When traveling our family’s usual mode of transportation is Lyft. Despite being fairly introverted, I enjoy talking with the drivers and getting their perspective on driving in that particulr part of the world. Sometimes the drivers have the gift of gab, and often they are hardworking immigrants who don’t speak English well and prefer to remain silent.

On our recent trip to Santa Barbara I took a Lyft across town to a bookstore and noticed my driver was a fellow Deadhead right away. It wasn’t the faint but detectable smell of canabis. No, it was the Dead and Company shirt and the long white ponytail. I immediately indicated that I was a fellow traveler and we talked Grateful Dead the whole ride. He said he saw his first Dead show in 1974 at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Interestingly, he said he only saw ‘30 something’ Grateful Dead shows, but 42 Dead and Company shows. I thought that was interesting since I would expect most people his age to have seen more of Jerry than the what came afterwards. Oh well.

We also realized we had been at a few of the same shows, including the Santa Clara Fare The Well shows and the 2018 Eugene D&C show, which was amazing.