Previous Aspects of the Journey

I was recently asked what brought me Rodeo NM, what were the threads of life that came together to weave the tapestry of my life in Portal Rodeo area. After finishing my Phd in Biology I moved tot he southwest in 1987 to start a Post Doc at Arizona State University. As a recreational caver I quickly ended up in the basin and range region of the state to look for and explore the caves in the region. It was during one of these trips I entered the Chiricahua Mountains, though not lots of limestone there are a number of caves that I found entreating. And began visiting the area on a more regular finishing the post doc I was fortunate to land a job with the National Institutes of Health working on the genetics of type II diabetes in Pima Indians. This allowed me to continue my explorations of southeastern Arizona and its' cave systems.

Interrupting this was the development of a brain tumor which eventually put and end to my science career, so I sold off everything and decided to full fill a bucket wish item, learning to fly. Since I could not pass a third class medical I chose to fly ultralights. After mastering ultralight trikes I eventually moved out to a remote airport north of Phoenix and started flying on a regular basis. It was after a number of years I met John MaCafee who was learning to fly trikes that I became aware of his desire to build a cross country loop through Arizona and New Mexico. I did a deal with him and moved down to the airpark in Rodeo. Having access to the valley and surrounding mountain ranges by air was great. The landscape just pulls you in and I began photo documenting the landscape eventually producing a coffee table book. But like all good things there was a dark side to this aviation project which rapidly became apparent. It was more about people and personalities rather than the ideas and concepts of business which lead to some serious mistakes including 3 deaths. It is my belief that a startup should not kill people but this one did. I managed to avoid all the lawsuits by adopting the nom de plume even though I was publishing the Sky Gypsies blog.

McAfee packed it in and sold off all his holdings at auction an left for Belieze where the same thing happened again only this time getting out of third world country proved more difficult for him.