Flying around these days can be a real hassle. Periodically, though, one has the opportunity to choose the road not taken. In this case, rather than using a rental car, I chose a 4:15a.m. shuttle from Santa Fe to the Albuquerque Sunport.

These conversations make up for all the hassles.

The tale begins in 1881, when a Barcelona native stopped in Santa Fe on his way to settle in Colorado’s San Juan Valley. Locals told him about something called a homestead opportunity. Finding the scenery and people of Santa Fe agreeable, he never completed the journey north to Colorado.

“Very smart, but not educated“, the immigrant settled and built a business in his garden. Growing and selling jalapenos, carrots (“this big!”), corn, peppers and more, he married and raised five sons. The boys carried water to the garden from a nearby river seven (7!) times per day. Buyers quickly snapped up his two annual vegetable crops.

One of his sons (the shuttle driver) served our country in the marines from 1949 to 1969, starting at Camp Pendleton, moving to El Toro, Korea, Vietnam and Okinawa, becoming a DI (Sargeant). He served in Korea in 1950 and Vietnam from 1960 to 1965. It was “hell”. “I have nine lives”. A traveller asked what was the favorite part of his military service, “there must be one”: “Furlough – getting out of hell, I could see my family”.

Today, this 75 year old veteran spends his time driving a few shuttles each day from Santa Fe to Albquerque’s Sunport, fly fishing (catch & release) near Taos, making an annual visit to relatives in Spain and checking up on his daughter and grandchildren.

As I left the early morning shuttle, he proudly mentioned that he starts the day with 100 pushups and shows off to younger guys by doing 25 one arm pullups.