! He takes us to the bar we originally wanted to go to and attempts to charge us the full amount for his time and mileage accrued. I am about flip. I start explaining that we gave him the right address in the first place; this is his fault and honestly contemplate committing the cab equivalent of dining and ditching. Cooler heads prevail and Mat pays the full amount (and a tip on top of it – now that’s a class act). After getting out of the cab we vowed that we would not let this ruin the night and sure enough we didn’t. We went to five different bars in the historic Westport district and had a good time. Highly recommend stopping in this part of town for anyone who may be in or around K.C.

And the address he originally took us to was on West-OVER Street, we wanted West-PORT. I may comprehend the English language better but at least he can speak two languages so I guess he wins.