Sancho Panza

When Bijonbo's flight arrived in Mexico City he was greeted by a friend and coworker who had volunteered to give him a ride.

"Hey, Sancho Panza!" That wasn't his real name, but that is what Bijonbo called him for fun. Sancho Panza had a big smile, a round face, a round body, and stood a foot shorter than Bijonbo.

"Hey Mr. Bijonbo! How was your flight?" They did the chest bump hug thing.

"Good, good! Thank you so much for picking me up."

"No problem, my friend, let's go."

As he pulled the car out into the busy streets of Mexico City for the hour-long drive to Toluca, Sancho said, "I know you call me 'Sancho Panza' from the Don Quixote book, but I don't know the story."

"We're on our way to Toluca so I'll have plenty of time to tell you," Bijonbo said. "Long, long ago in Spain there lived a gentleman about my age named Don Quixote. He read lots of adventure books about Knights in shining armor. 'Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.' Don Quixote imagined himself a Knight going on adventures, fighting evildoers, and saving damsels in distress. All Knights have a Squire, which is like a personal assistant nowadays, and Don Quixote's squire was Sancho Panza. That's where you come in!"

"Go on," urged Sancho Panza.

"In one of the first adventures, we find out just how crazy Don Quixote was. But wait! I was reading Don Quixote on the plane." Bijonbo pulled his iPad out of his computer bag, found the right spot, and  began to read:

“Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected. Look there, Sancho Panza, my friend, and see those thirty or so wild giants, with whom I intend to do battle and kill each and all of them, so with their stolen booty we can begin to enrich ourselves. This is noble, righteous warfare, for it is wonderfully useful to God to have such an evil race wiped from the face of the earth."

"What giants?" asked Sancho Panza.

"The ones you can see over there," answered his master, "with the huge arms, some of which are very nearly two leagues long."

"Now look, your grace," said Sancho, "what you see over there aren't giants, but windmills, and what seems to be arms are just their sails, that go around in the wind and turn the millstone."

"Obviously," replied Don Quixote, "you don't know much about adventures.” 

"Ha Ha Ha!," the friends both laughed out loud. Our Sancho Panza howled, "Don Quixote is even crazier than you, Bijonbo! Ha, Ha!" 

"Yes, I can only aspire to be as crazy as Don Quixote! Ha, Ha!" Bijonbo replied. From then on, Bijonbo and Sancho Panza pretended to be a Knight and his Squire going on adventures and about to become famous.