Christmas letter 1999
Ron's Christmas letter for 1999.
e-mail: RSBeatty@gmail.com
It has been a very good year. I enjoyed good visits, made new friends and resumed motorcycle riding in eastern Ohio after buying a new rear tire and rebuilding the carburetors for my newest old bike, a 1973 BMW R75/5. Since then it has carried me about 10,000 miles this year, primarily to & from Kansas City and in Idaho and New Mexico. My $100 new rear tire wore out and had to be replaced. I get about 40 mpg out of premium gasoline.
New Mexico was the summer treat that stretched all the way into early December. It was a remarkably warm and pleasant Fall where I've been in New Mexico and Illinois. On November 12, John Buchser and I were at 12,600 feet on top of Penitente Mountain, dressed in nothing but shorts and tee shirts, basking in the sunshine and toasty warm. During two months, I hiked with friends in New Mexico to the tops of at least 6 mountains over 12,000 feet. I lost enough weight (while sick) to fit into my old clothes and regained enough fitness to be able to hike 8 hours non-stop. I ran just often enough to mention it. I did play a week's worth of basketball in Santa Fe before pulling a hip muscle that sidelined me for a month. Getting into shape for full court basketball games is the goal for this winter. I'm running regularly and seeing incremental progress.
I'm back in Belleville, Illinois to spend the winter near Mom to keep her off the icy streets that should be coming any week now. Mom and my family are all enjoying good health and good spirits. I am happy to report that the same is true for most of my friends. Would that I could figure out how to improve the lot of those friends who are unhappy or unhealthy.
My big project for the winter is to complete the first draft of the second edition of Beverly Rambo's Rambo Family Tree genealogy. I'll spend next summer gathering more information for the book and publish next winter. Interesting to find that I've been "marking time" all summer, anticipating settling in to work on this genealogy. Strange that an indoor project like this is more compelling for me than motorcycling, mountains and travel. I'm curious to feel the "release" and "freedom" that I expect after I complete the project next winter.
I've promised myself to write a more detailed description of my encounters with the police this year, of my travels in Idaho last year and of the trip from Santa Fe to Illinois just completed. My new inspiration for writing detail comes from Maxine and Joe B. who need support and inspiration. If you would like a copy of these longer travelogs, send a note, email or postcard requesting any or all.
I typed this on a tiny Sony VAIO laptop computer lent me by my friend Janie in New Mexico. I told her I wanted a new laptop, but didn't want to spend my retirement savings that way. She volunteered to lend me this spiffy new computer that she never uses. We had to hunt around her house to find it since it is so small and inconspicuous (less than 8.5" x 11" x 1" and under four pounds.)
I'm sending this letter with a card this year instead of using the cheaper e-mail. There is something more personal about a physical letter and card.
I do need to write a detailed description of the hike John, Norma and I took up Middle Truchas Peak north of Santa Fe. Of especial interest was the steep, rocky avalanche shute up which we hiked to the ridge.
For now, I want to describe the trip from Santa Fe to Kansas City and Belleville. I'm somewhat frustrated that I didn't get the first apartment I wanted for the winter. Oh well, I'll get settled before long. I just am impatient to get started on the Rambo book.
I changed into my good visiting clothes, left Santa Fe Saturday after noon, and rode south on the Interstate to Albuquerque, followed Roman's directions and found his house without any problems. He, Darota and Tom welcomed me into their beautiful home. Tom excused himself, pleading college chemistry homework - but wasted the afternoon watching TV instead. I thoroughly enjoyed "catching up" on Roman's life and meeting Darota. Roman is working for a company in Dallas (or Waco?) and gets home only sporatically. Darota is also an engineer and is enjoying her current professional life (after years as a stay-at-home mom.) Roman worked only a couple of years in Albuquerque before taking a design job for a bus manufacturer in Colorado. Roman talked his boss into letting him deliver buses to the West Coast. The rationale was that he needed to test the buses for design improvements, whereas in fact he selected scenic and difficult routes through the mountains of Colorado and across the deserts of Utah. I encouraged Roman to learn Java and computer skills, thinking that he can undoubtedly learn them easily and can then use them to get a good job in the Albuquerque area near his family. Additionally he should be able to find a job with very flexible schedule so that he can spend more time traveling and enjoying the American West.
They insisted that I sleep in their guest bed rather than outside. Turns out I would have enjoyed their back yard and resident quail better. They fed me a welcome breakfast of ham, cheese and bread. Before leaving on my bike, I rode Roman's around the block briefly. However I could entice neither Tom nor Darota to be a passenger.
