Host: Rob Prince (00:11)
Coming up in this episode of My Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State.
Kenshiro Akehi (00:16)
how’s the day treating you? You know, just all happy, go lucky, and she just red-eyed, tears streaming down her face, and she’s like, my bo boy boyfriend.
just just broke up with me.
Host: Rob Prince (00:36)
Whoa, how long is this ride?
Kenshiro Akehi (00:40)
Twenty minutes.
Host: Rob Prince (00:41)
Ha ha ha ha.
Host: Rob Prince (00:42)
Kinshiro Akahi’s rideshare client suddenly turns into a 20-minute therapy session. Terry Gates helps out a stranger at a gas station only to get pulled into a dangerous family drama.
Terry Gates (00:54)
She says, I just left my husband. I also left my purse back at the house that I just left. I gotta go back to the house and when I left he was not there, but when I go back, he might be there. And will you come with me? And I’m like
Host: Rob Prince (01:10)
My goodness
Terry Gates (01:12)
I’m like, Yeah, sure. What you know, I had a free night.
Host: Rob Prince (01:16)
Ha ha ha.
Host: Rob Prince (01:18)
And Kevin Christopher and his friends decide it’s time for a hygiene intervention with their friend Haas.
Kevin Christopher (01:24)
And he passed out in the bed of one of our buddies’ trucks. So we decided we were gonna give him a bath and took him to the drive-thru car wash.
Host: Rob Prince (01:32)
Now wait, is this a literal like you drive through with like big brushes and stuff spinning? my
Host: Rob Prince (01:39)
Those stories and more, up next on My Michigan Story: Life in the Great Lakes State, the Awkward Car Rides episode. I’m Rob Prince.
Car rides are a uniquely weird experience in society these days. When there’s more than one person in the car, there’s a certain obligation to make chit-chat, but sometimes you run out of material or just don’t have the energy to fulfill that obligation, which can be awkward. And of course, it’s all the more weird when you’re riding with someone you don’t know. There’s really no other circumstance in life these days where you could be trapped in such a confined space with a total stranger for such a long time.
All of that is a recipe for some awkward situations. Our first awkward ride story comes from Kenshiro Akahi. He started working as a rideshare driver after the pandemic and discovered it was a really wonderful fit for his personality, which came in very handy when he found himself on the front lines of a passenger’s drama. He shared this story at our April 17, 2026 open mic storytelling event at the lit in downtown Grand Rapids. Here’s Kenshiro.
Kenshiro Akehi (03:00)
This happened three years ago now. go to pick up this girl and and it was the last ride of the night, so it was around two AM and I get there and she’s walking in the car, and normally my go to is just like, okay, so I confirm name
So that I know that the right person’s getting in. I confirm once they get in, I confirm location for the drop-off, just so that everybody’s on the same page. And then I and then I just do some jovial line like, well, how’s the day treating you? Or was it a busy day or whatever? So I’m like, how’s the day treating you? You know, just all happy, go lucky, and she just red-eyed, tears streaming down her face, and she’s like, by
Host: Rob Prince (03:48)
The boy.
Kenshiro Akehi (03:49)
Boyfriend sh just broke broke up with me.
Host: Rob Prince (03:56)
Whoa. Jesus
Host: Rob Prince (03:57)
How long is it?
Host: Rob Prince (03:57)
ride.
Kenshiro Akehi (03:59)
Twenty minutes.
And I’m like, okay. I look at the clock. I’m like, I got 20 minutes on the clock. I’m like, I enter into conflict resolution management mode, and I say, okay, first of all, he’s stupid. Secondly, you’re beautiful. You’re gonna bounce back even better. And who is he? No, absolutely not. You know what you’re gonna do? What you’re gonna do, what we’re gonna do, I’m gonna take you to Target.
We’re gonna get you a nice little dress, okay? Maybe a little manny, maybe little petty, and when you get home, you’re gonna drink as much wine or whatever your drink of choice is, and you can eat ice cream and watch girl shows, okay? And that’s and that’s how this day is gonna go. You’re not even gonna think about him because girl, he’s not even worth your time. All right, okay. And that that made her chuckle a little bit. And as soon as I had the chuckle, I was like, Cool, we had like a little bit of a breakthrough. I know we’re in.
