Majestic Living Magazine Spring 2016 by Majestic Media

contributors MarGareT CheaSebro has been a freelance writer for over 30 years. her articles have appeared in many magazines across the country. She was a correspondent for the albuquerque Journal and worked for several local newspapers. She has four published books of children’s puppet scripts. a former elementary school counselor, she is a reiki Master and practices several alternative healing techniques. She enjoys playing table tennis.

DoroThy NobiS has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years. She authored a travel guide, The insiders Guide to the Four Corners, published by Globe Pequot Press, and has been a frequent contributor to New Mexico Magazine.

Debra Mayeux, of Farmington, is an awardwinning journalist with recognitions from the associated Press of New Mexico and Colorado and the New Mexico Press association and the Colorado broadcast association. She has covered stories throughout the Southwest and in Mexico and Jordan, where she interviewed diplomats and the royal family. after nearly 20 years in the business, she recently opened her own freelance writing and media business. Mayeux enjoys the outdoors, reading and spending time with her family. She is the coordinator of Farmington Walk and roll, a Safe routes to School organization. She is married to David Mayeux and they have three children: Nick, alexander and Peter.

beN braShear has called the Southern San Juans home for most of his life. he holds a b.a. in Creative Writing from Fort Lewis College and has worked for Cutthroat: a Journal of The arts, as assistant poetry editor. he is currently working as a freelance writer and photographer based out of Durango, Colorado.

JoSh biShoP is a graduate of San Juan College with an associate degree in Digital Media arts and Design. he currently works at Majestic Media as a video producer and photographer.

WhiTNey hoWLe was born and raised in Farmington and is proud to call San Juan County home. The richness of the landscape and the diverse people, culture and traditions are a photographer’s dream. Whitney has his ba in Visual Communication from Collins College in Tempe, ariz. he is a co-owner of howle Design and Photography—a family owned studio offering graphic design, photography, market research and consulting.

publisher Don Vaughan

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editor Cindy Cowan Thiele

Clint Alexander Tonya Daniell

designer Suzanne Thurman

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Lacey Waite

writers Dorothy Nobis, Margaret Cheasebro,

MAGAZINE Celebrating the Lifestyle, Community and Culture of the Four Corners Vol. 8, No. 2 ©2016 by Majestic Media. Majestic Living is a quarterly publication. Material herein may not be reprinted without expressed written consent of the publisher. If you receive a copy that is torn or damaged call 505.516.1230. 6 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

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springfeatures: 10

Patience and a gentle spirit

DeLaws Lindsay didn’t plan to be a jockey. At 5 feet, 6 1/2 inches, Lindsay was thought to be too tall to be a jockey. By Dorothy Nobis

Challenges, opportunities and unwavering faith

It’s a story that touches hearts, inspires souls, lifts spirits and has a happy ending. By Dorothy Nobis

Practical, whimsical American innovation

Ron Andrews, owner and proprietor of King Cage, founded in Durango, Colorado, in 1993, is moving quickly around his basement workshop. By Ben Brashear

34 28

Hike of a lifetime

Hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail from Mexico to Canada is a thrill that thousands of people from around the world have experienced. By Margaret Cheasebro 8 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Turn off the TV, there are arches to explore

At a glance, Larry Beck can spot what might be an arch, a weathered hole in the rock. It’s a skill he’s developed over years of search for arches, mostly in northwest New Mexico. By Margaret Cheasebro

Kim’s got the answer

Kim Martinez has to see something to learn it. A handson person, she’s always worked on her own cars. “I’ve always fixed everything,” she said. By Margaret Cheasebro

Keepin’ it fresh

There’s something special about Paul

It was a Christmas gift Paul Almquist will never forget. A December 22, 1955, issue of the Hasting (Minnesota) Gazette, offered a story on Almquist and the job he held in Farmington, New Mexico. By Dorothy Nobis

A true collaboration

Not often do educators encourage students to explore their own beliefs and openly share then in a classroom setting. The Farmington High School Spotlight Theater, however, is not your average classroom. By Debra Mayeux

Putting others before yourself

Helping others, being a Good Samaritan, and doing the right thing come easily and naturally for Sonali Patel. By Dorothy Nobis SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 9

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Training horses has brought out the best in DeLaws Lindsay Story by Dorothy Nobis Photos by Whitney Howle DeLaws Lindsay didn’t plan to be a jockey. At 5 feet, 6 ½ inches, Lindsay was thought to be too tall to be a jockey. “The way you sit on a race horse, a short guy can get down and keep his body above the horse,” Lindsay explained, which helps a jockey between 5 feet and 5 feet, 2 inches, maintain a balance between the horse and him.

Lindsay won his first race as a jockey, however, in 1978, the same year he graduated from Carbon High School in Price, Utah. Lindsay’s father bought a racehorse from a race track in California to use as a cow horse and for match racing. A cow horse works with a single cow in an arena to perform specific maneuvers, and match racing pits one horse against another for a single race.

The locals in Price enjoyed match racing “to see who had the fastest horse,” Lindsay explained. “It was mostly fun racing.” Lindsay was at a county fair, set to ride a horse in a match race, when a friend tracked him down and asked him to ride his racehorse. “His jockey didn’t show up and he asked if I’d

ride his horse,” Lindsay remembered. “I had never been in a jockey saddle. All match races use regular stock saddles. A jockey saddle weighs less than two pounds and a regular saddle weighs between 25-35 pounds.” Lindsay won that race, but didn’t pursue being a jockey until eight years later. He had

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maintained his weight and had been training colts. “Training colts is hard to beat (as a job), especially if you’re good at training and exercising them,” Lindsay said. “And everyone wants to be a star jockey,” he added about remaining a trainer. Lindsay learned of a racing school in Commiskey, Indiana, however, and it sparked his desire to be a jockey. “It (the school) was 50 miles north of Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, which is the race horse capital of the world,” Lindsay said. Intrigued by the school and the training it offered, he saved the $3,500 he needed and in 1985, he began taking classes. His background in training proved helpful and he was the first student of the school to graduate at the top of his class – in one month. Offered a position with Spendthrift Farms in Kentucky, Lindsay took his time to consider the offer. Five days later, a horse trainer from Sinclair, Wyoming, called. “He had 20 head of thoroughbreds and he was looking for a full time exercise rider and a possible jockey,” Lindsay said. “I jumped at it.” He did the racing circuit in Montana, racing most of that summer. “I won my first race on an official track in Great Falls, Montana,” Lindsay remembered. “The first year I rode for him, I was able to win a couple of races, but when I went home to Price for the winter, I decided

to come to Bloomfield, New Mexico.” The weather in New Mexico, as well as the opportunity for him to train and work with horses during the off season of racing, was an opportunity Lindsay didn’t want to pass up. He rode the racing circuit in New Mexico, which included Ruidoso, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Raton and El Paso, Texas, as well as what was then known as San Juan Downs (now SunRay Park and Casino). “I did pretty well,” Lindsay said modestly. He took horses to the winner’s circle at San Juan Downs, Wyoming Downs, Great Falls, Montana, Navajo County Horse Race Track, Globe, Arizona, and Holbrook, Arizona. Joyce Atkinson owned one of the horses Lindsay took to the winner’s circle at San Juan Downs. “He was a good little rider and he did real well on my horses, especially Fore Knowledge,” Atkinson said, adding that the first time she met Lindsay was in the winner’s circle. “I got to know him real well,” she said, “then I lost track of him for several years.”

In1990, Lindsay rode a 9-year-old Irish bred gelding, Jean-Claude, and won the Midsummers Series III Handicap at San Juan Downs. According to an article written by Charlie McCandless, those placing bets on the race showed “such total disregard for the old steeplechaser that Jean-Claude went off at 20-1.” Jean Claude, ridden by Lindsay, won that race, which was ultimately shown on ESPN as part of a Budweiser Thoroughbred Digest. In 1997, seven years after he rode for Atkinson, Lindsay decided to get out of the jockey saddle for good. “I was at the peak of my riding, but I was getting old (for a jockey) and I knew I needed to settle down, not travel so much, and call somewhere ‘home,’” he said. He bought five acres in Bloomfield and started his own training business. The life of a jockey is exciting, provides a good income and gets a good jockey on ESPN television, Lindsay said. “But the party life got old and, during a church service at San Juan Downs, I was saved.”

In a newsletter published by Network News for the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, Inc., Chaplain Carl Crisswell mentioned Lindsay. “The backside church (of San Juan Downs) was called Finish Line Church. . . . In the three months I was there, some 27 folks came to the saving knowledge of Christ,” Crisswell wrote. “DeLaws Lindsay and his wife, are one of the couples saved that meet. DeLaws was a race rider and was very good at what he did, but (he) wanted to know the truth about life and what God had to do with horse racing.” “The Lord took the reins out of DeLaws hands and began to guide him through green pastures,” Crisswell said. Lindsay Training Stables was the result of that decision, and training is a passion of DeLaws and his wife, Cheryl, today. Lindsay met Cheryl while attending church in Dolores, Colo. Introduced by a mutual friend, Lindsay was struggling with challenges in his marriage, and Cheryl and other friends were praying for reconciliation for Lindsay and his wife. That didn’t

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happen and Cheryl and Lindsay lost touch. “One day, I ran into her and she asked how my girls (daughters) were doing,” he said. “We started dating and it wasn’t much later that we got married.” Lindsay was working full time in Cortez for Alpine Construction then, and Cheryl was looking for a place to stay, she said. “We ran into each other at the laundry and he suggested I rent his mobile home, since he was living in Cortez,” Cheryl said. The situation worked out pretty well, Cheryl added with a laugh. “He’d come down on Friday to collect the rent and he’d take me out to dinner.” The friendship evolved into much more. “I fell in love with him,” she said. “I could see his heart. He really loved his kids and he’s loyal.” The love was mutual and the couple married. Both devout Christians, they became a worship team and are frequent visitors on the Navajo Reservation, where they lead worship services. Cheryl plays the guitar, Lindsay plays a wooden drum, and they both sing, Lindsay explained.

