Last Ape Standing Dispatch #7: Home (for a Minute) and a Cabbie’s Remarkable Story

This post was originally published on November 15, 2019 on a previous version of ChipWalter.com.

Pittsburgh – Home Sweet Home

A Pittsburgh story: I arrived home the other night, and grabbed a taxi at the airport. Long day — up at 6 am in Oxford England and home in Pittsburgh at 9 pm 20 hours later. But I always enjoy talking with taxi cab drivers wherever I go so I started chatting with this one. I was feeling pretty worldly having just traveled 25,000 miles the past three weeks , but I had nothing on this cabbie! He was from Sicily and had traveled the Sahara, been to the Congo, roamed the Serengeti, lived ten years in Costa Rica where had explored its rain forests and covered it coast to coast. Cabbies always seem to have great stories. How did he end up in Pittsburgh? He is a software engineer. He came to work for Intel here after working in Italy and Costa Rica and San Diego. He’s in his 50’s (I’m guessing) now. Been living in Pittsburgh for 10 years and loves it! Affordable living, met his wife here, loves his home in Mt. Washington, runs his own business and makes extra cash with the cab. Great, life-loving character and I was so glad to see he had settled here after all of his journeys. I had spoken with cabbies in Cape Town, London and Oxford on this trip and they had come from Latvia, Poland, Zambia, London and Namibia–all interesting, but none of them had a better story than Domenico from Sicily, still speaking in his broken English and singing the praises of the city of three rivers. It’s why you have to love the human race, and traveling … and home.