And then came time for, okay, well now you need to be heard. So why don’t you tell me if you want to share this completely safe space? I don’t know you, you don’t know me. Statistically speaking, in Grand Rapids, I’m never gonna see you again. She’s like, okay, well, the place that you just picked me up from was actually his house. He broke up with me and then ordered me in Uber to go home.
Oof. That’s rough. Okay. But unbeknownst to her, to two previous riders before this ride, she was coming from a bar and she had told me, you know, you know, you know, when they do this thing where they like tap their hands for like their wallet and their keys and everything, they’re like, man, I just used all my money, all my dollars for the
For the cover charge, I don’t have anything to give you for a t wait. So she dives into her purse and she comes back up and she was like, Do you do edibles? So I was like, well, I don’t, but thanks. I maybe I’ll give it to a passenger or something. my god. So I’m sitting there and all of a sudden the edible thing pops in my head and I’m like, Do you it’s gonna be a weird question just right out the gate, but do you like do edibles or anything?
Host: Rob Prince (06:22)
Ha ha ha.
Kenshiro Akehi (06:23)
She’s
in the back and she’s like.
Host: Rob Prince (06:26)
Yes.
Kenshiro Akehi (06:29)
Matchmade in heaven, man. I can’t do it ’cause I don’t partake, but I have no problem with people who do. If you want it, it’s sealed in this little plastic container. I got it from a tip from like two I’m safe guy. So I give it to her, she pops it in. We still had fifteen minutes. By the time she got home, she had a big old smile on her face. She I was like, See, there you go. That’s the moon that we were going for. I’m happy that, you know, my services plus
Marijuana made the difference in your life tonight, but okay. So I drop her off. I’ve I’m and and I’m honest to God, I’m thinking to myself, this this was a great ride. I am very happy with the outcome. on to the next. Didn’t even think about her for the rest of the night. Next morning I get up and she at the end of the ride, she had said, Man, I hope I get you again. And I’m like, it would be very awkward if you did, because I don’t really see anybody else.
Like seriously, there’s probably about a two percent margin of passengers that I actually do s see again. If you want to do the math, that’s twenty five thousand rides at two percent, that not not very high at all. So I go home, I go to bed, wake up, I’m like, cool, gonna start the day again, hit the go button on the app. Bing. I recognize that address. That’s weird.
So I show up, she walks out, she recognized that I was the driver who accepted her ride, and she goes, Hey I’m like, Hey. So she gets in and she goes, I know you’re gonna confirm the address, but please don’t judge me right now.
So I look at the address, sure as stuff. She’s going right back to that dude’s house. She’s teary-eyed, right? But she like got herself dressed up and everything, and I can tell like it’s gonna be like conversation. So we’re driving, and I’m like, I mean it’s a safe space if you need to talk or spill or get prepared, like go ahead. Well, I just I called him and we had a chat and I didn’t I didn’t feel like we left it on good terms and
Like he’s my best friend and I don’t want to lose him and so I’m willing to just like kinda try for like the friendship thing instead of like the relationship thing. They’ve been together for three years. And I was like, Whoa, man, that is that is a tough one. I don’t really know. I’m I’m not a counselor. but I can tell that this is very important to you. As long as you feel like you’re making the best decision for yourself, you know, okay. but I do want to remind you, like that was a really rough night last night. So p that
That that’s I’m gonna leave it right there. That’s all I’m gonna say. As we’re pulling, it was plain field, exit right there off of ninety-six interchange, and we’re about to pass the target that is right there, and she is and she is just like hyperventilating. She’s like, Can you please pull into the target parking lot? ‘Cause I just need a minute to have like a self-talk. And I’m like, so I pull in, she gets out, runs into the target bathroom.