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The couple also were partnered in the training business, where Lindsay has earned a reputation for being able to train “horses with people problems.” “I found out through the years that if someone would bring a horse to me that had a problem or bad habit, even if I was able to work with the horse and fix it, in a short time,

it would return,” Lindsay said. “That’s when I could see that the person was the cause of the problem. We humans are predators and horses are prey animals. We think different and we act different.” “So I found if I can get people to act and think different around their horses, the problems almost always go away,” he added. “I’ve seen some pretty emotionally scarred horses,” Lindsay said, “but most come through – it’s very rewarding.” Lindsay said his gentle spirit – which he said God put there and the horses brought it out in him – has made him a successful trainer of horses with people problems. And while he and Cheryl love the business God brought them to, Lindsay felts he needed to expand his service – this time to the community he calls home. When Bloomfield decided to annex property north of the city limits, Lindsay said he wasn’t happy. “I was upset,” he said. “I didn’t want to live in the city. I was content living in the county. During my prayer times, I read the scriptures and God ordains the times and places we live. I started asking God ‘Why Bloomfield?’” For Bloomfield Mayor Scott Eckstein, Lindsay’s question of “Why Bloomfield,” became “Why NOT Bloomfield.” “I first met DeLaws about three years ago, when he suddenly started to attend City Council meetings. After finally introducing myself

and talking with him, I learned that he had actually attended his first council meeting to voice his concerns on an (annexation),” Eckstein said. “He said that after he sat through his first meeting, he decided not to voice his concern at that time, but rather to listen to what was going on.” After attending several council meetings, Lindsay visited with Eckstein and then city manager David Fuqua. “I told them ‘I’ve gotten to know you guys and I want you to know personally how much I respect you and all you do,’” Lindsay said. Realizing Lindsay was a concerned citizen who cared about his community, Eckstein said he asked him to fill an open position on the Bloomfield Planning and Zoning Commission. Lindsay accepted and his path to community service began. Several months later, Fuqua asked Lindsay to meet with him. Fuqua said there was an opening on the City Council and asked if Lind-

say would be interested in running for it. “I went home and Cheryl and I discussed it and prayed about it. I decided to run, and I ran unopposed. God put me there.” Lindsay didn’t want to change the direction of the city, since he believed it was moving forward in the right direction. “I’m in it for the people of the community and it’s been easy for me to be a part of it. In my opinion, God is blessing us. Bloomfield had a dark side, but now it has a better way of life that starts with family.” “I was pleased that DeLaws decided to run for an open seat on the Bloomfield City Council in 2014, to which he was elected,” Eckstein said. “I have now had the opportunity to work closely with DeLaws on the council for about 18 months. He is a pleasure to work with, genuine, reliable and a true gentleman.” “Although soft spoken, he often surprises me with his incredible wit,” Eckstein added. “DeLaws is not only our newest member of the Bloomfield City Council, but he is someone who has quickly

become a person I can call a friend.” While Lindsay adapted quickly and easily to his new position with the city, it was more difficult for his wife. Unaccustomed to being in the eye of the public, Cheryl said she is finally adjusting to her husband’s elected position. “Lindsay being elected to the City Council was surprise,” she admitted. “I don’t know where we’re going from here. This is a new arena for us, but Lindsay has a lot of good ideas.” “He loves it,” Cheryl added of Lindsay’s position on the City Council. “He’s passionate about the city, he’s proud of the monuments (on the front lawn of city hall) and he loves the people who work there.” With an increasingly busy horse training business, a demanding position on the City Council and the love of the work of their worship team, Cheryl and DeLaws Lindsay have a full and complete life. And with their shared love of horses, it’s not unusual to see them riding together, enjoying a life they believe has been blessed by God.

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SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 15

Challenges opportunities and UNWAVERING

faith Jim and Kay Baker changed lives at Navajo Ministries for more than 40 years Story by Dorothy Nobis Photos by Whitney Howle It’s a story that touches hearts, inspires souls, lifts spirits and has a happy ending. It is a story of a couple, happy and successful in a community in Pennsylvania that had been home all of their lives. It’s a story of sacrifice, frustration, hard work and selflessness. It is also a story about faith, hope and love. Kay and Jim Baker were in their mid-20s and with a 3-year-old daughter when they closed a chapter of their story. Jim gave up a successful job, Kay gave up a lovely home and, as a couple, they gave up the short distance that connected them to the extended family they loved. It was April 10, 1975, when the Bakers and their daughter, Lisa, drove into Farmington to begin a new chapter of their story. This chapter started with a slide show at the couple’s church, sharing the good work that was being done

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at Navajo Missions, where Navajo children were being cared for while their biological parents were getting the help they needed to bring their families back together again. The slides and the information touched the heart of Jim, who was anxious to share it with Kay, who had stayed home from church that evening to care for Lisa, who was ill. Jim’s enthusiasm and his excitement – along with many prayers and conversations – were contagious and the couple decided God’s work for them was no longer in Pennsylvania. It was in Navajo country. Encouraged and hired by Jack Drake, Navajo Missions founder, the Bakers started their service as house parents. In 1987, with the health of Drake’s wife, Betty, deteriorating, Jim was asked to take on the role as President at the Missions. Drake handed the responsibilities of the Missions to Jim and yet another chapter of the Bakers’ story began.

Their home at Navajo Ministries that they shared with countless children, including their own Lisa and son, David was warm and welcoming and always full of love. As Navajo Ministries grew, that house was needed for additional house parents. Another home was built on the campus, where they lived for an additional 20 years. Then Jim and Kay, for the first time in more than almost 40 years, began a search for a new home – a home that would be away from the campus of the Ministries. “We had lived at the mission for nearly 40 years and we knew, if we retired, we couldn’t stay on the grounds,” Jim explained. “Other members of the staff needed a place to stay.” The couple found a home about two years ago, and began remodeling it to make it their own. In addition to a new home to enjoy, the Bakers had another reason to be comfortable moving off the campus of the Ministries. In September of 2008, Eric Fisher, a respected newspaper editor, went to work at the Ministries as the Director of Development. 18 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

The relationship between Fisher and the Bakers cemented immediately and on May 1, 2015, Jim turned the leadership of Navajo Ministries over to Fisher and retired as President. “Eric came along at the right time,” Jim said, sitting on a sofa in the couple’s comfortable home. “It was time for us to slow down and let Eric enjoy new ways of doing things.” “I often tell people Jim and Kay are two of the finest people I know,” Fisher said. “They care for people so much, and have a big heart for children. It was a calling that brought them to Navajo Ministries in 1975, and that calling still has them serving alongside of us more than 40 years later.” “Everyone who knows Jim and Kay are blessed to call them friends,” Fisher added. The transition from being fully engaged, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year has been surprisingly easy, Jim admitted. “We thought it would be harder than it was,” he said. “We had a year to get used to the idea and for staff to see us working together. Now Kay and I share an office (at the Ministries) and we’re out of the limelight.” “And Kay and I are getting along pretty well,” Jim added, teasing his wife. “The secret to getting along is not making a big deal about little things and to have a relaxed attitude about life.” “Life’s too short to fight and neither of us is confrontational,” Kay chimed in, “We’re happy to be at this place in our lives. There is nothing better than being right where God wants us to be. It’s good to have more time with each other and not be on call all the time.” With retirement came spare time. And Jim had an idea on how the couple would spend that spare time. “I wanted to write a book about the experiences we had,” Jim explained. Kay, however, resisted. A quiet, thoughtful woman, Kay has never been comfortable in the spotlight “I’m much happier being in the kitchen doing the dishes,” she said with a laugh. “But God stretches us and he’s done that for me over the years.”

“But,” Kay added, “that (the limelight) is not what I truly enjoy.” The couple did write a book – The Baker’s Dozen and Then Some – that details their story and shares their adventures. “The growth that happened, the many adventures we’ve had over 40 years,” Jim

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recalled fondly. “We’re so glad we were called to be a part of it (Navajo Ministries).” “Our own kids grew up in the midst of chaos and hub-bub,” Kay added. “And Jim’s job was challenging.” The Bakers’ daughter, Lisa, admitted growing up in a household of up to 13 children

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“It has been an honor for Kay and me to serve our Lord in this place over the past four decades.” — Jim Baker

wasn’t always easy. “It can be a struggle to find your place in your own parent’s heart when it is opened up to so many,” she said. “On the flip side of that, I can’t imagine how hard it was for my parents to find a healthy balance when you have genuine love for so many children God has blessed you with parenting.” “It was very difficult at times to share my parents with a lot of other children and there were times in my life that it was very hard for me,” added David Baker, Jim and Kay’s son. “The good part is that I always had kids to play with and life never got boring. It was also hard to watch kids come and go, especially when you grew so close to some as good friends, and then they would have to leave and go back with their families. Some, I never saw again.” “I think they did a great job continually seeking for ways to evolve and adapt to the changing needs not only of their own kids, but of the Navajo children they loved so much,” Lisa added. “I’m sure even

20 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

today we don’t know the depth of the pain involved with that daily struggle of balance.” “My experiences (at the Ministries) have given me an understanding of how easily a child’s heart can be broken and how difficult it can be to put those pieces back together,” said Lisa. “But I have also learned from my parents that when you trust the Lord’s direction and are willing to do what is called of you – even when it’s not easy – you will make a difference in someone’s life. It’s a game of perseverance and faith and no one has taught me that lesson better than my parents.” “I learned from the children who came and went in our home that there are a lot of children who had far less than I had,” David said. “It showed me that I was very blessed to have parents and a home. I had food, a warm place to sleep and a loving and safe home to grow up in.” “The children who came into our home did not always have that,” David continued. “So the biggest thing I learned was that I was very blessed not to have to endure all the struggles most of the other kids had to go through.” “Being a missionary kid does usually equal a life different from your peers,” Lisa added. “It can be challenging and often create scenarios that do not match the lifestyle of your friends or the ideas we create as children. But life and experiences are the same for all of us. You choose how you want those differences to play out in your life. Choose to learn from them, choose to grow from them, and choose to be grateful.” “We are all coming from different walks of life and different experiences that make us who we are,” Lisa said. “Trust that the experiences you are having right now will have value in your future and embrace them.” David and his wife, Heather, make a home for foster children, which David believes came from watching his parents care for children who needed a home. “We love giving the same kind of children that my parents helped raise a safe, loving home to live in,” David explained. “It was very hard to understand why my parents did the job they did when I was growing up – just as it

is sometimes hard for my two daughters to understand why we do foster care today.” “But the rewards you get in helping those in need, especially children, is amazing and that’s something my parents instilled in my life,” David added. “God has blessed us so we can help others and we feel that’s what we should be doing now. I don’t think we would be doing what we do now if I had not grown up at the mission and I had not grown up watching the impact that my parents had on many children.” The story of Kay and Jim Baker has not ended. They continue to be involved in the outreach of Navajo Ministries and their commitment to the mission they embraced more than 40 years ago is as strong as ever. In the final pages of The Bakers’ Dozen, Jim and Kay state, “While we don’t know what the future holds, we do know who holds the future.” The story Jim and Kay Baker tell is one of challenges, opportunities and unwavering faith,

and of a path well-traveled and much enjoyed. It is a story of providing unconditional love to children who need it most and of creating a home for children who don’t have one. It’s a true story and the lives Kay and Jim have touched are endless. “It has been an honor for Kay and me to serve our Lord in this place over the past four decades,” Jim wrote in the book. “We have had a front row seat watching God’s miracles take place both here on West Main Street and throughout the Navajo Nation. God has fulfilled our dream of coming and staying at Navajo Ministries for these wonderful years.” “While we faced severe challenges and frustrations at times, we knew that God called us to serve in this place and to do our part to help make a difference in the lives of our Navajo neighbors.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bakers’ Dozen is available at Navajo Ministries, Hastings, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 21

