"🚕 🏅TL;DR – No Uber, No Signal, No Problem. Just Call Gary & Jim. A review by a world traveler, who gets on at least 50 domestic and international flights annually.
Flying into the Idaho mountains last-minute with no car, no bars, and no clue? Yeah, same. Wood River Taxi saved my whole trip—and Jim Thomas was the MVP. 🏆
He’s the kind of driver who knows when to talk, when to listen, and exactly how to get you from small-town Idaho to rural-nowhere and back without breaking a sweat. 💯
If you want the long version of how Jim became my lifeline, local guide, and occasional co-therapist over four days—scroll on down. ⤵️
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Local Treasure on Four Wheels – Thank You, Jim & Wood River Taxi!
🚖 Wood River Taxi delivers the kind of service that restores faith in local hospitality—efficient, warm, and deeply human. Over a 4-day stay in Hailey and Sun Valley, one driver in particular, Jim Thomas, stood out as an absolute gem.
🛩️ Flying into the Hailey/Sun Valley, Idaho area on short notice for a deeply personal and momentous event, transportation was not just a logistical hurdle—it was a genuine concern. This is the kind of place where Uber and Lyft are mythical creatures, and cell signal plays hide-and-seek. Add to that the challenge of traveling not just within town, but between remote rural areas, and the need for reliability becomes more than important—it becomes existential.
🚘 A kind Hertz clerk at Friedman Memorial Airport (SUN) handed me a list of local cab companies and said, “Here’s the list, but in my experience, Wood River Taxi is always the quickest.” That single sentence changed everything.
🏃Gary Cornwell, Wood River Taxi’s manager, personally ensured I wasn’t left stranded and sent Jim Thomas to pick me up within less than 12 minutes!
🪄And that’s when the real magic began.
🫡 Jim wasn’t just my ride—he was my lifeline. He took last-minute requests in stride, extended his hours without complaint, and never once made me feel like an inconvenience. He was:
✨A rolling tour guide, rich with local lore and hidden gems
✨A contemporary historian, narrating the evolution of the valley’s businesses and culture
✨A calm presence, steady and kind in a week that was anything but
✨A true ambassador for his community—welcoming, generous, and proud of where he’s from
💯 Each ride became something more: a conversation, a moment of reflection, a wealth of knowledge—or, when I was drained, a moment of restorative silence 😴💤. Jim had that rare ability to read the room (or in this case, the backseat). When words were welcome, he brought stories. When they weren’t, he brought peace. Either way, his car was a space I could rely on—one that would take me wherever I needed to go, even to the middle of nowhere, without question and without needing to say much.
🙏Wood River Taxi, thank you.
Jim, thank you even more.
🖖 There are chauffeurs, and then there are companions on the road—you were the latter in every sense."