I have no idea what the self talk was, but she comes back and she’s like, Okay. So then I drive over to the house and she’s like, I don’t even know. Am I making the right decision or am I not? Do I really just need to let this person go? I d I don’t know. I I mean I’m I’m I’m just me, man. you really gotta ask yourself that question. And she was like, I think I think it’s worth it.
Then give it a shot. And she gets out of the car and she starts to walk. I can tell she’s still like trying to wipe tears from her face because it’s a really heavy situation for her in her life. And I don’t know, I could just I could feel I mean I mean I felt for her. You know, like what what a difficult situation to be in between that that that love and that friendship and do you or don’t you and is it healthy or is it not? Is it is it is it is it better to let go? Right?
And move on to whatever it is that you want for your life. And that’s that’s heavy. It’s like real stuff. But that’s one of the reasons that I love the job so much, is because it affords yes, it’s light and it’s fun, it gives me weird, crazy stories and everything, but every once in a while there’s a gem there that’s just like holy mackerel, I never would have met you otherwise. Humanity.
Host: Rob Prince (10:50)
Yeah, you’re
Host: Rob Prince (10:53)
Yeah.
And that is kinda it’s like it’s like you do like you’re at a dance and you dance
Host: Rob Prince (10:59)
Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (11:00)
with someone.
Kenshiro Akehi (11:00)
Just
converge and then and and there’s a beauty to that, you know? Yeah. There and and I’m fortunate enough in my life to have that happen now twenty five thousand times and can it’s no so many more.
Host: Rob Prince (11:14)
my gosh, that’s perfect. Thank you so much.
Host: Rob Prince (11:18)
Kinshiro Akahi. He shared that story at our April 17, 2026 Open Mic storytelling event at The Lit in downtown Grand Rapids. This is my Michigan Story, Life in the Great Lakes State. I’m Rob Prince.
One thing that happens when people start sharing stories with each other is that one story can remind other people of their own stories on similar themes, and so on and so forth, as was the case with our next story. Terry Gates shared yet another breakup car ride story after he heard that previous story from Kinshiro at our April seventeenth, two thousand twenty six open mic storytelling event at the Lit in Grand Rapids. Here’s Terry Gates with the story of what can happen when you do what we were all told never to do and
Except a car ride from a stranger.
Terry Gates (12:21)
We live by a gas station called Camp Out Corners. At the time it was called Genoses. And for some odd reason I hit v this is very rare for me that I had a night where I it was like I didn’t have any plans. I didn’t know what I was gonna do that night. And I thought, I’m gonna go to Genosis or the gas station and pick up a newspaper, which I’ve never done that before. Okay. You know, and it’s just like I just wanna kinda catch up on the news.
And I pull in there and there’s this woman who got out of her car and and she would just was like dripping wealth. Maybe you know, that’s like wow. Jewelry, clothes, shoes, purse, her car, everything. And she said, Excuse me, can you help me? And I’m like, Of of course, yeah. Yeah, what what do you need? She says, I don’t know how to pump gas.
Host: Rob Prince (13:18)
my goodness.
Host: Rob Prince (13:18)
my goodness.
Host: Rob Prince (13:20)
Wow.
Terry Gates (13:21)
Yeah,
and she says, Could you could you help me in put gas in my car? So I’m yeah, no problem, sure, you know, it’s not that so I’m trying to teach her how to pump gas and and she said this is the worst day of my life. And I’m going like, What? You know, what’s going on? And sh she just started kind of tearing up and crying and she says, I just left my husband. And
I go, wow. You know, that’s pretty heavy. And so I I just said, you know, sorry and she said, I also left my purse back at the house that I just left. I said, Well, no big deal. And I yeah, I paid for the gas and and she said, But I I gotta go back to the house and when I left, he was not there, but when I go back, he might be there and will you come with me?
And I’m like
Host: Rob Prince (14:21)
Good night.
Terry Gates (14:22)
I’m like Yeah, sure. What you know, I had a free night.
Host: Rob Prince (14:27)
Doesn’t seem strange.