L A C I S M I WH ON

I , L T A A V C I O T N C A N I R P AN C I R E M A

A reverence for the past and punk rock rebellion Story and photos by Ben Brashear Ron Andrews, owner and proprietor of King Cage, founded in Durango, Colorado, in 1993, is quickly moving around his basement workshop. Short-cropped gray hair extends beyond his Bula hat. His hands, when they are not reaching for a square tabbed washer or a length of quarter-inch tubing used to build his water bottle cages, fold into the front pocket of his King Cage hoodie. 22 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

The words “Lighten up, Pal,” read in bright yellow across his back, which goes beyond the obvious weight savings of titanium and represents his approach to his designs. Andrews weaves between a workbench with several tubing benders mounted to it and a variety of custom tooling and presses that he has designed. His conversation moves like an old friction shifter, making the jump into the largest chain ring and, once it settles into its intended target, the cadence of his sentences begins to catch up to his enthusiasm regarding his work. He’s in that 48-tooth chain ring and his ideas are racing by. “Well, making cages goes back to about ’91,” he says. “It kind of happened by chance.” He picks up a long length of quarter inch titanium tubing – leftover batch hydraulic tubing from the aviation industry – and extends his hand out and waves it to more than 300 cages hanging from a large roller rack. “We used to have a guy that could crank out over 100 cages in an hour for five hours straight,” Andrews smiles as he feeds the length of tubing into the first bender. A lathe and mill – among myriad tools, hardened steel pivots, and scrap metal – have helped Andrews create and design the one-off custom tooling required to assemble his water bottle cages and toe-clips. “I don’t use CAD. I hand draw my designs, but I can’t draw in 3D so I kind of envision what I need to make and then start shaping and milling parts,” he says. It takes Andrews an average of a week’s worth of time to build and perfect a new tool anytime he wants to produce a new style of product. And, judging from the pile of toe-clips, handlebar bells that double as shot glasses and the massive fat bike bottle cage sitting on the finishing station, he does it quite often. Andrews quickly pulls the handle of the bender and the tubing yields to the machined steel roller and takes on its first bend of several. He moves on to the next tool and the next until in just over a minute he has formed a complete water bottle cage with only the

“You know it all starts in these junk drawers kind of by chance, and then that idea — it really becomes something.” — Ron Andrews two ends to be welded together. “You have to make these parts; you can’t buy them,” he says commenting on each bender. “I did this, made a cage, at the North American Handmade Show once, and by the end I had a whole crowd watching the process,” Andrews recalls. His acumen for the machine arts is not by chance and despite the apparent ease and fluidity with which he moves through his shop, Andrews’ ability comes from a lifetime of training and experience that spans from his early years in Boston, Massachusetts, in high school machine shops, to putting himself through college building a fusion reactor at MI.T. to the job at Yeti Cycles that finally landed him here in Durango, Colorado. “I had a machine shop class in high school and at the time managed to hook up with a guy at Fat City Cycles, which was a funky little shop with a cult following. I started on the SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 23

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sandblaster to pay off a road bike,” Andrews says. Fat City Cycles, located in Somerville, Massachusetts, and founded in 1982 by Chris Chance, was mainly producing road bikes at the time. Chance was brazing all of his frames until, as Andrews says, “a dude on a mountain bike that could weld,” showed up. The road bikes were moved aside quickly to make way for some of the East Coast’s first production rigid steel mountain bikes. During his stint at Fat City Cycles working evenings, Andrews developed his chops for designing welding and bending fixtures. The fixtures he made allowed for quick, accurate, and efficient assembly of a bicycle frame and its necessary components. “The fixtures would spin and rotate and were set at a specified measurement for each part,” he says. It was the time and devotion to accuracy that he put into building the appropriate tooling which allowed the workmen to complete a job without having to worry about the complication of design or measuring. Andrews concurrently worked for Black and Webster automated assembly as a draftsman in, as he puts it, a dark and dreary office space. While there he also machined the spring clips used to attach Shopsmith brand badges. Andrews seems to be lost in thought – marveling at the countless times he has seen a Shopsmith badge – when his face suddenly lights up with a crooked grin, “I tried to get time off from the assembly shop for a race. It was the Mount Washington race. They wouldn’t give it to me so, I quit!” he says. The Mount Washington road race in New Hampshire – with more than 4,000 vertical feet of gain, covering a distance of seven miles, boasting an average grade of 11.9 percent and reaching its maximum incline grade at a whopping 22 percent – is considered one of the nation’s most difficult road races. “We showed up to a road race on mountain bikes with the big tires whirring down the road and the road bikers were looking at us like we were nuts. That is until they got in their cars to ride back down and we were riding our bikes. They were jealous as we came bombing down,

weaving in and out between the cars. It was crazy,” he laughs. It was his racing career for Suntour, Campagnolo, and Shimano that set Andrews jumping from his East Coast home in Boston out to the West Coast. During this time he was introduced to some of the West Coast bike builders and legends such as Joe Breezer of Breezer Bikes and Scot Nicol with Ibis Cycles. To cover his living expenses while racing in the Golden State, Andrews built various tooling fixtures and seat rail adapters for Breezer and Ibis.“I raced on a traditional hardtail rigid fork and I got out before clipless pedals and suspension and freehubs. It was just road bike axles and you’d have ’em break all of the time. You’d have to spin your wheel before each race, and if the axle wobbled you knew you had to change it out,” Andrews says. “Shimano was using us racers as a sort of ‘test bed,’ trying to figure out what would work.” At that time, the late ’80s, Shimano was on the cusp of a revolution that would start the

demise, it would seem, of independent bike and bike component manufacturers. It was the move from friction shifters to the emergence of the more accurate and durable indexed shifters that would lead well-known independent companies such as Grafton and White Industries away from manufacturing shifters to focus on

hubs and cranks. “You know, White Industries is still making hubs and cranks, but the small industry component builders that are still around can’t touch the Shimano shifters. It’s the same for the small bike builders,” Andrews says. Andrews is thankful, though, and business is booming because, as he says, there has been a

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recent resurgence in the appeal of the small independent bike shops and builders, especially the handmade U.S.A. built products. “You know, people are excited to have something that is made in the U.S. and in the bike industry it’s nice to find something, anything, that is made in the States,” he says. Andrews prides himself on having sourced all of his supplies and tubing from within the United States, and even the unusable scrap tubing from King Cage, anything shorter than three inches that cannot be made into one of Andrews lightweight tire levers, is sold to and used by Alpacka Raft Company, located in Mancos, Colorado. It’s all about efficiency. He has walked from one end of his shop and is now working his way from the pile of tire levers and slides to open one of many of what he calls “junk drawers.” Andrews is still talking fast and his words are cranking along at that 48-tooth chain ring pace. He smiles and pulls out several titanium whiskey flasks that are about the size of an energy gel pouch. “They slide right into your jersey pocket,” he laughs. Andrews uses a new automated roller to weld the flasks together and an air pump to “puff” them up into a usable container. He continues to pull out a miscellany of belt buckles, stamped by using cogs, and lengths of chain that served as awards for the Silverton Whiteout Fat Bike race at which he

volunteered. He has built a rolling lemonade stand to help benefit Durango D.E.VO. – a non-profit bike program for area youth – built the hand railing for Farmington’s Three Rivers Brewery, titanium hand rolled bicycle fenders, custom bike frames for individuals, and handlebars that double as whiskey flasks. It is clear that his passion and imagination are what drives his business. Just behind Andrews sits a large set of vintage drill drawers fashioned out of wood. Each small “tick mark” inside of the drawer, Andrews points out, is an indication of how many times that drawer has been opened and it’s a lot. Old oiler cans sit in front of a driller’s chart, and hanging on the wall is a classic Coke poster. Framing the other side of the drill drawers is a large ’80s inspired line drawing with bright red lips, Ron Jon Surf Shop stickers are stuck to a drill press, and an “aggro Yo Eddy” Fat City Cycles team sticker is framed by the controls of the lathe. Looking around the workshop, it seems to capture Andrews perfectly, It’s a combination of reverence for the past and punk rock rebellion, an honoring of tradition as he plans to hand over the business to his daughter once he “eventually” retires, all the while still thumbing his nose at an industry that often takes itself far too seriously. It’s truly American. “You know,” Andrews says, “It all starts in these junk drawers kind of by chance, and then that idea – it really becomes something.” He smiles.

28 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Hike oF a liFeTime Father-son team tackle 2,650 Pacific Crest Trail Story by Margaret Cheasebro Photos Whitney Howle and courtesy photos Hiking the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail from Mexico to Canada is a thrill that thousands of people from around the world have experienced. A Farmington father-son team, Jim and Mike McNicol, began that hike on March 31, 2015, at the Mexico-California border. Mike completed the trail in six months, but Jim temporarily left for three-and-a-half months when his father became ill and later died of cancer. The hike was a new experience for both of them. Though Jim and his wife, Cindy, had raised Mike and his older sister, Sheila, to love the outdoors, neither father nor son had taken more than a week-long hike. Jim learned some basic hiking skills from being Boy Scout years ago, but a six-month trek was quite different. It required getting the right equipment, putting together resupply boxes that Cindy would mail to them along the trail, and eating the right kinds of food so they maintained their energy. Each of them lost 30 pounds on the trip.

