New York taxi driver Mohammed Alam has picked up the fare of a lifetime - $5,000 (£3,000) to drive across the US to Los Angeles.

Investment banker John Belitsky said he and friend Dan Wuebben wanted to do something "magical".

They decided on a cab ride to LA and struck the deal with Mr Alam after finding him at LaGuardia Airport.

The 2,448-mile trip took six days and included a stop in Las Vegas where the friends won $2,000.

Mr Belitsky, of Leonia, New Jersey, and Mr Wuebben, of Queens, New York, haven't yet said how they intend to get back to the East Coast.

But Mr Alam says a friend will help him make the drive back home.

The epic trip has been documented by Mr Belitsky on his Twitter page.

On 22 April, after their winning streak in Las Vegas, he tweeted: "Woke up Alam to a shower of $100 bills at sunrise."

New York news blog NYU Local estimated that the trip would have cost $17,000 (£10,000) if the meter had been running for the whole trip.

I wonder how much the gas was round trip... I'm thinking 5,000 for 12 days....assuming it takes 6 days to get back means 416.00 a day. 
lets say the taxi can go 300 miles on a tank... that's um 10 tanks one way (20 both ways...)  lets say $50 a tank...which is probably a really low estimate... that's what... $1000?

so you get paid... 5000 for the trip
you pay......        1000 for gas
that's 4000 for 12 days work

that's about 333  plus he's probably gotta pay his friend for helping him drive back to NYC and he (assuming he picked up the friend in LA) has to figure out how to get the friend home...

That cabbie is a sucker!

^ That's the first thing I thought!  Not too smart on the cabbies part!

so you get paid... 5000 for the trip
you pay......         1000 for gas
that's 4000 for 12 days work


You probably get taken out for dinner as "the cabbie who's driving us across the country", put up for the night at hotels, woken up in showers of $100 bills, etc.  And when you get back home, you get to tell your cabbie friends the same thing your benefactors will be telling their investment banker friends: you got a chance to something epic.

Or in Alam's own words: “I don’t care about the money. I came because it’s a new thing. Driving is always hard, but I know how to drive."

They made it to LA on Apr 22nd and closed the deal.

that's about 333  plus he's probably gotta pay his friend for helping him drive back to NYC and he (assuming he picked up the friend in LA) has to figure out how to get the friend home...

Solution?  Simple, really!.  Make the return trip in the same cab!  

"Lavender tinted fields. Looks like my son colored this state. #NY2LA http://t.co/mvLTQV9"
"Utah just gave us a rainbow. Thanks for the show. #NY2LA http://t.co/e3nawZ3"
"This is ride is spectacular. Impossibly bucolic. #NY2LA http://t.co/zdOMTca"
"Landscape spinning around & changing as if a Bway set.Each mile logged,another universe travelled.Im everywhere.#NY2LA http://t.co/yyrLeI9"
"6:19MT.Suddenly,snow.Road hugs a fist of mountains.I'd be less scared if I had less kids.#NY2LA http://t.co/hCccnBP"
"Temp dropped like heat just got hung from the gallows. Moment of silence for comfort. Brick from here to Denver.#NY2LA http://t.co/l40iyQB"

As of this evening, Alam, Belitsky and Wuebben are somewhere between Utah and Colorado, bound for Denver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnRwQjTYfGI#t=1m15s

You got the one Ayy-lam, he's eastbound and down!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJ-fujnMuQ

They made it!