Dashing Galesburg

Here are a few things I've learned from dashing Galesburg.

You don't make much money doing Door Dash. It appears to be more than it is, but once you put gas in the car, make repairs, make up for the damage that happens on the road, etc., it's a very thin margin. I like the dashes that send me way out to Knoxville or someplace like Wataga, because it will pay me for both my time and my gas, and to let the car open up out on the highway is probably good for the car. But 34 at Henderson and Seminary is a terrible road. You lose no matter what you do.

You really learn a lot about a city, in this case Galesburg, from dashing. For example, I know where all the housing complexes are; I've been to each, in some cases many times. I don't really know the people I hand the food to. I'll never remember their first name unless I go there two, three or more times. But I know in some cases how the addresses are laid out in a housing village. I know how to find what I'm looking for.

The town is kind of divided by the railroads cutting through it; the tracks tend to isolate little pieces of the south side, for example, so that it's really about six different neighborhoods. And some of these little neighborhoods never get door-dash, or at least they don't get me, so I haven't seen everything. I also haven't seen every restaurant, since some of them simply don't have Door Dash. Some of the pizza places like Domino's have their own delivery; others like Pizza Hut have their own but also use Door Dash; go figure. Some I really enjoy walking into, just because of the atmosphere, or the smell, or the sports games on television.

I spend so much of my time on Henderson that I'm kind of sick of it. But I have to admit, it's the most reliable place to pick up an order. And these days, a lot of the orders are going over to Knox College. The most confusing area of town is where South West Street meets West South Street; addresses there are very difficult. All buildings face inward so you can't find any numbers from the street, and you have to walk around just to confirm that you're in the right place. But Knox students are friendly and they'll often come out to meet you.

I see the police out there doing their job, late at night much more than in the day. They have their ways and they like to follow procedure. One of them is don't be shy about sitting there with your lights on for half an hour. Let the rest of us see you in action. I'm glad I don't know the people involved though. These things are never good.

I think it was fashionable to put restaurants out on the edge of town there for a while, and that's why you have all those places on Seminary out past the Casey's, but you also have a few on the eastern edge of town and out at the end of Henderson. Lieber's and Applebee's are out at the margins. I tend to like them simply because more driving, more pay. My job is just to get from here to there, following the rules, not getting myself killed, keeping the food warm, keeping track of whose dinners are whose. It's not that complicated. But a good drive on the well-moving streets is a good way to pass the day, especially if I'm getting paid for it.

That's my life now. When I'm not driving I'm hanging around looking at my phone like all these other zombie apocalypse people who seem to have some riveting game on there that is way better than reality. I only have dash and the hope of making a few more bucks before I turn it in. But the phone has become like an appendage; I have it all the time, looking for a dash, watching for Galesburg to blink. For fun I watch the other towns too, especially Macomb, Peoria, Farmington, and Monmouth. The app tells me when they're busy. Being "in the know," in my case, means knowing when the entire town of Farmington is trying to do a door-dash at once. It's enough to make me want to just drive down there.

Dash the night away

At the same time I've become more comfortable with dashing - knowing what to do, doing the right thing, etc., dashing has dried up a little in Galesburg. It is no longer easy to get on there in the afternoons or evenings when I need to. It is hard to schedule anything reasonable.

I can attribute it to low ratings - I have a 4.47, right below the line; the line offers the better fares to those above it. I've always seen the ratings as relatively random, as I'm the same polite guy no matter what, and things are only late if someone screws up or doubles up on me. That's not true of every time, I guess, but I don't really screw up all that much, or if I do, I don't know about it. It seems some people mark you down for random reasons, like no ketchup, and there isn't much you can do.

So I'm stuck dashing a lot here on the weekend when the rain is making lots of work and when in general there's lots of work anyway. You have to do what you have to do. The rain doesn't really bother me - even when it's raining hard, I don't have to go that far in it - but it's a kind of bleak scene to be out working in.

As for Galesburg itself, I've come to know it better - I know where the people live, and what they like to eat, and when they're excited or something's going on. I recognize some of the homeless. I live and breathe its urbane nature.

I'll try to provide some stories. I've come to have to work nights, and I'm not crazy about it, but it makes for good stories I think. It's curious how Knoxville is a kind of appendage, too - I like Knoxville too, as it's part of the same situation. We're all in this western Illinois boat together. And it's raining hard.

 

https://www.yourtango.com/self/doordash-driver-thinking-about-quitting-customer-climbs-through-window

more about this later

Door Dash Chronicles #1

Lost my bag the other night, on a dash that was a little wild but I'll tell the whole story and give away the ending - I got it back, and will provide picture a s a p.

