Everett cab driver Mark Forbes, an ex-military, ex-cop, ex-plumbing parts salesman, likes to say there’s an adventure every day in the taxi business.
What began in the wee hours of Saturday, April 10, was more. It was a big yellow odyssey.
It had been a busy Friday night, with all the usual runs to Seattle nightclubs, local bars, casinos and grocery stores.
Near the end of his 12-hour shift, a Yellow Cab dispatcher radioed Forbes, 62, to make a pickup at the Days Inn on Evergreen Way.
He pulled into the motel parking lot and saw two men emerge from a room. He looked at his watch —5:30 a.m.
The men had no luggage, so he was sure he could get them to their destination before his shift ended.
To the Sikh temple near Seattle, said the taller of the two men.
(Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, rejecting Hinduism’s caste system, founded in 15th-century India by Guru Nanak.)
The cabbie started the meter, shutting off the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice Classic’s roof vacancy light.
Forbes hadn’t the faintest idea it would take more than nine days and 2,300 miles to get back home.
Forbes has the voice of a country singer — rich with a hint of twang. His laugh comes easy, and often.
A former Colorado police officer who has also played Santa Claus, his demeanor is just that: a street-smart but jolly old elf.
In his cab, Forbes is as smooth as a tour guide, with the small-talk skills bartenders and their tip jars know best.
As they rode down the freeway that Saturday morning, the tall man said the two were originally from Punjab, India, and that his friend speaks little English.
He told Forbes they worked as Everett plumbers and lived in town.
Forbes was glad to hear this — he’s worked as a plumbing parts salesman and a plumber. But when he tried to talk the trade, he drew blank looks.
In Lynnwood, the tall man told Forbes that instead of the Sikh temple the two wanted to visit the tall man’s brother in Milwaukie, Ore.
"Weird," Forbes thought as he relayed the destination change to work.
As he drove over the Ship Canal Bridge, they looked at the city skyline.
"What city is that?" the tall man asked.
Forbes took a long look in his rear-view mirror at the men in the cab’s plush, gray back seat.
A low-level alarm went off in his mind. These guys aren’t plumbers, and they’re definitely not from around here, Forbes thought.
But a lot of people who get into his cab are strangers, and some are just strange. He’s learned to adapt.
"That’s downtown Seattle," the cabbie said.
Forbes and his passengers had almost four hours to get acquainted on the way to Milwaukie.
The cabbie didn’t want to be too pushy, but he wanted to know more.
He introduced himself. They did too.
The tall man joked with Forbes, who had trouble pronouncing their names.
"Call me Tony — Tony Blair," the tall man told Forbes.
"That works for me," Forbes said, laughing. The shorter man would be "Joe."
Like Joe, 43 — Tony, 44, was wearing khaki pants, a T-shirt, a button-down shirt and a jacket. Both had dark beards and wore nylon bandanas and baseball caps to hold their long hair in place.
In Portland, Tony used Forbes’ cellphone to call his brother. The brother told them to find Highway 43 and get off on Capitol Drive.
About 9 a.m., Forbes found Highway 43, but not Capitol Drive.
Tony called his brother back, and after a rapid exchange in their native language, he looked at Forbes.
"Are there two Milwaukees?"
Forbes couldn’t believe his ears.
"Yes," he said. "There’s another Milwaukee. In Wisconsin."
Tony looked at him.
"How much for you to take us there?"
Forbes reeled. He had no atlas — just a tri-county Thomas Guide. It must be at least 2,000 miles to Milwaukee.
He told them flying would be much cheaper. He also called Amtrak for them. But they insisted they didn’t want to catch a plane or a train.
Forbes did some quick math — his normal rate is $1.60 a mile.
"How about $3,000?"
Again using the cabbie’s cellphone, Tony spoke to his brother and turned back to Forbes.
"No problem," Tony said.
"Will that be credit card or cash?" Forbes said.
"Cash," Tony said.
Forbes called his dispatcher and told her his passengers wanted a ride to the other Milwaukee.
Have fun, she said. When she hung up she called the FBI.
Forbes turned around in his seat.
"Next stop Milwaukee — Wisconsin."
The Yellow Cab made its first pit stop in The Dalles, Ore., Saturday at 11 a.m.
The men gave Forbes a $500 down payment. He filled his 25-gallon gas tank and bought a road atlas, two bananas, a bag of Fritos and a case of bottled water.
Tony and Joe bought Twinkies, cupcakes, chips and a case of Coke. Back in the cab, Tony rode shotgun.
He stopped again in Boise, Idaho, and as Tony and Joe stretched, Forbes tried to call his son who lives nearby.
The cabbie wanted to tell his son that his passengers were really nice guys, but he was still suspicious. He got a machine, and left an urgent message.
