"I grew up in New York. We were very, very poor. We were living in the basement of an apartment building in the South Bronx, and, because my stepfather was the superintendent, I would get up every morning and straighten up all the garbage. And then I would sweep the halls down, and I'd mop the halls down. We had no money to travel."
"I always had an interest about this world. But I was stuck in this one place. When I became 18, I was able to go into the [air force]. I loved being in the air. It was a great escape for me. I went to Vietnam after my first year. I worked on electrical systems of aircrafts. And I did load mastering, which is putting cargo on aircrafts. There's a science to that. Everything's got to be balanced."
"I got hurt about two and a half years into the service. I went back to New York and was in the hospital there. Almost two years later, I bought [a] motorcycle and traveled around the United States. I had a BMW R90S. I rode that for 22 years, 23 years. I would push it to 157 miles per hour. That's where it redlines."
Sergio Ortiz turned 80 after a life that began in the South Bronx with deep poverty and daily chores in an apartment basement. He joined the US Air Force at 18, served in Vietnam, and worked on aircraft electrical systems and load mastering. After an injury and hospitalization, he bought a BMW R90S and rode across the United States, sleeping outdoors and traveling widely. He studied photography in California, worked as a commercial and landscape photographer, moved to Eugene in 1979, launched Endless Oregon Tours, and continues guiding despite postsurgery sepsis in 2025.
Read at Portland Monthly
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