Got to Perkins late in the evening for the last dash and it was a small package with a couple of cream desserts in it and it took a while. I have found that Perkins is the opposite of fast food - while the others have their orders ready when I get there, Perkins almost never does and so I and my impatience occupy their main dining room while I wait for them. I often wonder if I am this impatient (sometimes pacing) naturally even though I'm retired, or whether Doordash makes me this way, and I suspect the latter, but that's beside the point.

These two cream desserts, or whatever they were, had as delivery address Galesburg 61401, and led me to the Broad & Main circle in the center of town, to a specific but empty corner of it. What the heck I thought and drove off to where it told me to go. But coming onto the corner of Academy and Main, just over the bridge as I was coming from Henderson, I was the first car to come upon a dramatic accident. there was plastic and glass all over the place and some left-turning vehicle and the car that smashed it were still in the middle of the road. A police car was heading down from the circle.

I put on my blinkers though I was the only car to come from the west. I considered getting out to see if everyone was ok but the policeman was right there and I decided it was best to go on my way with my dash. This was easier said than done since a firetruck within minutes came around and blocked my way.

Finally I got to that spot on the roundabout in the center of town. Nobody was there. I drove around the roundabout a time or two to see if anyone was out there waiting for me. The guy who ordered it was Juan something so I thought if I could see a Mexican-looking guy I'd stop and ask him. No luck. Finally I got on my phone and complained to Dash and they popped out with an address way out on the east side, off Soangetaha, and off I went.

When I got to that place there was somebody who appeared to be Juan to pick up the order, and he was grateful. Apparently his biggest problem with English was that he never figured out how to put the address into the dash instructions, but he did have an address and he did pay real money, obviously. Fortunately the food wasn't hot so a little delay was not a huge problem. Out Soangetaha, there's a creek and it turns into woods pretty quickly but a lot of people actually live out there, and it's a long ways.

When I got home I realized I had lost my bag, but my first order on Saturday was to Perkins, and they had it. Had I left it there? Or dropped it in the parking lot? Not sure, but at least I got it back. It's falling apart a little; I'm not sure it holds the heat the way it used to. But I guess people should be grateful I at least try to hold the heat. Some of these orders go a long way, and that's not only in distance.

True Story

This is a true story that happened right here on the east side of Galesburg sometime in October. We had a bunch of black kids, friends of my son who is also black, and two of them lived over in Iowa Court, a kind of public housing area. It's back behind the new HyVee a ways but several of those kids live out that way so I was becoming familiar with the area. But after I dropped them off I went up to Knox Boulevard and realized I could get home either by turning right or turning left. In confusion I tried to pick which way to go, picked one, and went. But then I got pulled over for not using my turn signal.

The guy had me get out of the car so he could search better, and called for backup, who came pretty quickly. So I stood against one of the police cars while they turned the inside of the car over and checked every single hiding place. They also searched me pretty thoroughly.

Maybe I said something that was suspicious, but I thought it was a whole lot of hard searching just for failure to use a turn signal (it's possible I did it more than once). But the ironic thing was, I was totally clean. I said to them, I can't speak for the boys who were in the car, but if you find anything in there, it's not mine. I meant it. I was myself clean. They were about forty-five years late - if they'd have checked back then, they'd have found all kinds of things. But these days, nothing.

Actually, they couldn't believe it. No firearm? No drugs? No nothing? They were pretty sure they'd get me for something. What was. this old white guy doing down in those houses anyway. Really I was being pulled over because they didn't know who I was or what I was doing and they just wanted to run a pretty thorough check. Well, they got it. They had to admit I was clean, and they wrote me a warning and let me go. I have to say that in the end, they were polite, and outside of searching me pretty thoroughly, didn't insult me or anything.

I remember the red and blue police lights shining on me, and the feeling that I should be ashamed, having the entire southeast side seeing me standing out there up against that police car. But the fact is, I don't know a whole lot of people on the southeast side, and I don't even know a whole lot up here on the north side either. I didn't really feel ashamed, because I hadn't really done all that much wrong.

It reminded me of that old joke, the reason people in these small towns don't use their turn signals is that everyone knows where everyone is going.

I'll use them from now on, though, I promise.

Harvardinates

John Leverett, first secular President of Harvard (1708-1724), used Harvardinates (sons of Harvard), instead of Sons of the Prophets, to refer to Harvard alumni. That was his way of saying, we educate all men, not just divinity students (yes it was boys only at that time). This is the story of opening up Harvard, and all higher education in North America, to a wider audience - which is still a trend in progress.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CND89PZS