Terry Gates (14:30)
We actually went to Fulton in a a nice condo area in the four sills area and went in the house and she said, Can you come in just in case he’s there because he might hurt me? And I’m like, Yeah, okay, you know, so go in there and she grabbed her purse and then and then she said, well thank you. He wasn’t there and I got the purse and and then she said
I need to go to Gall Lake, kinda almost on the way to Kalamazoo.
Host: Rob Prince (15:04)
Okay. So south aways.
Host: Rob Prince (15:07)
Excellent.
Terry Gates (15:08)
Okay.
I don’t know. Yeah, very south. And she says, I don’t know how to get there. And I said, Well, follow me.
Host: Rob Prince (15:17)
Because this is before GPS, before smart
Terry Gates (15:20)
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Kevin Christopher (15:21)
Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (15:22)
See yeah.
Terry Gates (15:23)
Yeah, and I said, Yeah, yeah, follow me. So I I knew how to get there ’cause I I used to own a sign company. I did all the signage for Borges Hospital and that was on the way. So I took her to Gall Lake and so she said the reason I didn’t know how to pump gas is because she had people they always pumped her gas for her, you know, or and I’m like, Wow, you know. So she gave me her number, I I followed up and I said, Are you okay?
And I was thinking, you know, there might be some reward or something. She said, You were my angel and she actually gave me a hundred dollar gift card to it was a there was a restaurant in Alaska.
Host: Rob Prince (16:05)
Yeah, Sam’s joint.
Terry Gates (16:06)
Sam’s joint.
Host: Rob Prince (16:07)
Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (16:08)
With
the automatic I am a trip.
Terry Gates (16:10)
She gave
me she s she gave me a hundred dollar gift card and I said, Well, I’m only gonna use the gift card if I go with you. And so we went together and then she told me her whole s sad story of how they broke up and how her husband was just a a hypocrite, he was a Christian and all he did all this stuff, you know. And they actually did get divorced and that was that was the end of the story. So
Host: Rob Prince (16:37)
Yeah.
Terry Gates (16:40)
That was it.
Host: Rob Prince (16:41)
Terry Gates. He shared that story at our April 17, 2026 Open Mic storytelling event at the Lit in downtown Grand Rapids. This is my Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State, the Awkward Car Rides episode. I’m Rob Prince.
Would you like to see my Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State, live and in person? Well, I’ve got good news for you because we’ve got a bunch of free open mic storytelling events coming up in June. On Thursday, June 11, we’ll be at Schuler Books in Okamis from 6 to 7 p.m. On Saturday, June 13, we’ll be at the East Lansing Pride event in downtown East Lansing from 4 to 8 p.m. On Tuesday, June 16, we’ll be at the MSU Juneteenth event from
5 to 8 p.m. And finally on Saturday, June 27, we’ll be at the WKR America 250 event from noon to one thirty p.m. at the Michigan History Museum. You can find us by looking for the My Michigan Story t-shirts and banners. Come see us and share your true story from Michigan for a chance to get it on the radio. There are more details about all those events on our website, my MichiganStory.com. That’s MIMichiganStory.com.
This is my Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State, the Awkward Car Rides episode. I’m Rob Prince.
According to research that I didn’t bother to vet very well, approximately eight percent of Americans are scared to go through an automatic car wash, which sounds about right to me. One time my mother saw someone panic and send their car leaping sideways off the tracks inside of a car wash. The sight of a car stranded sideways in that hall of horrors was enough to keep her out of automatic car washes from then on. But if going through a car wash inside a vehicle scares a lot of people.
I’ve got to imagine that the idea of going through one outside of a car has got to be some serious nightmare fodder. Well, that nightmare was a reality for one of Kevin Christopher’s friends back in the late 1990s. He shared this story of what I hope is a rare outside the vehicle car wash experience at our August 25th, 2025 live event at Ramshackle Brewing in Jonesville. Here’s Kevin.
Kevin Christopher (19:41)
We’ve we’ve got a buddy whose nickname is Haas.
Host: Rob Prince (19:44)
Hoss. Yep.
Host: Rob Prince (19:46)
Like the German.
