UberEats'ing a Cybertruck in Savannah

an anecdote about abundance.

You learn a lot about life through driving around.

Driving is something I’ve always referred to as the best possible combo for somebody born with the lethal combo of loner tendencies and overthinking.

Thus, you can imagine I was excited to trek down from Long Island to Florida this past winter, making the most of it and stopping as I pleased along the way.

The playlists were curated to the nth degree. Each leg was comprised of “the scenic route”.

There were a million lessons to be learned from the stops, stays, nights out, hotels, and random interactions.

Perhaps one day we delve into more of them, but as we head into Sunday night and a large swath of the population feels the pull of the work week beginning, I want to talk about abundance…through the lens of an absurd encounter I had at a hotel bar in Savannah, Georgia.

Setting the Stage

By the time I had hit Savannah on my drive down, we were on Day 3 heading into Day 4 of the journey.

Friends of mine gave me a lot of BS about “taking my sweet time” getting down the coast, but when you’re on an adventure, you’re on an adventure.

You want to make the most of it.

My inboxes (IG, Snap, iMessage, et al) were full of recommendations for the Southern Gothic city draped in Spanish Moss.

The theme of the trip down was “solo operating”, and we did a hell of a lot of it,

There were plenty of fun conversations, left turns, right turns, and some things I’m not going to write about.

Extraversion is a blessing, and you’ve got to use it.

After slamming down a burger and a couple beers at a restaurant the concierge recommended me, I headed out on another solo operation mission.

This time, it was to a speakeasy recommended to me by my good friend (and loyal reader, shoutout to him) Joey.

The place was called The Alley Cat, a downstairs basement bar dripped in red LED lighting and featuring a menu of craft drinks that was styled as an old-time newspaper.

Early-2010’s indie favorites were intermittently sprinkled into a playlist that was heavy on Uzi and Post Malone, and Pokemon reruns played on a projector against the brick wall in the back.

It might be my favorite bar I’ve ever been to in my entire life.

(You have no idea how rare it is to find a place that has a unique decor and feel, without succumbing to cringe Millennial IG “I’m gonna Boomerang my drinks clinking on my story” culture)

I don’t like being a Millennial if you couldn’t already tell.

Anyhow, the night was a riot. I befriended a table full of U.S. Army medical personnel, the majority of whom were from Minnesota. We took shots and BS’d about hockey, belted out some Mac Miller classics, parted ways as friends.

This was the third straight night of drinking and wandering around a new city after 8 hours driving a car.

As I walked (ever so slowly) back to my hotel on the river, my inebriated mind, infused with a fun night of exploring and socialzing, decided to hop back onto the hamster wheel of overthinking.

What is gonna happen in Florida? What direction do I take my career in? I see so many people at these nice hotels I stay in, what do they do? How’d they get there?

I didn’t even realize until I looked the next morning that I’d taken the route home through the “not so safe” part of town.

Everything in life is a trade-off…when you’re a big dude you have to stop to let groups of strange women walking in front of you get at least 30 yards of clearance so as not to scare them to death, but on the back end, you also don’t get F’d with when you’re walking alone. Frankly, I’ll take it.

All that matters is that I got back safe- and that I’m eventually getting to the point here.

The Rich German Lady at the Hotel Bar

No, this isn’t going where you think it is.

Spare me the “I usually skip this part!” jokes.

Fresh off an overthinking spiral and a fun night out, I made a business decision.

There was a wedding party and a rooftop pool at this hotel, and I was invited by an also inebriated group of guests in the lobby to come up top to the roof for God knows what.

I told myself skip out on that (we did have another 8 driving hour day and a 10AM checkout coming up quick), but soften the blow with another round or two at the hotel bar before calling it.

So that’s what I did.

I sat at this beautiful white marble bar, running through my notifications and adding to my already abominable Sunday daily screen time stats.

That’s when I met the rich German lady.

Let’s call her G (real creative).

She was clad in flowy designer clothes, aged about mid-50’s I’d say (we’re gentlemen over here, we didn’t ask).

A handbag from the Louis Vuitton x Takashi Murakami collab rested atop the marble in between us, as we introduced ourselves and looked out onto the brightly illuminated street.

