Carpool Diaries: I get home-smoked meats and an hour back in my day

Mary, carpool rider

As told to a Waze Carpool story editor

When I started carpooling, I wasn’t sure what to expect — but I definitely didn’t expect to try smoked pork for the first time.

I gave carpooling a try because I needed a faster, more efficient way to get from San Francisco to Sunnyvale. I’d been riding my company’s shuttle for a few years, but since my stop was last on the route, the journey was two hours long. With Waze Carpool, that same ride is just an hour.

After a while on Carpool, I’ve been riding with two different drivers pretty regularly. Naturally, when you spend time in a car with someone, you learn more about them after a while. One of my regular drivers and I discovered we have a lot in common — we’re both women working in tech, we’re moms, we’re really into exercise. It’s funny, we’ve actually become good friends.

My other regular driver mentioned that he smokes all different kinds of meats from home. I’d never had smoked meat before, and he offered to bring me some. Sure enough, when he picked me up for our next carpool, he had a vacuum-sealed package of smoked pulled pork for me!

My whole family is in on it now. They’ll be like, “When are you picking up more meat from your driver?” He sells it by the pound, and I’ll let him know what kind I’d like to buy, and he’ll just bring it to our carpool. We’ll mix it with different homemade barbecue sauces, or we’ll get his smoked beef tri-tips and make tacos.

I didn’t even know this stuff existed. It’s nice and convenient for me, because all I have to do is go in my Waze Carpool with him, and I have something to look forward to that week. We have two different kinds of smoked meat in our fridge right now!