Surfed the net The idea for the hike took root in Mike’s mind after a friend mentioned the Pacific Crest Trail. He began surfing the net and watching YouTube videos about the trail. It passes through four national monuments, five state park units, six national parks, and 48 federal wilderness areas. It crosses over 57 major mountain passes, dips into 19 major canyons, and travels past more than 1,000 lakes. Only hikers and horseback riders are allowed on the trail, which was designated as a National Scenic Trail in 1968. “I got really interested in it,” Mike said. “I pitched it to my dad. He asked me if I thought we could actually do it. Then we got into the mechanism of planning it, and that set it in motion.” Making the six-month commitment normally would have been impossible for them. But Jim, who was then 53, had just retired from his position at the city of Farmington as assistant electric utility director after a

SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 29

long career working at power plants across the country. Mike had graduated from college in May 2014 and was living at home and working at Hastings. Because he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t paying rent, Mike saved money to help fund the trip. When he left Hastings in mid-February 2015, he and Jim began making serious plans for the hike.

Finding the right gear They talked to hikers whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been on the trail to learn about the best gear to use and where to find it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d focus on one item â&#x20AC;&#x201C; like our backpack,â&#x20AC;? Mike recalled. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We would research that for a week or two, make a decision and purchase the gear. Then weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d move on to the next piece of equipment. There are also aspects of planning the trail that have to do with resupply strategies: where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to get food, where water is on the trail, transportation to and from towns.â&#x20AC;? Unlike many Pacific Crest Trail hikers who already have the needed hiking gear, the

McNicols had to purchase almost everything. There were also food costs, including a lot of dehydrated meals. They carried plenty of candy bars, power bars and cookies, energy dense foods that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t weigh a lot.

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Samâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Club buying food,â&#x20AC;? Jim said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At one point, on the living room floor we had 22 boxes that we were stocking and then preaddressing to places along the trail. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some of what Cindy was doing. She mailed those boxes to the trail for us to pick up. We had to coordinate where we were on the trail. Then some things would change. Maybe in box five â&#x20AC;&#x201C; thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where you put a new pair of shoes. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s say your shoes were wearing out sooner than you expected. So Cindy would take them out of box five and put them in box four.â&#x20AC;? Each resupply box contained five daysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worth of food and supplies. Cindy mailed the boxes to a post office or an occasional motel where the men planned to be. Those places were usually found at the end of a section of trail. The trail is divided into 29 sections, and the end of each section usually intersects a road that leads to a town. The sections stretch from 40 to 150 miles or longer so hikers can find food and water every few days. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were in the minority of hikers who went to such great lengths to plan food resupplies ahead of time,â&#x20AC;? Mike said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was the reason for our high upfront expenses when it came to purchasing food. Lots of hikers will purchase food in towns along the way, which spreads out their expenses more evenly.â&#x20AC;?

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30 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Both men credit Cindy with making the hike possible for them. Not only did she send them

resupply boxes and take care of things at home, but she picked Jim up on the trail after his dad got sick. She brought him back to the trail to rejoin Mike three-and-a-half months later at the California-Oregon border, then picked Jim up near the Washington-Canada border after he left the trail for the final time. The couple drove to the trail’s end to help Mike celebrate completing the journey on September 30 at the Canada-U.S. border. Then, it was another nine-mile hike into Manning Park, British Columbia, which included a lodge, general store and a few cabins. From there, most hikers made the three-hour drive to Vancouver to catch a plane. But Jim, Mike and Cindy drove to Montana to spend time with Jim’s mother and other relatives.

Mike gets finisher’s medal Not long after his triumph, Mike received in the mail a brass finisher’s medal from the Pacific Crest Trail Association to commemorate his achievement. The medal reads, “Pacific

were often joined by young hikers in their »mid-20s, and they started calling Jim “McDad” because he was the oldest guy in the group. One of those young men, Brian Algood of Virginia, met them at mile 100 on the trail and continued on and off with them, completing the trail with Mike.

Bonded with other hikers

Crest National Scenic Trail Mexico to Canada, 2,650 miles. Michael Oso McNicol 2015.” “Oso” was Mike’s trail name, given to him by fellow hikers after he saw a bear 500 miles into the hike. “A bear came down the trail, and it was at the sign that said Casa de Oso, which is House of the Bear,” Mike said. “The group I was traveling with started calling me Oso.” Jim earned a trail name too. He and Mike

Cindy felt better about having hikers such as Brian on the trail with Mike after Jim had to leave when his father became ill. She picked Jim up at Big Bear Lake, California, after he’d been hiking with Mike for about 250 miles, and drove him to Montana, where he stayed with his father until he died. “I didn’t worry much when my husband was with my son on the trail,” Cindy said. “It made me a little nervous when Mike was on the trail alone, but he would hook up with some other through hikers.” Through hikers were those who walked the trail from one end to the other.

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The trail is unique, Mike explained, “in the sense that you can meet people and within a few days you’ve bonded over the hiking experience. You form good friendships. You might meet them for 20 seconds one day at the start of the trail and not see them again for four months, and then you remember each other and end up hiking together for 600 miles.” He continues to stay in touch with some of the hikers he met.

Correct shoes are essential Jim picked up a lot of useful information from the experience, including what kind of shoes to wear. Mike, who wore out four pairs of shoes on the trail, wore Wildcat La Sportivas. They look a bit like running shoes but are more rugged and with extra protection over the toes. He never got a blister on the trail. Jim wore a more conventional low top hiking shoe. “Those shoes beat me to pieces,” Jim said. “I had horrible problems with blisters. I just was silly and decided I would tough it out

and it would eventually get better. It never did. So after 600 miles I finally saw the light. I got a pair of shoes like Mike was wearing, and my whole situation got better from that point on.”

Encounter many animals When the father-son duo get together to talk about their adventure, they remember encountering rattlesnakes, a bear, big horn sheep, elk,

blue grouse, ptarmigan, deer, camp robber birds, and mice, which would chew through a tent to find anything scented. “We would hang our food every night and do everything we could to have nothing that smelled good in the tents,” Jim said. “We wouldn’t keep toothpaste in our tents, but still the mice at some camp sites were a problem.”

Finding water a challenge Finding water, especially in drought-stricken California, was sometimes a challenge. They carried a water filtration system, filters and chemical treatment for water. “Most of the water on the trail is a natural source like a creek or a stream,” Mike said. “In the desert in California a lot of the water sources were old water cisterns, horse troughs, and sources that weren’t optimal. There were really bad dry stretches in the desert that could be 25 to 30 miles without water. You’d finally get to a place with water, and it’s a rusted cistern buried in a creek bed with a floating bird in it. That’s your only water source in a 60-mile stretch. You’d treat the water three times over and try not to use it.”

Trail angels Along the way, they encountered trail angels, people who lived near the trail and were willing to help hikers in a variety of ways, from providing a comfortable place to camp in the back yard to receiving resupply packages for them.

* Pacific Crest Trail 62 32 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Turn off the TV, there are arches to explore Larry Beck finds and shares natural wonders for everyone to enjoy By Margaret Cheasebro Photos by Whitney Howle

At a glance, Larry Beck can spot what might be an arch, a weathered hole in the rock. It’s a skill he’s developed over years of searching for arches, mostly in northwest New Mexico. Though he winters at an Arizona RV park, in the summer and early fall, Larry parks his fifth wheel at Wines of the San Juan, where he’s an accountant. He travels through nearby canyons in his archmobile, a pickup and camper, looking for arches. “I have quick access to the canyons around here,” he said. “I explore each canyon methodi34 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

cally. There’s hundreds of square miles of these sandstone canyons. They’re everywhere. You can usually find at least one arch in every canyon.”

Over years finds 350 arches While exploring Pump Canyon not far from the winery, he found 30 arches. Over the years he’s discovered about 350 arches. He photographs and documents each one with directions for how to get there, including both UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) and longitude/latitude coordinates. After he records

them on his websites, the arches pop up on Google Earth. “I never claim I’m the first to see an arch,” he said. “I say I’m the first to document it. It would take several lifetimes to explore every inch of this country. It’s so vast.” Ed Kotyk, projects manager for the city of Aztec, also enjoys looking for arches. He has documented many of them on the city of Aztec’s website. “Larry is so knowledgeable about the arches,” Ed said. “He’s the master in terms of arches.”

“I love to show people the arches. Anything that gets people out hiking — that’s what I like to encourage.” — Larry Beck President of NABS Larry is president of the Natural Arch and Bridge Society (NABS), and he maintains two websites on Flickr and Panoramio, where he lists the arches he documents: www.flickr.com/photos/archseeker and www.panoramio.com/user/5191059. NABS also has a website at www.naturalarches.org, where people can learn more about arches. The organization has about 140 members, and one of those members is trying to document all the arches in the world. Larry’s efforts are more local. On his

websites he’s trying to document the arches in New Mexico. “The thing about Panoramio is when people go there to look at an arch, it records it, so I can see the number of views an arch has had,” he said. “Some of those arches have views up in the thousands. Somebody is looking at them, which I think is great.”

College presentation draws interest There’s enough local interest that in 2014 when Beck made a lunch-time presentation at San Juan College during which he showed slides of arches, 50 people attended. Based on the interest from the presentation, he taught one evening class followed by an all-day field trip to his 10 favorite arches during the summer of 2015. “I love to show people the arches,” he said. “Anything that gets people out hiking – that’s what I like to encourage. Turn off the TV, get off the couch, and get out and exercise. The gas well roads here give unique access to these canyons. That’s the beauty of it. Short hikes and short walks, by and large.”

Likes to hike Hiking has been important to Larry ever since his family moved to Española from Wyoming when he was 10 so his dad could open a NAPA Auto Parts store there. “It’s the best move we ever made,” Larry said. “I love New Mexico.” After Larry graduated from Española High School in 1964, he attended the University of New Mexico and studied accounting. He took a break from the university when he joined the Army as a counter-intelligence agent. He served for three years. He spent his last year as part of a seven-man advisory team in the central highlands of Vietnam, for which he was the intelligence agent. Once out of the Army he returned to UNM on the GI Bill and graduated in 1973 with an accounting degree. He worked in accounting for a CPA in Albuquerque and later as an accountant and internal auditor for a savings and loan. 36 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

He and his wife move to Durango When he and his late wife, Nan, married in 1978, they enjoyed spending weekends in the Four Corners area and eventually moved to Durango in 1981. They lived there 20 years. One day while Larry was at work as the controller for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Ignacio, Colorado, a conservation officer told him about a rainbow shaped arch in Cox Canyon just south of Colorado in New Mexico. “Of course I had to go look for it,” Larry recalled. “That got me hooked. Cox Canyon is beautiful. It’s in the San Jose Formation, 65 million years old, and very conducive to forming arches.” The Cox Canyon Arch is also called Rhodes Arch after rancher Edith Rhodes, who lived in the canyon for years, and Anasazi Arch. It’s one of the most beautiful arches Larry has ever seen.