When his son called back, Forbes was driving again and couldn’t say much.
He wasn’t exactly scared, just skeptical. In his eight years as a cabbie, Forbes has driven humanity in all its forms safely from point A to point B.
They needed him to get them to Wisconsin and he was curious to see what, apart from $2,500, would be waiting for him on the other end.
When they neared the Utah-Wyoming border about midnight on Saturday, Forbes had been driving for 13 hours and awake for 34. He pulled over. They slept in the cab for six hours.
His cab doesn’t have a tape deck or cruise control. It barely has a radio.
He’d picked up a country music station around Boise, but in the trip’s sparsest stretches? Nothing but static.
So in between long silences, Forbes did what he does best — teased his passengers about other cities with duplicate names (Ontario, Sidney and Cairo). He also helped the men pronounce names along the way — Laramie, Cheyenne, Ogalalla.
They counted trucks and train cars. Forbes pointed to the acres of brown to either side of the road, and even explained crop rotation.
Everything Forbes said, Tony seemed to excitedly translate for Joe.
The farther east they drove, the chillier it got. The scenery turned from green to an exclusively beige palette. The car was in drive, but to Forbes it seemed the seasons were in reverse.
They didn’t stop to eat once, only to stretch, use the bathroom and refuel.
Forbes allowed them to use his cellphone several more times, and later, when he got his bill, found they’d talked to people in Queens, Alberta, Canada, and, of course, Wisconsin.
Late Sunday, on the outskirts of Lincoln, Neb., Forbes was on empty.
"I don’t know about you boys, but I need a motel to stretch out and sleep," he said.
Forbes, who had left Everett thinking he’d be back in 90 minutes, was in dire need of rest and supplies.
After they got two rooms at a Best Western, they visited Wal-Mart.
Tony and Joe wandered around the vast retail store dazed and overwhelmed. They each bought a new outfit and some toiletries.
Forbes had himself a shopping spree. His wife had always purchased his clothes — it had been 20 years since he’d shopped for himself.
With his $500 down payment, he bought two complete outfits down to the socks and underwear. He bought a hang-up bag and toiletries.
He even bought red and blue swimming trunks, flip-flops and a beach towel for the motel hot tub.
At the motel, Tony and Joe went to their room. After relaxing in the hot tub, Forbes did too. He collapsed into a miles-earned sleep until 9 a.m., when Tony knocked at his door.
The three had the only real meal of the trip, continental breakfast, loaded their purchases and hit the road.
Though they’d driven for more than two days, Tony and Joe seemed surprised when Forbes pulled into Milwaukee about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
They invited Forbes up to a second-floor apartment, where he was almost bowled over by the aroma of curry.
He watched as half a dozen friends and family members greeted Tony and Joe with hugs and kisses.
Some of them turned to Forbes, thanking him repeatedly for safely delivering the men to Milwaukee. They even offered Forbes some tea.
It was spicy — like nothing he’d ever had before.
"What is this?" he said.
"Lipton," they said.
They also offered to put him up for the night. Forbes thanked them and politely declined, as he planned to head back as far as Chicago that night.
Joe and Tony stood by as the brother paid Forbes in full — $2,500 in $50s and $100s. Forbes shook hands with all three of them.
When he was back in the cab, his cellphone rang. It was his boss.
"Yes, I’m OK," Forbes said. "Yes, I got paid."
If the drive to Milwaukee was his strangest trip ever, the ride back was one of the nicest.
Forbes talked his friend Cec Ramirez into riding back with him. He bought her a plane ticket to Chicago.
Shortly after he dropped Tony and Joe off, he got calls from FBI agents in Washington and Wisconsin. He told them his story. Some Chicago FBI agents even interviewed him in person.
"For $3,000 I’d take them to Wisconsin," joked FBI spokesman Ray Lauer of Seattle.
Lauer said Tony and Joe weren’t suspects. Nevertheless, the FBI is looking into their unusual behavior.
"It’s not the strangest thing we’ve had foreigners come into this country and do," Lauer said.
Forbes and Ramirez would take their sweet time on the way back, engrossed in all that middle America has to offer: Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug, the Mitchell Corn Palace, the Badlands and Devil’s Tower.
"Mark is entertaining, so he made it fun and interesting," Ramirez said.
The two friends, who have plans to open a floral and coffee shop across from the Everett Events Center, got into town at 10 p.m. on Sunday, April 18.
After nine days on the road, Forbes was exhausted and glad to be home.
Now when people ask to go to the mall or a restaurant, he finds himself thinking, "Is that all?"
"When I look back at it, it was one of those cab rides that you think about, but you never realize it’s going to come true," he said.
"I think every cab driver has a once-in-a-lifetime trip."
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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