On the road with Bob

I didn't know who my person of the week would be for this week, but I chose them before we even met. I wanted to profile the driver who would drive us from LAX airport to our hotel at the Disneyland resort. I met for the first time Bob, our driver. As Bob pulled up to the curb and helped us load our luggage, I could hear a baseball game on the radio. Loading the kids into their car seats, the smell of cigarettes filled the interior of the van with the faint hint air freshener, which poorly masked the odor of tobacco. I couldn’t wait to know the story of Bob. As we took off from the airport, I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures. I could only imagine what was going on in Bob’s mind as this “idiot” clicked away at, well, nothing. We had started to make our way to the freeway and there was really nothing to see. But I noticed Bob’s eyes in the mirror. He was a man who looked tired before the day had begun. Gray hair and a peppered grey, tobacco stained, mustache. But, it was his eyes that caught me. What has he seen over his lifetime? He travels everyday on roads with hundreds of people. He is a shuttle driver. I asked him, “What’s been the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to you while transporting people?” He said, “Not much, really. I had a flat tire once and another van had to pick up the family I was driving.” Huh? I thought, out of all the hundreds of people, thousand of road miles every year, the most exciting thing was a flat tire? I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed. I could tell, at this point, Bob was doing his job. Driving people. It was not his place to hold a conversation, it was to drive people from point A to point B. However, I’m not a normal passenger or person as far as it goes. I jumped to the baseball game and asked if he had been to a Dodgers game, to which he replied, “I don’t really like the LA Dodgers. I’m a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. (This is how I found out he was from Brooklyn) He and his wife had moved from Brooklyn in 1981 to live near his wife’s father. When they arrived, his wife’s father moved to Florida. They stayed. Yet, I get the feeling that his heart never left Brooklyn. As we arrived to our location, I thanked him, gave him a tip and said, may God bless you on the road. He smiled a bit and with a little laugh said, “yeah.” I get the feeling Bob's not use to passengers talking to him so much. I hope I gave Bob a little side track from the many people who travel with him and never ask his name. Thanks for the road trip Bob. Peace. Johno~