In '93 I was driving a Taxi Cab in Albquerque NM on the 7 PM x 7 AM shift. My cab was a slightly used Police Interceptor Ford Crown Vic and that thing was fast.

There was a big snowstorm predicted and at over 5,000 feet this city was gonna get hit and hard. Few people had snow tires and almost nobody knew how to drive in the snow.

Once I started out and the snow estimates started to exceed 10" of the white stuff I stopped into a Auto Supply Store and splurged for the best set of tire chains I could find.

They cost over $75 but I was to make a lot of money that night with those chains. By 9 PM that night we had over 6" on the ground and it was sticking and cars stopped moving.

My fellow cab drivers fell by the wayside one by one and they all pretty much quit by 10 PM.

Normally at the airport you could get a decent fare but you had to wait your turn in a holding area etc and it took a lot of time but could be worth it. That night I was the only cab running in town. Everybody loved me. When I got to the airport people were bidding up the fare to get a ride. I packed as many people into the cab as I could and I gave them all a break on the fare but they also paid individually for each trip so I was getting paid up to 10 x the normal fare.

The run out to Rio Rancho was a long but profitable one. Normally it ran about $25 and with a tip was a good run. Imagaine now instead of $25 per person you charged $40 for each fare and carried 5 fares instead of only one.

I cleaned up that night and I sold the tire chains the next time we had a storm to another cabbie after I quit the business.

That Crown Vic with a set of good chains hauled me around all night and the snow finally ended up at over 16" deep and I never got bogged down.

It was a wild night.

07 Speedmstr, Long Tors, bags, sissy bar and rack, windshield, engine bars, 2 ww lights, 2 fast eddy stickers and a .45 ACP.