That’s when it passed by.

A matte black wrapped Tesla Cybertruck, speeding through the shadowy Savannah night.

This got G’s attention immediately.

She had been in the middle of explaining she owned multifamily buildings overseas, and was independently wealthy from a pathway of government contracting and shrewd investing, but now she was totally fixated upon the trendy angular SUV that was taking over the country by storm at the time.

“I’m gonna get one”, she told me.

I said if she had her heart set on it, why not?

They’ve never been my cup of tea, but if it made her happy, who cares?

As I was about to tell her about a couple people I knew who were looking into buying one, she cut me off.

“Help me download the Tesla app”.

Ok….

So we did.

I tried to rekindle the conversation, but G was locked in on her phone screen.

“Stealth Black or Crimson Red, John?”

I was stunned. We’re doing this now?!

G’s German efficiency was on full display.

“Yes, clearly. Look! It lets me view it 360’ with my finger. Okay, we’re doing Crimson Red”

She had gone from seeing a Cybertruck speed by to having one in her cart in under 3 minutes.

The last step was swiping right to purchase the car.

It was no different than when I would move the slider on UberEats at the gym so that my Halal Guys lamb over rice would be ready at my door when I got home on a random cold Long Island weeknight.

(My protein plate didn’t run me $85,000)

“Double check this for me and if it looks good I’m gonna swipe”

What could I say? It was her money.

I told her it looked good, her finger ran left to right on her screen, and she let out a “Alriiight!” as it went through…and went back to sipping her gin n’ tonic.

Ho hum.

No big thing.

We sat there for another ten minutes before she disappeared into a late night Uber heading wherever it was she was going (I am still intrigued to know) and I was left with a warm goodbye, an impending hangover, and a massive life lesson in abundance.

Why Not You?

My mind was already racing as the elevator took me back upstairs to my room and my bed I should’ve been in two hours ago.

I was one part mesmerized, one part impressed, and a whole lot curious.

Then it hit me- G was just a person.

She wasn’t some heiress, on the Billboard charts, a Fortune 500 C-Suite exec. Just a human that made the right plays and was enjoying the fruits of labor.

It broadened the scope of possibilities in my mind.

It’s one thing to be inundated with the financial might we see on social media from NBA Players or titans of industry that are household names…it’s another to see a casual display of wealth like it’s nothing up close and personal.

G’s Cybertruck buy inspired me.

It was impulsive, entertaining, a little chaotic, and clearly he product of a lot of hard work. (That’s the way to my heart right there)

It was also a glowing “anything is possible for you” lesson plastered inside my brain.

Admittedly, I’m pretty grateful I rocked up to that hotel bar on a whim. Two Modelo’s and a massive life lesson…not a bad deal.

(Also- I know, I know…the Cybertruck. Elon waahhh whatever let the point of the story resonate and picture whatever other vehicle you want. Could be a boat or a motorcycle even!)

If we can all swipe pad Thai or whatever it may be to be delivered to our door, why can’t we eventually swipe on big-ticket purchases, too?

It’s not like it doesn’t happen in real life…

A Note on Creative Abundance

Abundance obviously isn’t limited to money, though that’s probably the best realm to employ that mindset in.

I dragged this story out of the psychological archives and deep recesses of my mind because I had a lengthy writeup I penned about the NFL due to release today, until I sat over it this morning and…with only my empty shaker bottle, half-finished La Croix’s and old Zyns as my audience, said to myself “This f——n sucks.”

So we tabled it, and you’ve got what you’re reading right now.

Whatever you do well is in infinite supply, I firmly believe that.

There’s always another topic to write about, another rabbit hole to go down.

That’s creative abundance at play right there.

Signing Off With a Recommendation

Before we part ways, I’d like to recommend the Substack of a new subscriber (but a longtime digital ally) of mine, OrahOnx.

Orah writes about life, mindset, chasing success and balancing family life amongst a whole host of other interesting topics, and does so with a voice and nuance that’s all her own.

I met Orah back when Elevator Charles was still super active (Coop I miss you), and I’m happy for it.

That does it for tonight.

Be abundant this week, maybe even impulsively buy yourself a car if you got it like that.

Love always,

-John Abbate

28.9.2025