Wife develops breast cancer Life took an unexpected turn when Nan became ill with breast cancer in 2002. She decided to take her stand against the disease in Hawaii, and Larry made trips there to see her and help her out until he sold their house in Durango. Then he left his job in Ignacio and joined Nan in Hawaii during the last year of her life. She died in 2004. Watching the disease ravage her body took a toll on him. “I thought I’d take some time off when I got back here,” he said. “I sold everything. I said I’m having an RV. I don’t want any yard work

or anything. I just want to look for arches.” Recently, Larry explored Chokecherry Canyon, also known as Glade Canyon. “I’ve gone out there and documented about 40 arches, both on the north and south side of the highway going from Aztec to La Plata,” he said. “That’s a beautiful canyon. I didn’t realize there was so much rock out there.” He named one of the arches there for Nan. She spotted it in 1994 when they rode mountain bikes. It’s known as NM-450 Nan’s Arch.

Explores Blanco Canyon Lately, he’s been focusing his exploration on Blanco Canyon which feeds into Largo Canyon, which he called the biggest canyon in this area. He gives the best arch he finds in each canyon the name of that canyon, such as Gobernador Canyon Arch. Many of the other arches he identifies by number because he can’t think of enough names for them all. He has made unexpected finds while searching for arches. “Awhile back I found a beautiful 30-foot rock art panel in Gobernador Canyon,” he said. “I found a beautiful arch and documented it from above. Then I went around below it to get a picture and, darn, if there wasn’t this big panel of rock art there!” He reported the find to Larry Baker of Salmon Ruins. “I know the people at Salmon Ruins take people out to see the ruins and rock art, so I knew they’d be interested,” he said.

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Stumbles across rattlesnakes Rock art isn’t all he’s found. He’s also stumbled across rattlesnakes. Often they’re coiled in the sand. Most of them don’t bother him. He gives them a wide berth. “I always use two wooden hiking sticks,” he said. “I have one in each hand. They help me go up and down the ledges, because I have to climb a lot to get up to the arches. I can use them to prod if I’m in grass, around brush or piles of rocks and dead wood, anywhere a snake might be.” It’s not like the snakes are everywhere, but I assume they are because I don’t want to find one.” When he’s in his archmobile, which gives him all the comforts of home, he often follows oil and gas roads in his search for arches. He parks safely away from the wells because some of them produce poisonous gases. Then he hikes up the canyon, following the wash as he looks for arches. But once in awhile he makes an exception to that rule.

Finds arch near well site “I found one arch right next to a well site,” he said. I pulled up, parked and looked up, and there it was up on the ridge. I couldn’t believe it. It was so pretty, I camped there so I could get a picture of the sunrise on it.” The arch is NM-100 Arco Encantado which means

enchanted arch. It’s rare to find an arch at a well site, he said. “Some of them you just stumble across when you’re out hiking or walking the rim.” At Wines of the San Juan, he keeps a map on the wall that shows each canyon with identified arches in it. A book beside it contains photos of each arch. There’s also a pamphlet people may take with them to go on a selfguided 10-arch tour into Manzanares Canyon. “People come to the winery all the time and say, ‘I need something to do. What do you recommend?’ Well, here it is. Go out and look at some arches,” Larry said.

“Take a Hike” DVDs He also makes DVDs, called “Take a Hike,” that feature several different canyons. They’re available at the winery. Marcia Arnold, co-owner of Wines of the San Juan, is happy to have Larry stay there during the summers. “He is very enthusiastic, meticulous and passionate in his search for arches,” she said. “He is a great all-around person.”

A few scary situations When Larry goes looking for arches, he usually travels alone, and he’s found himself in a few scary situations. After climbing up a

sandstone ridge to access an arch, which was in the rim, he photographed and measured it. From there, he thought he saw a better way down. “About half way down, I had to slide down some rock,” he said. “I couldn’t go back up at that point. I had to take a run, plant my foot in one spot and jump across this gap. It was 20 feet down to boulders. Nobody in the world knew where I was, and there’s no cell phone service there. I made it successfully, but I learned a lesson. Go back down the same way I went up!” Another time, he was about 10 miles up Largo Canyon when he spotted an arch. He could see it from below, but he wanted to access it from above. “There was a little gap that I had to climb up to get there,” he said. “Coming back, it was straight down like 50 feet to rocks. I couldn’t step down because there was a gap in the rock, so I had to jump and my back was bothering me from a motorcycle injury. I finally got enough courage to jump. When I landed, I just hit and rolled. I was all right, but I laid there for awhile and thought, ‘You dumb idiot!’ There wasn’t anything extraordinary about the arch. It wasn’t big enough to risk my neck for.”

the guitar and sings with his cousin, Rodger. “I do a lot of ’50s doo-wop songs, country western stuff, folk music, and old surfer guitar songs,” he said. Sometimes when he takes NABS members out on arch tours, he’ll strum a few chords.

Besides music, enjoys soccer He also enjoys watching soccer games. He played intramural soccer when he was a UNM student. After he graduated, he started the Albuquerque Soccer League so he could keep playing. It grew fast and soon included a

women’s division, now part of the New Mexico State Soccer Association and affiliated with the United States Soccer Federation. At one time, he played on his men’s team and coached both a ladies team and a team of 8-to-10year-olds. “I’m a fan now,” he said “I just watch it, especially when the World Cup’s on.” But arches are his main focus. “I want to find as many arches as I can while I’m healthy,” he said. “There are no guarantees for anyone. I want people to go out and visit the arches. That’s my mission.”

He’s an arch-oholic Still, the lure of arch hunting draws him back to the canyons. He carries his cell phone on a clip under the dashboard of his archmobile, and he listens to Sirius XM Radio as he drives up and down highways and gas well roads. “I guess I’m an arch-oholic,” he said. “There’s no known cure. The only treatment is to find another arch.” When he’s not looking for arches, he plays SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 39

Basin Pump owner is the go-to person for employees, customers, family and friends Story by Margaret Cheasebro Photos by Whitney Howle

Kim Martinez has to see something to learn it. A hands-on person, she’s always worked on her own cars. “I’ve always fixed everything,” she said. “I can do plumbing. I can do electric.” That’s one thing that makes her so valuable at Basin Pump and Supply, Inc., which recently moved to the old Construction Supply building in Bloomfield from a location farther west on U.S. 64. Kim is the owner. “I don’t have the girl gene,” she said. “I’m more get out and work. I don’t have fingernails or hairdos.” Her brother, Mike Titus, is a shareholder partner with her, but he isn’t as involved with day-to-day business activities as she is.

She’s the go-to person “She’s amazing. She knows the business,” said her daughter-in-law, Misty Garcia, who

40 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

works three days a week at the business when her kids are in school. “She’s the goto person that everybody wants.” Kim didn’t plan on owning the business when she was growing up in Farmington and Kirtland. From a young age, she was involved in 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America). Her first job, at the age of 13, was with Allen Theaters. Her father, Lloyd Titus, started Basin Pump and Supply in 1976. When he got sick, in 1987, she helped him for almost ten years with no pay. She just wanted to help.

Learned as she went “I learned as I went,” she said. “When I started with him, it was almost one hundred percent oil field. Over the years, we got into more irrigation and working with

municipalities and the schools. We do a bunch of different things now, and we don’t do much oil field. We diversified over the years so we would be able to do more and stay busy year round.” She never stopped working at Basin Pump. “My youngest son, Erik, started school in 1990, and I was full time then,” she said. “I never have quit. I’ve been here ever since.” It was in about 1995 that she stepped into the owner’s shoes. For 10 years, Erik worked with her at the business and could answer everyone’s questions. But when ConocoPhillips transferred his wife to Houston, he went with her. “I told him I didn’t understand why he had to move with his wife,” she said with a laugh. “He should stay and take care of his mom, is what I think.”

Customers ask for her She’s been teaching her employees all she can so they will be able to answer customers’ questions, but until they learn the ins and outs of the pumps and other equipment, customers ask for Kim. From February through May, when people frequent the store for irrigation supplies and to figure out how to install pumps and sprinkler systems, she hires six to eight full-time employees.

“I try to keep them all year round if I can,” she said. But some winter months are slower. This January, she had three full-time and several part-time employees.

Honest and helpful Marsha Turpen, a retired physical education teacher and coach, works for Kim full time in the summer and part time the rest of the year. “Kim is very honest and tries to help

people,” Marsha said. “She has shown goodness to so many people. She’s a lot of fun. She’s very witty and can hold her own with anybody. She’s worked with pumps, irrigation and wells for over 30 years. She can figure out almost anything that’s needed. I couldn’t work for a better person.” Basin Pump stays busy even during the slower months because the business is so diversified. “Right now,” Kim said in a January

interview, “schools have heat circulators going to all over. Every heat circulator has pumps involved. We can repair their pumps, replace their pumps. We do a lot of pump work in the winter, a lot of seals. In the spring and summer, we do all kinds of sprinklers, either agricultural or in your yard.”

to put it together so it does what they want it to do. “What keeps me here most of the time is helping people figure that out,” she said. “A lot of things around here, especially with fittings, is show and tell. I can show people how they work. That’s my favorite part. I love showing people how things work.”

Shows people how things work The business also carries pipes – from half-inch up to 24 inches – and fittings. She stocks irrigation systems that include side rolls, “the ones that have wheels on them that roll and sprinkle,” she said. “We have the knowledge for how to upgrade it. A lot of people want to do it but don’t know how. We have the sprinklers that you pull out and turn them on, and they’ll wheel themselves back up and turn off. Just everything.” Customers often have a project in mind and know what they want, but they don’t know what it takes to make it work. Kim helps them get the right equipment and shows them how

Pumps, septic systems and more As part of its inventory, the business carries many pumps as well as septic systems, all kinds of tanks, irrigation fittings, hoses and sprinklers. Often people come in asking about well pumps, and she knows what they need to make the project work. “I can go everything from the pump all the way into the house,” she said. “We can sell you everything from top to bottom including filtration and softeners. That helps a ton of people because most of them don’t know what all it takes and the pressure tanks and the wiring and everything.” She usu-

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ally has all the supplies they need in the store.

Expanded inventory When her dad ran the business, the store didn’t carry as many supplies. “Anything somebody needed, you didn’t stock it,” she said. “You just got it for them. I have everything in stock now. It’s very seldom that I don’t have what someone needs. So my inventory went from $40,000 to $400,000, and it’s all paid for.” Back when her dad ran the business, much of it was based on oil field needs. When the oil field crashed in 1987, the business took a hit too. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, she and her dad handled things differently. “We wrote everybody a letter and told them we would pay them off,” she said. “We were able to pay people off within five years.” Being a small business, Basin Pump has had its share of struggles. “Last year was the first year since 1976 that we weren’t in the red,” she said.

