Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Omaha native Dan Wuebben, who lives in New York, hailed a cab at LaGuardia Airport and took a $5,000 cab ride — to Los Angeles.
Not because of a fear of flying. Not because of a family emergency. Not, like some people who literally run across the country, for a charity or other good cause.
“There is no cause,” Dan explained. “It's just — BE-cause. Because it's adventurous. Because it's fun.”
The trip started last Saturday on a whim, he said, “about as much of a whim as you can get.” It was Dan's 32nd birthday.
Before you think he had been partying too much or just isn't very bright, you should know that the plan was hatched early in the afternoon and that Dan will graduate next month with a doctorate in English.
A friend earlier had mentioned asking a cabdriver what it would cost to drive to L.A., which got Dan thinking. Last Saturday in New York was very rainy, Dan's girlfriend is in Spain and he felt a bit melancholy.
Another friend, John Belitsky, son of a former cabdriver, immediately embraced the idea of a cross-country cab ride. He bought a camera, and they packed a few clothes. The first cabbie they spoke to was interested, but his dispatcher said no.
So the pals headed to LaGuardia, looking for a driver who owned his own cab — and found Mohammed Alam. The trio negotiated a price of $5,000 and stopped at the driver's home so he could tell his wife.
Soon the three amigos were crossing the George Washington Bridge, an improbable cliché of diversity — a Catholic-raised academic from Omaha, now living in Queens; a Dominican Republic business guy from the Bronx whose father is Jewish; and a Muslim cabbie from Bangladesh now living in Jackson Heights, Queens.
They drove to Chicago and by mid-morning Monday had reached the northwest Omaha driveway of Dan's parents, Ted and Colleen Wuebben. Grandkids arrived to play in the yellow “NYC” cab, a Ford Escape hybrid with a fold-down backseat. Atop cab 3N44 it said “Off Duty.”
While in Omaha, Mohammed had second thoughts about the trip and considered heading home. But Dan said he was fine after taking a nap and calling his wife.
Omaha friend Kevin Powers joined the trip with his video camera. John thought the trip had the makings of a mini-documentary, so it needed documenting.
The group stopped at Paxton, Neb., for a meal at Ole's Big Game Bar. Then it was on to Denver, where they met more of Dan's relatives.
On his Twitter account, Dan tweeted about “NY2LA.” In the middle of the night in the middle of Iowa, he wrote, he felt as flimsy as the windshield wipers. The area around the Denver airport looks like “a moonscape.” The snoring in the cab, at different pitches and tempos, reminded him of an alternating current.
The group gained followers and news media attention. Mohammed was interviewed by a New York radio station favored by cabdrivers. He was thrilled when his wife called to say their baby was saying his first words. A friend of Mohammed's said he would fly to L.A. and drive back with him.
The travelers, meanwhile, headed southwest, “wondering what kicks to get on Route 66,” and on Thursday reached the Grand Canyon, where Dan had visited 13 times. His buddies gawked. “Seeing them with such awe was priceless.”
Then it was off to Las Vegas, where the group bought socks and underwear and where local cabbies noticed the NYC cab. “Alam is yelling thru the window,” Dan tweeted. “Cabbie code is universal.”
By Friday, as they approached Los Angeles, the group was deluged with interview requests.
Dan, a 1997 graduate of Omaha Creighton Prep, will receive his doctorate from the City University of New York or CUNY Graduate Center, across from the Empire State Building, and then visit his girlfriend in Spain.
He has a two-year contract to teach writing at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He hasn't decided how to get back to the West Coast later this summer, other than “not by cab.”
His motto, he said, is “randomness keeps us running,” and he has no regrets about his random adventure of the past week.
“It was amazing,” he said. “I'm blown away.”
Contact the writer:
402-444-1132, michael.kelly@owh.com
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