People

Ryan told me at the onset of our adventure that "It's all about the people." I rediscover the truth of his words every day.

The RV park is filled with unique individuals some in expensive motor home yachts, million dollar rigs with all the trimmings. Others more humble. I met Ray the other day. He is 91 years old and lives behind us in a compact little RV. This morning I sat down with him and listened to his story.

He started flying a Curtis Challenger biplanes while he was still in high school in Montana, ferrying the plane to county fairs, taking people up for rides and manning the concession. The US Army provided him the opportunity to earn his flight instructors license in order to train pilots for the war and in 1945 he started flying a Cessna Airmaster as a contract civilian conducting aerial mapping, laying out the groundwork for new military installations and later a modified P-38 Lightning fighter plane on Dwight D. Eisenhower's Interstate highway system.

Ray called the P-38 a "beautiful flying airplane... but it had it's meanness." He said the counter rotating twin props provided countervailing torque that allowed a very stable flight line when mapping, but that the small tail was problematic when one engine went down especially on take off. He spoke of witnessing planes rolling and crashing from this defect... but not to him.

We sat outside his RV in white plastic lawn chairs, his white disheveled hair blowing in the morning breeze, wearing a Hawaiian shirt with orange flowers, shorts, brown socks and sandals, hearing aids in his ears. His bushy white eyebrows bobbed as he spoke excitedly about the advancements in technology he had seen and the jobs he had flown. He brought out a photo of a huge film to analog to digital (IBM punch card) piece of technology that he worked on in the early 50's and spoke of meeting the MIT inventors of the transistor which changed the world.

His electrical engineering background served him well in the growing field of photogrametry and he advanced in flying technology as well, eventually flying Lear Jets over Alaska, Maine and Greenland, his last job in 1986. he showed interest in my Uncle Bob's career with James W Sewell Co. and with Ryan's career with DeLorme. He shook his head in wonder when I showed him the PN40.

Ray and his wife went on the road in 1992 and RVed around the country. Four years ago she passed away. "I got to have her for 52 years..." His two sons want him to retire the RV life and, I'm told, one of them had him visit at his home in AZ where he presented Ray with living arrangements... a daylight basement suite. The story goes that Ray got up early the next morning and made his escape, before they took his car keys, back to the desert, back to his independent life of choice.

His mind and his points of view on politics and the economy were equally sharp and doubly pessimistic. he said, "Carl Marx was right when he wrote that capitalism will destroy itself." He said "I didn't think I would see it (the meltdown of the US economic system), but I am. I won't see it through... you will." Ray says "In the end it will be simple." speaking of the incredible Federal deficit and over extended financing through US bonds. "Japan would love to have California. Russia wants Alaska. Real estate is the only asset of value. That's why they call it "real".

The sun and the temperature were rising as he switched topics to world religions and I took a rain check (is there any such thing in this desert) to continue the conversation in the days to come.

Fascinating, remarkable, old timer. It's all about the people.