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Moved business Kim isn’t afraid of change to keep the business healthy. That’s why she moved Basin Pump into town from 5968 U.S. 64 west of Bloomfield to avoid problems with highway expansion. The expansion would have taken much of the front yard of her business, making it hard for semi-trucks carrying pipe to unload. So when the Blasingame family sold their Construction Supply businesses, she bought their Bloomfield property. “I’d been looking for someplace a couple of years,” she said, “because I knew we were outgrowing where we were. I’ve known the Blasingames forever

and went to church with them. So when they put the property up for sale, we made an offer on it.” She plans to lease or sell the building they

said, “but for all the inventory we had, it was getting too small.” With more space to stock inventory in their new location, it’s easier for people to see what’s available. And there’s more room for pipe and other supply trucks to unload.

Sees customers as friends

moved from. “It would be a perfect place for a service company, a welder, a plumber,” she

“I think this year’s going to be rough because of the economy, but it will still be all right,” she said. Her focus has never been on how much money she can make. It’s always been on the people she serves. “I have a lot of customers,” she said, “but I don’t treat them like customers. We always have snacks, food,

SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 43

goodies. I try to get to know each and every one of my customers. I love dealing with the people. I take time to get to know them. I may not remember their name every time, but I know who they are. I have so many people just come in to visit or say hi. The most important thing to me is the friendships that I’ve grown over the years. That’s what gets me up in the morning. If it was just

about money and numbers, you couldn’t get up every morning and go. It would be worrisome and trouble.”

said. “I’ve had so many people throughout all these years. I’ve asked their kids to bring in a picture of them. They may have passed on, but their kids are so excited. They say, ‘We’ll frame a picture up and bring it down.’ That’s what it’s about, is family stuff.” Henry Armenta, who owns Yucca Welding and Excavating, is one of her loyal customers. “She’s been taking care of me for a lot of years,” he said. “She’s very helpful. She understands the market, and she understands what we need more than what we do. Having this kid around town is very good for the community, not just for me but for everyone as a whole. The community relies on her, more than you might imagine.”

Involved in community Remembrance wall She’s set aside a remembrance wall in the new store for pictures of her customers over the years. “My dad passed away about 10 years ago, so I’m going to put his picture on it,” she

Kim doesn’t take time off from work except to help out during the week of the San Juan County Fair. She’s been involved with the fair for about 30 years. At one time she was a 4-H leader, and she teaches a second grade Sunday School class at the First Baptist Church of Bloomfield. “I love those kids,” she said. Over the years, she’s served on many community groups, from the San Juan Fair Board and the Bloomfield Irrigation District Ditch to some city committees. She learned about community involvement from her mother, Carol Halvorson, who was once the mayor of Bloomfield.

Loves serving the public

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Serving the public makes her feel good. “My favorite thing to do is to help women when their husbands send them down with a picture,” she said. “I can tell them what it is so they can go back and know what they’re talking about.” She loves the challenge of helping people who come in mad because something broke. “I try to have everybody have at least a smile on their face because I tease them or aggravate them or whatever,” she said, “until they realize it isn’t as bad as they think it is.” For Kim, running her business is all about treating her customers as friends and family.

Keepin’

iT fResh Chef Jay makes it all from scratch at Three Rivers Story by Debra Mayeux | Photos by Whitney Howle

Jeremy “Jay” Gleason, 36, may have grown up in an American Indian home, but he proudly stated that his grandmother and aunts cooked more than just beans and frybread. They inspired in him a deep love for food – a love that led to careers in some of the most esteemed kitchens of the Pacific Northwest. Gleason, a Navajo, not only attended Western Culinary School in Portland, Oregon, he spent years learning from top French chefs – who didn’t think twice about berating their employees. “They would throw pans at you, take your work and throw it in your face, and then make you clean it up,” Gleason said. “They would check your boiling point.”

At home at Three Rivers After working in 25 restaurants, Gleason has settled down at Three Rivers Eatery and Brewpub, where he is the executive chef. His position includes managing a cooking staff of 12 people who work four at a time in the kitchen preparing dishes from a menu of 136 items. Gleason also oversees Three Rivers Pizzeria, the banquet hall and the soon-to-be-opened Three Rivers Bistro, featuring specialty tapas plates. SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 46

Three Rivers’ owners John Silva and Bob Beckley approached Gleason five years ago with an offer to manage their kitchen. “When I first walked in everything was frozen. They would open a bag to make the food,” Gleason said. He slowly changed the way things were done by preparing fresh foods instead of frozen. “Now we make 95 percent of everything from scratch.” Beckley said that as an owner he is proud to serve fresh-made food. “We don’t serve canned or frozen crap. Everything is made from scratch,” he said. “We feel it makes a big difference – and the customers do to.” Gleason is “not just a cook,” because he can go into the walk-in, pull out whatever is there, and turn it into art on a plate. “He’s not a guy who has to have certain things in place … he can take what we have and make magic,” Beckley said. “He is skilled and versatile in different regions and styles of cooking.”

A unique individual Beckley described Gleason as a “unique individual,” saying it is “really cool to spotlight him in the fact he is a Native American who has risen to an interesting level in terms of food.” Gleason puts “love, art, passion, science and knowledge in his plate of food,” Beckley said. Gleason and his staff prepare their own breads, pickles, brines and marinades. They roll their own meatballs, case their own sausage, and grind their own hamburgers. “I slowly changed the menu,” he said, adding that he also trained the staff. “I showed them how to use sauté pans, how to use fire, how to balance the food, how to season.” There are about four chefs in the kitchen at any given time. “There’s characters of all sorts. It’s a flavorful restaurant of different characters – crazy people, who all come together to make it work,” Gleason said. This is how most restaurants operate.

Started in Durango Gleason left home at 17 and moved to Durango, Colo., seeking his first experience in a professional kitchen. He worked with a couple from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as they struggled to open their own restaurant in the tough Southwest Colorado market. He cleaned the bathrooms and the dishes, slowly working his way up to second manager. “What separates a chef from a dishwasher is the details,” Gleason said. He paid close attention to the details – always watching and learning from his superiors. “Learning in a restaurant is the best thing.” 48 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Even though Gleason had a lot of restaurant experience from working in Durango, he decided to give culinary school a try.

Culinary school He saw an ad on television for Western Culinary, applied and was accepted. He spent 18 months in school and began searching for restaurants in which he would continue to train. “A lot of people think they’re a chef when they walk out of culinary school, but they’re not a chef,” he said. It takes a lot of work and dedication, but true chefs have a passion for their work and their food. Chefs follow a certain lifestyle that includes long hours, heavy partying and competition. “In Portland, the chefs all hung out together. We had our own culture – stay up all night, work in the morning,” Gleason said. “We never saw the sun, and we competed with each, while working together to make each better.” Gleason has not found a similar camaraderie

in Farmington, because there are not many chefs to be found, he said. He, however, has been willing to offer advice to newly opened restaurants and often takes his cooks up to Durango to show them what is happening there.

He also trained his employees to “smell it, see it and taste it” when preparing food, because it’s not just about throwing items on a dish and serving it; there is a pride and art to creating good food. “You’ve got to dance in a kitchen. It’s a

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“I slowly changed the menu. I showed them how to use sauté pans, how to use fire, how to balance the food, how to season.” — Jay Gleason

small area, and we have to get things done in a timely manner,” Gleason said. All of his cooks have been taught to use specialty blades for slicing and dicing, because the “knife is an »extension of the arm.”

Fresh and local

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They also have learned to use fresh and local produce such as heirloom tomatoes and lettuce greens from the grower’s market. Three Rivers also started bringing in high-end meats, such as Wagyu Kobe beef, “a breed of Japanese cattle that is renowned for its rich flavor and marbling,” according to lonemountainwagyu.com. Wagyu is the Japanese word for cow, and the beef is thought of as some of the best in the world. These products are used to create specialty and even gourmet dishes, such as pork ossobuco and coq au vin on the Three Rivers’ menu, and after five years Gleason is just getting started. He will continue to introduce new culinary creations to the region, putting Three Rivers on the map as the place to eat in Historic Downtown Farmington.

SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 51

There’s someThing special abouT paul At 90, Almquist’s list of accomplishments are at the core of Farmington’s success Story by Dorothy Nobis | Photos by Whitney Howle It was a Christmas gift Paul Almquist will never forget. A December 22, 1955, issue of the Hastings (Minnesota) Gazette, offered a story on Almquist and the job he held in Farmington, New Mexico. The story lauded a hometown boy who had 52 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

gone on to do great things – and who was the airline sales/service manager at the Farmington Airport. The story documented a visit to Almquist by a writer from the United Press (a leader of worldwide news at the time), who was doing a story on the airport.

Busiest airport in the world – twice a day “The busiest airport in the world – twice a day – is the bustling terminal at Farmington, in the heart of the gas-rich San Juan Basin,” the UP author wrote. Every morning and every evening, four

DC-3s landed at the Farmington airport, bringing mail, freight and passengers to the area. “Ground crews, whose goal is to get all their work done in 20 minutes or less, hop through the maneuvers drilled into them by genial Paul Almquist, Frontier (Airlines) manager since 1948.” “Almquist says that from 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of air freight are taken off Frontier planes at Farmington each month,” the UP article continued. “In addition to uranium exploration, which is growing in importance, Farmington has some farming, but not enough to justify its name.” Almquist has that newspaper clipping – along with many others – documenting his tenure with Frontier Airlines and as a supporter of the city of Farmington.

Airport manager Almquist didn’t think about becoming an airport manager when he received his honorable discharge from the U.S. Coast Guard in November of 1946. He was visiting his sister in Denver and was looking for a job. A friend of his sister knew that Monarch Airlines was hiring flight stewards and suggested Almquist apply. “They hired me on the spot,” Almquist said from his comfortable home in Farmington. “I went to work the next day. I flew for six months, then they (Monarch) needed a man in the Denver station as a ground agent.” The young Coast Guard veteran proved his worth in Denver and, in May of 1948, Monarch, which was then known as Frontier Airlines, offered him a position as sales/service manager for the airline in Farmington. In spite of the dirt runways at the airport, the big DC3s had no problems landing or taking off and the Farmington airport became the hub of the Four Corners. “Durango had been the hub,” Almquist said. “Flights went from Denver to Durango and from Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Albuquerque to Durango. But because Durango is so close to the mountains, they moved the hub to Farmington because the weather was better here.”

