My brother Art and I are planning to ride horseback through the Superstition Mountain wilderness area.  Will start at the corrals at First Water trail head, which is on the western edge of the wilderness area and ride to Weaver's Needle, a prominent landmark (see my profile pictures) which can be seen for miles around all sides of Superstition Mountain except from the south side where the view is blocked by the mountain itself.  Actually, I can see just the top of it from my home thirty miles to the south.  After spending the night at Weaver's Needle, we will continue around to the Peralta trail head on the eastern side of Superstition Mt. where a friend will meet us with the horse trailer.  Any way, that's the plan.

Once a year I try to travel by plane to Nashville, Tennessee to see my son and grand kids.  Every year he hosts a free barbaque jam session attended by some of the great southern rock artists.  Last year we had Bo Bice (American Idol 2nd place winner a few years ago), Chris Hicks of Marshal Tucker, Georgia music hall of famer, and several other well known southern rock stars.

On the same trip I go to Fairmont, West Virginia to see my daughter and grand kids.  She and her husband Joey run an arts center in Fairmont.  Both are actors and Joey is an author and director and works with kids interested in the theater. 

This year my trip will depend on whether I can find some one to care for my horses and chickens while I'm gone.  Sue, my wife, suffers from severe fibromyalgia and is unable to travel or care for the animals.  It is a terrible burden for her to not be able to travel with me but she always is supportive when I go.

Hi Ron, I enjoyed reading your bio and am happy you are having a great life. You reminded me of two things I wanted to do while living out west: raft the Colorado river and take a long camping/riding trip though the mountains. One of the guys that was on the sixth army pistol team with me was from Idaho, and he lived for his two-week hunting trips on horse back each fall in northern Idaho. Having grown up a country boy, and having done a lot of horseback riding, I was able to do some while in Utah, and then in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which was the best I have ever done. I can still remember being up in the mountains and viewing the Tetons in the distance--something special.

I was also curious how you liked NSA. When I went to Finance School, I had the chance to go NSA, but didn't want the extra year. I know some people liked it and some don't. It looks like you had a great career in the Air Force.

Take care,

Gary

I really liked working at NSA.  We lived on Fort Meade, MD during both my tours.  I had the privilege of working in the National Security Operations Center for awhile.  That is the nerve center of NSA where all the good stuff happens.  Of course that was about forty years ago! I imagine a lot has changed since then.  For one thing the "big" computers that drove our computer image technology, the leading edge of technology at the time, could bearly handle vector line drawing for imaging.  They were powerful enough that we could play Pong on them - that was it.  And, we had four of them hooked together, each the size of a refigerator and that didn't include the data storage devices which were separate machines and every bit as big as the computers.  At the time the Cold War was at its peak and the satellite imagery (actual photos, not computer images) were considered really stunning at the time.  Today you can view much better images on Google Earth over the Internet.  I was there during the Nixon final years and during Ford's administration.  After the Malaquez crisis near Cambodia (pirates siezed the commercial ship named the Malaquez) - I don't remember the exact spelling but you probably remember it.  After it was over the White House invited us down to D.C. to tour the White House situation room where President Ford managed the crisis.  That was neat.  I retired from the Air Force at NSA during the early Reagan years.  I can't imagine what the place is like today.  I recently saw some recent pictures of NSA.  The old building that housed NSA is still there but it is dwarfed by the new NSA operations center behind it.  That building that used to hold all of NSA is now used as a museum and VIP reception hall.  At least that is what I have heard.