Please take care of this nice old couple from New York. And watch out for that cabbie. I've seen them Jump Curbs, Crash into Hot Dog Stands and Run Over Cops.

Quote:

---

Fare pair all packed for Arizona trek

BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Posted Tuesday, April 10th 2007, 4:00 AM


Arizona, here they come.

Retired Queens couple Bob and Betty Matas will kiss New York goodbye today as they take their cross-country sojourn in a yellow cab.

"We're looking forward to the trip," Bob, 72, said yesterday while he and Betty, 71, did a last round of packing at their Forest Hills house.

The Daily News revealed Sunday how the couple enlisted chatty city cabbie Douglas Guldeniz to drive them to their new house in the Oak Creek area of Sedona, Ariz. The Matases decided they didn't want to put their beloved cats - Cleopatra and Pretty Face - in the cargo hold of a plane.

Plus they liked the idea of a road trip, and are of an age when things in life don't necessarily need to be rushed.

"I think we'll appreciate the experience and take a few pictures along the way," Bob said. "We'll take it day by day, hour by hour, and see how everyone does."

Said Betty: "I'm adventuresome. I always have been. ... You can't just sit around and waste your life way."

A fair price for such a long-distance trip would be about twice the metered rate, estimated to be $5,000 one way, taxi industry officials said. Guldeniz, a married father of three, is charging $3,000 plus expenses.

He met the couple earlier this year when he picked them up in his cab in Manhattan and took them home. What began at first as a joke - that the cabbie would drive them to Arizona - became a real plan after subsequent conversations in which the couple learned more about Guldeniz, whom they describe as a trustworthy family man.

David Pollack, executive director of the Committee for Taxi Safety, said Guldeniz will be missed on the streets of New York.

"The Matases are getting one of the premier yellow taxi drivers in the country. Their gain is N.Y.C.'s loss," he said.

Gearing up for the trip, Guldeniz had his Ford Escape checked at the Ford dealership on Zerega Ave. in the Bronx.

Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus noted that Guldeniz's SUV was a hybrid - keeping his gas costs down.

"I am pleased that they will be saving some fuel by traveling in one of the many hybrid-electric taxicabs that the Taxi and Limousine Commission has placed in service," Daus said. "I wish the Matases a safe journey to Sedona, and Mr. Guldeniz a safe journey back home."

---

SOURCE

Sedona is full of crystal-worshipping meditation freaks. Hopefully a big enough flood will come down Oak Creek Canyon some day and wash the place out.