Being the hub Being the hub meant more activity at the airport, Almquist said. The number of employees grew from three to 21 and there were 12 flights a day going out of the airport. “The airport grew, which was good for Farmington,” Almquist added. “It put Farmington on the map.” The UP story documented the growth during the early 1950s. “In 1948, the town’s population was less than 3,000 and the four flights daily boarded only 48 passengers a month at Farmington. . . . Since the area is served only by a narrow-gauge railroad, in addition to highway truckers, the airline packs a tremendous amount of freight, ranging from oil and gas well supplies to Geiger counters and uranium samples and lady bugs used by farmers – into the San Juan Basin.” Almquist remained with Frontier for 30 years, but he didn’t leave the airport.

Hertz Rent-A-Car His longtime friend, Oscar Thomas, who was the Farmington Airport manager at the time, told him Hertz Rent-A-Car wanted to open an office in Farmington. “Oscar was too busy flying in his Beech Bonanza, flying (former Governor and Farmington businessman) Tom Bolack around, and he didn’t want to mess with rental cars,”

Almquist said with a laugh. Almquist called the Hertz people and asked how much they wanted for the Farmington franchise. “They wanted $1,000,” Almquist said, “and it didn’t include any vehicles, just the advertising material and paperwork.” An astute businessman, Almquist in 1949 had purchased $100 worth of penny stock in a uranium firm. “In 1954, I sold those shares for 10 cents a share and got the $1,000,” he said with a grin. Almquist ran Hertz for 42 years before selling it.

Farmington Holiday Inn Always on the lookout for good business opportunities, Almquist joined forces with O.L. Garretson, C.O. Kendrick and Jack Ritzenthaler to build the Holiday Inn, located on Broadway and Scott Avenue. The hotel was originally planned to be on city land near the airport. “Then we found out that if we built the Holiday Inn on city property, after 20 years, the city would own it,” Almquist explained. “So we found the land on Scott Avenue and built the Holiday Inn with 100 rooms. After two years, it was doing so well, we added 52 more rooms.” In 1995, the foursome, that then was Kenny Kendrick, Jack Ritzenthaler, and Keith Barbeau, along with Almquist, built the Holiday SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 53

Inn Express. The time spent doing business at board meetings, however, finally took its toll, and Almquist retired.

He didn’t retire for long But he didn’t retire alone. In 1981, after the death of his first wife, Bettie Lou King, Almquist was invited to play gin rummy with a friend, who invited “two young ladies,” to join them, Almquist said. One of those “young ladies” was Anne Reid. “I had just finished exercising before I went (to play cards),” Anne remembered. “I shook his hand and when he looked at me with those blue eyes, I knew in that instant I’d marry that man!” The couple got married in 1983 and continued the traveling Almquist had enjoyed most of his life. A map of the world dominates a wall in his home office, with his travel destinations highlighted. The couple has enjoyed 18 cruises, but the cruise around the world in 2013 was their last.

“Paul got a serious infection and when we got to Cape Town (South Africa) we flew home,” Anne said. While Almquist has since recovered, the couple limits their travel to the local area. With all the travel – the sights that most people only dream about, the cruises offering fun and relaxation – the scrapbook Almquist has kept since 1948 contains no photos of his travels.

It’s all about community It is his involvement in his community that covers a majority of the pages in his book of memories. Almquist was elected president of the Farmington Chamber of Commerce in January of 1960. His chamber leadership is documented with newspaper clippings, programs and photos of his tenure as president. Membership development was high on Almquist’s list of priorities, and he enlisted the help of W.H. Nygren Jr., who headed up the membership drive. More than 100 new members joined the chamber during a

three-week membership drive. ‘”One of my greatest achievements as the chamber president was getting Lewis “Bud” Maytag, president of Frontier Airlines, to come and speak at our annual banquet in 1960,” Almquist said with pride. “It was an impressive event for me and for Farmington.”

NAPI, CVB and Connie Mack There were other accomplishments during his tenure as head of the chamber, however. “There were a couple of other, really vital, events that happened during my chamber presidency,” Almquist said. “One was helping to forward development of the Navajo Dam project and NAPI (Navajo Agricultural Products Industry). The other was getting the coal lease for the (Utah Construction and Mining Company and Arizona Public Service Company) power plant and the approval of the power plant in July of 1960.” His list of accomplishments also include serving as president of the Farmington Lions Club,

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Along with literature and theater Steve Clark’s students learn about life and themselves Story by Debra Mayeux Photos Debra Mayeux and Josh Bishop Not often do educators encourage students to explore their own beliefs and openly share them in a classroom setting. The Farmington High School Spotlight Theater, however, is not your average classroom. It is a safe place, where students learn not only to become actors, but to become comfortable within their own skin. It is a place without judgment, where students become divergent thinkers. This sanctuary of sorts on a typical high school campus has become such a place, because of Steven Clark, 44, the Farmington High School theater director. He lived a relatively full life before finding his way into the classroom as an educator. Clark, as the students call him, grew up in Mile City, Montana, a community of about 10,000 people. “It was a good safe place to grow up,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been back. “I wonder – is the Dairy Queen still there? I’m mildly curious about that.” Clark graduated in 1989 from the local high school, where there was no theater program. “We had an English teacher who did a play a

year,” he said, sipping coffee on a Saturday afternoon at Durango Joe’s. Just prior to the interview, he showed one of the baristas a photo of himself and a former student in gorilla suits. They donned the costumes on January 31, National Gorilla Day, and visited a local bookstore, where they were asked to leave – Clark wasn’t bothered, because the fun was in dressing up as a gorilla. These are some of the antics, for which he has become known. Clark isn’t just a director, he often joins the students on stage as an actor. His partner, Karen Brewer, said this is what makes theater at FHS special. The students feel like they are treated as equals. “He’s not afraid to speak to his students on a level that allows them to speak to him,” she said. “He fits in that theater and the students believe it is a haven where they can be appreciated, where they are O.K. as they are,” Brewer said. Clark doesn’t look at the theater program as his own, but as collaboration with his students. His classroom doesn’t follow a recipe book;

instead, “It’s like throwing everything into the pot and turning the heat up,” Clark said. “I’m collaborating with my students on my own learning journey,” he said. “I’m lucky to have very dedicated students who are willing to spring with me to the edge of the artistic envelope and collapse with exhaustion.” And Clark has developed the program with a deep understanding of young people, and a great understanding of drama, literature and theater. Last spring he presented Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the Star Wars Universe. This spring the FHS players will perform Beowulf in an adaptation with a Norse pagan take that also includes a Christian priest. Beowulf will be performed April 21-23 at 7 p.m. in the Spotlight Theater. The Theater 2 class will present a studentwritten play about the Roswell UFO crash, and there will be puppets. “I’m pretty excited to be doing a full-body alien puppet,” Clark said. “I love puppets – anything with puppets.” It is scheduled for March 10-12 at 7 p.m. in the Spotlight Theater. SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 57

The Theater 3 class will present Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes in the theater. It will run at 7 p.m. on March 31, and April 1 and 2. “If I spent the rest of my theater career doing Shakespeare and Bradbury, I’d be happy,” Clark said. Clark also recently directed Ira Levin’s Deathtrap for Theater Ensemble Arts, a community theater troupe with a 19-year history in Farmington. Clark joined the Theater Ensemble Arts Board five years ago, because he wanted to participate in theater that would resonate with adult actors in the area. He also has utilized the organization as an educational tool for the high school players, who volunteer at the plays and even learn set design from the adult volunteers. Theater Ensemble Arts and the FHS Theater even collaborated in fall 2015 on a massive haunted house, designed by Clark, who based it on the video game The Evil Within. “He has a huge artistic side,” Brewer said of Clark. His creativity has been used to design sets, costumes and amazing puppets. Clark even makes figurines out of clay. This all comes from his love

“We are constantly challenging ourselves with things we are not 100 percent sure we know how to do.” — Steve Clark

for literature and science fiction. Clark’s story Hoofer was published in the Nonlocal Science Fiction Journal No. 4 released in December 2015, and he collaborated on and co-wrote the play The Gettysburg Nine with Matthew Craig, an artist, writer and composer from Pennsylvania. Clark met Craig in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he began his career in the arts. He found his way there after college and a career in nursing. After graduating from high school, Clark attended the University of Montana, where he studied theater, English, literature and other subjects, amassing more than 160 credit hours before graduating with a liberal studies degree. Clark became a nurse’s aide, while pursuing a post-graduate degree. He worked in the medical industry full time in nursing homes and hospitals, but never intended it to be a career. When he left medicine, he was ready to attempt a break into television. “Pittsburgh was an upcoming film city,” he said. Clark met Craig at a bar, where he was playing bagpipes for St. Patrick’s Day, and Craig was the guitarist. Craig told him he was looking for a 58 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

puppeteer, while trying to create an educational children’s television show about science and nature. Clark just happened to be a puppeteer, who was ready for the job. “We had a fruitful collaboration working on The Magic Woods,” Clark said. They co-wrote the show, and Clark designed the massive puppets with the help of David Menz and Jason Karas. “We built the puppets. I manipulated them,” he said. The Magic Woods was created with the help of Mister Fred Rogers and Family Communications, now known as the Fred Rogers Company. It will be released on iTunes sometime soon. While in Pittsburgh, Clark also collaborated on the independent film Biophage with Mark A. Rapp. It was released to DVD in 2010. It’s a post-apocalyptic thriller in which there is an unfortunate release of a bio-chemical agent that turned humans into undead “Biophages.” It was the pilot for The Magic Woods, however, that led Clark to New Mexico. He had some family ties to the area, but when the show

was given an award by Kids First at the Santa Fe Film Festival, he decided to move the family to the Southwest. The Clarks ended up in Roswell, where Clark went to work for Electronic Boutique, now Game Stop. The family later moved to Farmington, “a much more vibrant community,” he said. Clark worked at Electronic Boutique in the Animas Valley Mall for one year, when the theater position opened at Farmington High School. “I chased after it pretty hard,” he said. “It was a great fit.” Clark had thought about entering education, while studying at the University of Montana, and he realized that inspiration 10 years ago, when he received his teaching license to work in Farmington Schools. It was a long and inspiring journey, which most educators would understand, because when you are an educator, you never really figure out the job, Clark said. “You’re dealing with individuals with hugely different personalities, and a classroom dynamic

that changes from hour to hour,” he said. “We are constantly challenging ourselves with things we are not 100 percent sure we know how to do.” He followed in the footsteps of beloved FHS theater director Chuck Ramsey, who was a master set designer and drama coach. The late Ramsey, like Clark, participated in both high school and community theater projects. Ramsey built the FHS theater program and helped Theater Ensemble Arts design fantastic sets, in which he always included a mouse hole. Clark carries on that tradition. So when you see a play in the Spotlight Theater or catch a future Theater Ensemble Arts production, look for the mouse hole in the set. It is a reminder that while stage may be large and filled with big personalities, those players are only one small part of the whole production, because theater in high school is more than comedy and tragedy, it is about students overcoming their fears, being treated as equals and becoming responsible adults.