Tramway Blvd used to be a deserted foothills highway, but is now fully developed. Once I cleared the city and rode Interstate 40 up Tejeras Canyon, the scenery was as beautiful as ever. The canyon is becoming more developed, but very slowly, so it is still rustic and magnificent. John Buchser had convinced me to take less traveled roads leaving New Mexico, so I enjoyed a serene ride towards ___ but was surprised by the colorful canyon walls and the rapid descent into the canyon as I entered town. I then took Interstate 25 to the outskirts of Las Vegas (New Mexico), but turned onto highway ___ before seeing any gas stations. This was another very pleasant, less traveled highway through more New Mexico sagebrush plains. I hoped to see pronghorn antelope, but instead saw several hawks as I rode. The map shows a town of Trujillo and I saw a roadsign for Trujillo, but I never saw any buildings before the road swept right down into another beautiful, steep-walled canyon.
Only gas station closed. Next gas 50 miles. Getting gas in Las Vegas had occurred to me, but I hadn't wanted to drive into town and had passed no gas stations on my bypass route.
Town was only a dozen houses.
I did make 60 miles on my reserve tank instead of the thirty I expected for the maximum.
On highway 420? flagged down passing car, but no gas.
Next farmhouse was deserted, but I spent the night there.
I had to switch on my final reserve early the next morning and was so very relieved when I saw a house near the road and a man packing his truck. Unfortunately he said they had no gas. ... but recommended the next ranch near the road. After 18 miles on that reserve tank, I saw a house close to the road with garage doors open and pulled in the driveway. No one was in the yard or garage so I knocked at the house. No one there either. I was musing about my options when a woman drove into the driveway and stopped near me. She was willing to give me gas, but her son kept the gas locked and had the key whereever he was. Regardless she helped me drain the gas in the hose into my tank. It seemed like almost a quart, and when she told me that it was only 7 miles into Clayton, I knew I'd make it that far.
The rest of the ride to Hugoton was uneventful.
I visited Joe B. and Maxine for the afternoon and stayed the night indoors in a bed again. Maxine suffered a stroke and isn't recovering well at all. I'm afraid she's given up on living and is just waiting to die. Joe B. is being a veritable angel, waiting on her patiently and trying to encourage her. However, he isn't the demanding type, so he lets Maxine off easy instead of bullying her into getting better. She is still an interesting conversationalist and still dotes on their grandson, Josh, so I'm hoping he will go to college in nearby Moscow, KS and force her to work at getting better.
I left there the next afternoon and rode to Larnerd fighting stiff cross winds. At dark I espied a commonplace Grange building on a flat lot bordered by trees for a windbreak. I spent the night sleeping on the leeward side of the building, waking up often and enjoying the stars.
From Larned, I rode in even worse winds to Marion, Kansas to look for genealogy for a Rambo cousin and for the book. I arrived around 10 am, delighted to get off the bike and out of the buffeting winds. Unfortunately the library was closed and the county commissioners were meeting in the court clerk's records room, so I worked until noon looking for deed records and found the one which listed the huband and all the children. Good thing I spent my time there as neither the library nor the court clerk had anything else for me.
I left Marion mid-afternoon, expecting to spend the night alongside the road until I saw a sign announcing that Olathe was a mere 49 miles distant. I arrived at the beltway at dusk and rode to Clarence's to pick up my mail, pet the dogs and invite Clarence and Kathy to dinner at Johnny's Bar-B-Que, one of my favorites there. After dinner I rode over to North Kansas City where Les works. I expected to sleep in vacant lot on top the hill behind his office, formerly a trailer park. The vacant lot is now a construction site, but I was still able to sleep in a wooded area there until daybreak.
Les and Kyong were too busy to spend much time with me, but Les and I drove out to his farm together. I very much enjoy his mother's company and conversation, so we stayed up too late talking. Fortunately the donkeys stayed quite most of the night and the geese waited until morning to sound the alarm and the dogs respected my privacy. The lamas, sheep, cows, chickens and bunnies are seldom a problem, so except for the brief shower I slept very well. My van, "Home," started without a hitch and drove into town nicely.
I was looking forward to seeing Nell, but she is engaged again and was never home, nor did she return calls. By Friday I was finished visiting everyone else, so I drove through a steady rain across Missouri into dry weather near St. Louis.
Now I'm hunting for an apartment. Landlords don't want me because I'm only staying four months and I have no visible income. I'm willing to pay all four months in advance and find it strange that they won't take my money to fill their apartments for the winter.
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Eve's Garden Organic Bed and Breakfast, a wonderful, eclectic, artistic papercrete alternative living learning mecca in Marathon, Texas
Rambo family genealogy, Bankston & Bankson family genealogy, the Camblin family genealogy, the Dorsey Overturff family, cousin Jean's Schenck and Hageman genealogy, and