Host: Rob Prince (19:46)
For like
Kevin Christopher (19:48)
Raw hide, like Hawse. Bonanza. He
Host: Rob Prince (19:50)
Okay. There you go. All right.
Kevin Christopher (19:54)
he’s known for not having the best of hygiene.
Host: Rob Prince (19:57)
Okay.
Kevin Christopher (19:59)
And we were at a house party and he passed out in the bed of one of our buddies’ trucks. So we decided we were gonna give him a bath and took him to the drive through car wash.
Host: Rob Prince (20:10)
Now wait, is this a literal like you drive through with like big brushes and stuff spinning? my g what year was this?
Kevin Christopher (20:19)
I would have been like ninety eight, ninety nine. But
Host: Rob Prince (20:21)
my goodness.
Host: Rob Prince (20:21)
I
Kevin Christopher (20:23)
you know, he just sits up and he’s just mean mugging the dog snot out of us and we’re like, lay down, lay down
Host: Rob Prince (20:28)
You’re gonna get in trouble.
Kevin Christopher (20:31)
So
he s sort
Terry Gates (20:31)
He just lays down.
Kevin Christopher (20:32)
of takes it. I think we did the work. So he got washed and whacked.
Host: Rob Prince (20:39)
You you thought this time it’s worth the extra two fifty.
And what did he have to say when you got out?
Kevin Christopher (20:51)
Well, okay, I’m gonna try to do the character because he’s got a little bit of a speech thing. What the hell?
Host: Rob Prince (20:57)
Okay.
Yeah pretty much.
Kevin Christopher (21:03)
And then
he you know, chained smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes and just scared holes through us.
Host: Rob Prince (21:09)
Okay. Has he ever tried to get even for that or brought
Host: Rob Prince (21:13)
No.
No. okay. There’s no touching you.
Kevin Christopher (21:16)
Well no, it’s just that’s not how Haas operate.
Host: Rob Prince (21:19)
Okay.
Host: Rob Prince (21:20)
Is Hoss still around?
Kevin Christopher (21:21)
But yeah, he’s around.
Host: Rob Prince (21:23)
How is he smelling these days?
Kevin Christopher (21:25)
Similar.
Host: Rob Prince (21:29)
Is he still smoking a pack a day?
Kevin Christopher (21:32)
if you’re lucky probably
Host: Rob Prince (21:33)
Wow.
Kevin Christopher (21:34)
closer to two.
Host: Rob Prince (21:35)
Okay.
Host: Rob Prince (21:37)
Kevin Christopher. He shared that story at our August 25, 2025 live event at Ramshackle Brewing in Jonesville.
Cars are great fodder for practical jokes. From the good old blinker fluid hazing ritual at repair shops to bananas in the tailpipe, there are lots of ways to mess with people’s cars. I remember one time as a tween I was sitting in the back of our family’s tan Toyota Treselle hatchback during one of many long, dull car rides before iPads were invented. To entertain myself a little, I came up with the naughty idea of tapping my foot on a plastic cover in the back seat to create a clicking sound.
That changed with the speed of the car, so my dad would think there was something wrong with the car. That joke was underappreciated, if I do say so myself, but a real good practical joke could sometimes lead to some unexpected ripple effects and consequences, as our next storyteller found out. Tom Bolt took advantage of his wife’s blind trust in him to pull off a practical joke that went far better than he could have hoped, but it came at a hefty cost.
He shared this story at our december seventeenth, two thousand twenty five open mic storytelling event at Schuler Books in Okamus.
Tom Bolt (23:10)
Well this this happened about twenty five or thirty years ago. I had a Chrysler van and I had just come back from the repair shop and I was listening to NPR no less and heard a story on NPR and I thought, well, maybe I can use that on my family. So when my wife and I left the house, I told her that there was a button on the right hand side of the dashboard.
in front of her and I said, That’s the passenger side horn
Host: Rob Prince (23:51)
Wow.
