John drives a bus for TNM&O. He prefers charters -- which is how I met him. He said that all of the charters that he drives are usually full of friendly people. Of course they would be, they're all from the Texas Panhandle!
I asked him why he preferred charters. He said, "It's because you never know who might be riding a scheduled run. Sometimes there's some real fruitcakes on those!"
John gets to visit a lot of interesting places in his job. Most of his trips are within Texas or neighboring states. He said that his least favorite trips were the ski trips because of the cold. His favorite trips are to the Hill Country of Central Texas. "It's like driving into a completely different world in the Hill Country. It just doesn't look like Texas to me," he said. "But, they probably think the same about the Panhandle."
He loves to read. "This job is great, because when I get to where I'm going, I get to read while I wait."
He noticed the book that I was reading -- Winston Churchill's "History of the English Speaking People, Vol. III, The Age of Revolution." Then he reached into his bag and handed me "Gone for Soldiers", by Jeff Shaara, and said, "I just finished this one, why don't you take it and read it."
I said, "How do I get it back to you?"
He said, "Don't worry about it. It's yours."
We talked for thirty minutes about Civil War history and other periods that we were both interested in. It's amazing the nice people you run into if you just open up and talk to them!
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