Every year around this time I remember a brief encounter I had with a ticket agent at the main bus station in San Antonio Texas in 1973.

I had just come off running 264 miles of the Rio Grande River from Presidio to Dryden Texas.  To give you an idea of how long ago that was, the locals were smuggling cheap gas across the river from Texas to Mexico.

The rest of the group was driving to California; I was going to New York. They left me on the highway in Dryden to flag down a bus. To give you an idea of how things don’t change the Border Patrol stopped the bus and checked ID.  I remember the looks on the faces of the two young men who they handcuffed and took off the bus.

I got to the bus station in San Antonio early evening.  My flight was the next morning.  Since I had nothing better to do, I thought it would be a fun adventure to walk to the airport.

I asked the ticket agent how far it was.  He said about 20 minutes.  I told him I wanted to walk. He looked surprized, but he  gave me directions.

I was on my way out of the parking lot when I heard him calling me.  He said, “Son, you don’t want to be walking around this neighborhood after dark.” He offered me a ten dollar bill.

I said, “I’ve got money. I just wanted to walk.  But if you say it’s dangerous, I’ll take your advice.”

For years I enjoyed telling the story about the nice man who offered me money that I did not need.

Then one time while I was telling the story I saw the look on the ticket agents face when I told him that I did not need the money. It moved me so much for a moment I could not go on. I realized that I had missed the whole point.  How much more generous it would have been of me to have  simply thanked him and taken his money.

Years later I found the follow quote from Tanya Shaffer:

“Here’s what I love about travel: Strangers get a chance to amaze you. Sometimes a single day can bring a blooming surprise, a simple kindness that opens a chink in the brittle shell of your heart and makes you a different person when you go to sleep — more tender, less jaded — than you were when you woke up.”

Sure wish I’d found it before I arrived at the bus station.

The cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon provide a cool shady area at the Rio Grande River contrasting with the blistering desert beyond.

Picture taken facing approx North from Santa Elena canyon in Big Bend National Park (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Big_Bend_National_Park),  February 2004 by Bob Palin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bob_Palin)