A few notes on Abilene, Texas

I got to spend a couple of nights in Abilene, Texas, on business. A few observations:

First, their tiny little regional airport is quite nice. Because the airport is small, the check-in and security checkpoint lines are short and efficient. Parking is affordable, and despite their small size, they offer free wireless Internet access. Very nice!

Second, the taxicab service around here stinks to high heavens. Abilene is a small town, but it has a reasonably large population, so you'd think that they could manage to have more taxis. Unfortunately though, most of the taxi companies in Abilene (such as "Classic Cab") are owned by the same family, and they clearly don't have enough taxis (or perhaps taxi drivers) to around.

I've called for a cab three times over the past two days. The first time around, I had to wait a long time for the cab to arrive, and I had to share the ride with a local family. The second time, I was told that there would be a 45-minute wait. (It turned to be more than a 75-minute wait, at which point somebody else offered to give me a ride instead.) The third time around, I was told that I'd have to wait for 2.5 hours, which would have caused me to miss my outgoing flight. (Again, by God's grace, I managed to get another ride instead.)

There is another company that I could have used, but they didn't even pick up the phone. Good grief!

Clearly, the problem is not a lack of demand. I don't know what the problem is. Mismanagement? Difficulty in retaining employees? Who knows? All I can say is that I'm never going to use their taxi service again. Heck, the local airport should put up a big sign, warning everyone that the taxis here are horrendously unreliable.