Episode 2 : Crash Out Syndrome

First of, I just want to say thank you to everyone who inspired me to keep going. One way or another, I owe you all the credit.

Pandemic Hits. World stops. I just got hired at NASCAR. If the end of 2019 was a whirlwind of recovery from a bad scenario, things were looking worse. Of course, first to come, first to go when it comes to being laid off or furloughed for those of my brethren in the UK. Needless to say, I wasn’t out the streets just jet. Still had to do Lyft. And Damn did my car smell good.

Before we go any further, I don’t know if you’re like us, but we like to put some Phil Collins, Teddy Pendergrass, or TURBO63 on while we read a juicy story. So lock in kiddos, let me tell y'all what happened when I got to Florida in 2020.

RIP Boogie (2018-2022)

My 2018 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk 4x4 aka “Boogie” was vehicle of choice when I started Lyft. But more than that, Boogie was my shadow. Machinery in reality, but that I built a bond with. Mostly because of the long hours we spent together supporting each other.

Once we made it to Florida and Covid hit, we couldn’t go back to the West. Not just yet. Plus, there was a supernatural feeling that our purpose had to be in Florida for something.

It took time getting used to a full 9 to 5 office schedule and balancing a few hours after work, you know, 6-8pm. Something light. That would be ideal. The corporate money from IMSA is healthy, but mofos got bills to pay and tryna get their lives together, and shit is getting harder every day.

The pandemic bandemic fully exposed truths about America and the real world that most weren’t ready for. Reminder, dear reader, this is just my experience, thus all opinion. Continue at your own risk.

I didn’t expect to get laid off. With no races on TV in the Spring of 2020, no one was getting paid. Oh wait that’s not true, they only cut the engineering department. Oh wait, that’s not true either…

Back to the point. No money coming in. Again.

Back to the streets. Again. Back to the block. Back to the only skill my pops taught me to understand like the back of my hand.

Driving people around.

Ok boom. So here I am, living in Florida and realizing there was one advantage to Lyft in this state as opposed to Las Vegas. Lyft was state wide! And, similar to Nevada there’s no state tax. Boom, I at least have a bigger playing field. And me living in the middle of the state was helpful to pick and choose where to work. But the downside of this game, I JUST moved into a luxury apartment cause of my so called salary that was now in jeopardy. That cute little plan I had about doing lyft a couple hours a night like in Vegas, that was all the way out the window. Boogie and I weren’t just a driver and car combo anymore. We realized in 2020, nobody was playing fair and it’s all out financial warfare. We knew what we had to do. Never knew what it would do to us…

Florida was a war zone.