Tom Bolt (23:52)
So she said, Well that’s great because you don’t pay enough attention to my side of the car, and cars come over there and you don’t blow the horn at them when they’re too close. So she pushed the horn button and it the horn blew. And once in a while when she would push the button, the horn would not blow because I wasn’t paying close enough attention as the driver.
I had to reach over and blow the horn and she never noticed that. But she thought it was a great idea. And her sister also had a car similar to ours. So she called her sister up and told her about the passenger side horn. But her her sister did not have that option on her car. A couple of days later, my daughter and my wife left the house to go shopping and I was outside
doing the lawn mowing and they pulled right back in the driveway and my wife rolled the window down and she said, The passenger side horn’s not working
Host: Rob Prince (24:59)
no.
Tom Bolt (24:59)
I said, I’ll check it later. I’ll see if I can fix it.
Host: Rob Prince (25:05)
Ha ha.
Tom Bolt (25:07)
Anyway, it it went on for a good week, week and a half, where she would think that that was a good thing and would use it quite often, unfortunately. And sometimes I would notice it and hit the button and sometimes not and she’d say, What’s wrong with this thing? And she’d jammed the she’d jammed that button every w multiple times and finally it would work. But I finally had to confess that
I had fooled her and my my other family members. I said, How could you believe such a thing? And she said, Well, if you told me it, I must be true. She
Host: Rob Prince (25:48)
What
Tom Bolt (25:48)
believed me, anything I tell her. Yeah,
Tom Bolt (25:54)
we had a we had a good time, and I’ve told that story to many of my friends, and and every once in a while somebody’ll look at her and say, passenger side horn and everybody would laugh.
It was a great time.
Host: Rob Prince (26:07)
So what PR program did you get this from?
Tom Bolt (26:11)
I don’t remember what the program was, but they were talking about Penn and Teller. and Teller was in the front seat of the car they were riding in. He’s the one that doesn’t talk. He somebody told him about the passenger side horn and he bought it hook line and sink line. And so I thought, well, if you can fool Teller, maybe you can fool my wife. And it worked.
Host: Rob Prince (26:36)
Did this ever on
Host: Rob Prince (26:36)
Did this backfire?
Host: Rob Prince (26:37)
you where you tried to tell her something that was true and she wouldn’t believe you?
Tom Bolt (26:41)
Yeah.
Host: Rob Prince (26:44)
So here, for the sake of a joke you just
Host: Rob Prince (26:46)
Joke destroyed your wife’s trust in your
Host: Rob Prince (26:48)
I did. Did you regret that at all?
Tom Bolt (26:52)
Yeah I know. That’s a good job.
Host: Rob Prince (26:55)
It’s worth it. Alright, okay. Well thank you so much, Tom. I appreciate that.
Host: Rob Prince (27:06)
Tom Bolt. He shared that story at our December 17, 2025 Open Mic Storytelling Event at Schuler Books in Okamas. Thanks for listening to this edition of My Michigan Story: Life in the Great Lakes State, the Awkward Car Rides edition. My Michigan Story is produced and edited by myself, Rob Prince. Our associate producer is Mary Beth Lee. My Michigan Story is presented by WKAR in East Lansing, Michigan.
Would you like to see my Michigan story, Life in the Great Lakes State, live and in person? Well, I’ve got some good news for you because we’ve got a bunch of free open mic storytelling events coming up in June. On Thursday, June 11, we’ll be at Schuler Books in Okamis from 6 to 7 p.m. On Saturday, June 13th, we’ll be at the East Lansing Pride event in downtown East Lansing from 4 to 8 p.m. On Tuesday, June 16th, we’ll be at the MSU Juneteenth event from 5 to 8 p.m.
And finally, on Saturday, June 27, we’ll be at the WKR America 250 event from noon to one thirty at the Michigan History Museum. You can find us by looking for the My Michigan Story t-shirts and banners. Come see us and share your true story from Michigan for a chance to get it on the radio. There are more details about all of those events on our website, my MichiganStory.com. That’s MI Michigan Story dot com. Remember
I can’t make my Michigan story without your Michigan story. So get me your story today at myMichiganStory.com.