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Putting others before yourself Helping others a great learning experience for Sonali Patel Story by Dorothy Nobis Photos by Whitney Howle Helping others, being a Good Samaritan, and doing the right thing come easily and naturally for Sonali Patel. At 18 years of age, Patel has made helping others not just a goal, but a mission. Patel became a youth volunteer at San 60 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Juan Regional Medical Center more than three years ago. Eager, energetic, enthusiastic – and with a will to serve – Patel has offered more to the patients and the staff at the hospital than just her time. “She is extremely helpful, upbeat,

energetic and creative,” said Teresa Becker, manager of Volunteer Services at San Juan Regional, of Patel. “She is also very friendly and proactive with our patients and visitors.” Patel’s volunteer work was recognized recently by the New Mexico Hospital

Association Auxiliary as the 2015 Youth Volunteer of the Year. While she knew she had been nominated by Becker for the award, “I thought the odds (of winning) were pretty slim,” Patel said. “When Teresa and Laura (Werbner of the Marketing and Public Relations Department) came down the hallway and ambushed me and surprised me with the news in front of visitors and staff, I was in shock,” Patel said. “After the shock wore off, I felt good, knowing my work paid off.” Patel had already been selected as an MVP (Most Valuable Person) at San Juan Regional, Becker said, and had been awarded the Rachael McCoy Scholarship of $5,000 that is given by the hospital to one teen volunteer each year. “We were inspired by all that she has done and plans to do,” Becker said of Patel receiving the scholarship. “Because of her outstanding achievements here at San Juan Regional, it was an easy decision also to submit her as a nominee for the state award through the New Mexico Hospital Association Auxiliary.” “She is a wonderful young lady and we wish we could clone her,” Becker added. In an essay – required for consideration for the Youth Volunteer of the Year award – Patel wrote, “Personally, I believe that being a volunteer means putting others before myself and giving them the much needed time and attention that they deserve, without asking for anything in return.” “I discovered at an early age that being a dedicated volunteer has provided a remarkable learning experience, as well as a greater understanding of the people and environment around me,” her essay continued. “Being a volunteer at San Juan Regional Medical Center also made me realize that there are so many possible ways to help someone, whether it is physically assisting them, providing emotional support or even a simple smile.” In addition to Patel’s desire to help people, volunteering at San Juan Regional Medical Center offered another opportunity.

“I have always wanted to become a doctor and I thought it would be beneficial for me to volunteer in the environment that I would most likely be in, to gain a better understanding,” Patel stated. “I have grown to love the idea of helping others and genuinely enjoy everything I do.” “Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve wanted to be a doctor,” Patel explained, “and when I was in middle school, I decided I wanted to be a pediatrician.” Patel is currently working on her prerequisites at San Juan College, and has been accepted to the University of New Mexico, where she’ll complete her education. “Sonali has volunteered in our Pediatrics Department, where she helped staff with stocking supplies and other tasks,” Becker said. “She was also able to read to children, play with them, and give their parents a break. She is extremely dependable and obviously loves children.” Laura Werbner was equally enthusiastic and supportive of Patel. “She is very artistic and creative,” Werbner said. “She spreads cheer to patients in different and creative ways.” Minal Patel is justifiably proud of her daughter. “She’s one of a kind,” Minal Patel said. “I’m so happy for her and so excited for her. She’ll be a success in whatever she

does. She’s always wanting to help others in any way she can.” Sonali is quick to say that her success and her love of helping others have always been encouraged by her parents. “My mom and my dad have always said we should put others before ourselves. My parents are hardworking and disciplined and have always encouraged me to never give up.” Those family values will come in handy for Patel as she continues her education. “Twenty years from now, I hope to be a doctor,” she said with a smile. “That’s my main priority for now.” Patel believes her volunteer work will benefit her in many ways. “Helping someone isn’t a chore or an obligation,” she said. “It is a noble deed that doesn’t require any reward except the great feeling I get by doing something good for someone else.” “I’ll always treasure my experiences from volunteering,” she added.

To volunteer at San Juan Regional Medical Center, teens must be 14 years of age or older and complete an application. For additional information, call Teresa Becker at 505.609.6156 or go to sanjuanregional.com. SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 61

Pacific Crest Trail

continued from

Volunteers who help to keep the trail in good shape also make the hiking experience memorable. The trail is managed by the U.S. Forest Service in partnership with the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, California State Parks, and the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Their efforts and the beauty of the land continue to draw hikers from around the world.

Carried smart phones Jim and Mike carried smart phones, along with a light-weight solar panel to charge them, and external batteries that could be charged when they came to a town. Though they communicated with Cindy on the phones, 75 percent of the time there was no reception. Mike took pictures with his smart phone, including lava fields they encountered in Oregon. “We would be hiking all day long, and as far as you could see would be lava fields,” said Jim. “I had no idea there was

going to be anything like that.” “We researched it,” Mike added, “and nowhere did I see any description of lava fields.” They saw almost every ecosystem possible on the trail, from desert to rain forest. For Jim, hiking more than 1,000 miles of the trail was the experience of a lifetime. “I think I’d like to go back and finish the trail,” he said,

“even if it takes me a few years to do it.”

More hikes in future? Mike would like to hike the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada through New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, but that will have to wait. He’s just started a new job with Osprey Packs in Ogden, Utah, a company that makes backpacks and lightweight backpacking gear. “One of the most popular packs on the trail is made by Osprey Packs,” Mike said. They’re two-and-a-half pounds lighter than the ones he and his dad used. “One thing we’ve learned is that we didn’t have the optimum gear,” Jim said. “The backpacks we used were a little heavier than we would have preferred.”

Hike built confidence Cindy saw a change in Mike after he completed the trail. “He had more confidence and was more willing and able to do things on his own,” she said. “It was a confidence builder. He had a goal, and he accomplished it.” Anthony Chavez, who worked with Jim at both PNM and the city of Farmington, sees the fatherson hike as something extra special. “Jim and Mike are an inspiration to all of us who think about doing something like this,” he said. “What an amazing feat – and to do it together, father and son! They will cherish those memories the rest of their lives. They’re awesome guys.” 62 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

Almquist continued from 54 campaign chairman of the United Way, being instrumental in forming the Farmington Convention and Visitors Bureau, service on the committee that brought the Connie Mack World Series to Farmington, along with his business partners, establishing a scholarship for Native Americans at San Juan College, and receiving countless service awards for his dedication to the community. “The thing that makes me laugh and also makes me proud is going to Chicago in 1964 with the other members of the Connie Mack committee and convincing those people with the AABC (American Amateur Baseball Congress) board that this little town could handle eight to ten teams of young men and move them into and out of town quickly and efficiently (with Frontier Airlines),” Almquist said. “I am very proud of my contribution to that effort. It makes me smile that, 52 years later, we’re still having the same tournament in our city.”

huge Bronco fans,” Anne said, but admitted, “I didn’t even know I liked football until I met Paul.” While the Farmington Airport no longer lays claim to being the busiest in the country, Almquist said there is no one reason why. “The present situation at our airport is an accumulation of many factors,” he said. “Government regulations regarding copilot hours, security check-in time, the improved highway to Albuquerque, and the economic downturn in San Juan County’s energy industry all have an effect on the need for air service.” In a San Juan Digest column, written by Val Cooper in 1976, she wrote of Almquist’s retirement from Frontier. “Frontier repeatedly wanted to move Almquist up their ladder, but he steadfastly refused to leave Farmington. One time, he was threatened with the loss of his job if he wouldn’t take a transfer, but he stood his ground and won,” Cooper wrote.

Private person

Hole in one It is interesting to note that among his list of accomplishments – which is extensive – Almquist also includes a golf hole-in-one he made in 1991 on the sixth hole at the San Juan Country Club. “It’s probably the only one I’ll ever get,” he said with a laugh. The Almquists enjoy a quieter life now – except when the Denver Broncos play. “We’re

“Paul has remained a very private person and maintained a low profile,” Cooper added. “On the other hand, through the years, he has always leveled with us, treating us with extreme courtesy and politeness. Frontier will miss him.” “Paul Almquist has always been something special so far as we’re concerned and will always be,” Cooper said in concluding her column. Now 90 years old, with a scrapbook full of memories and achievements, a wall map that shows his world-wide travels, a wife he adores – and still remembering that hole-in-one – Paul Almquist is proud of 21 more achievements. “The thing that makes me most proud,” Almquist said, “is my three daughters, my two stepchildren, my 12 blended grandchildren and my four great-grandchildren.” With an obvious amount of love and respect, his wife, Anne, said, “He’s such a good guy.” There are countless others who would agree with her.

M L

Coolest Things

From the silly to the very useful, some of the items below will make you roll your eyes or put a smile on your face. Others will make you ponder how and why did anyone ever think we needed that? No matter who we are, it’s easy to get a little caught up in the idea of getting new stuff for no particular reason. And while it is true that money can’t buy happiness, nothing says you can’t keep these items in the back of your mind when you’re out shopping. Enjoy!!

A SPRING HODGEPODGE

2 4 3 1 1

YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT PATH

Glow in the Dark Pebble www.amazon.com Add some flare to your yard’s walkway with these glow in the dark pebbles (Pack of 100). Great for lighting up a garden or adding visibility to a driveway. After a full day of sunshine these stones will glow for up to three hours into the night. Comes in blue, green, pink and clear. $6.13 PER BAG

64 | MAJESTIC LIVING | SPRING 2016

JURASSIC JOKER

Inflatable T-Rex costume www. awesomestufftobuy.com

BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY CAN BE MAGICAL

LG’s rollable OLED

It’s real and it’s dreamy. Imagine rolling up your computer monitor or rolling up your Get ahead of the Halloween rush. You can cell phone and putting it in your pocket. stomp around the block now in this inflat- Ultra-thin, incredibly light and exceptionally able T-Rex costume. Grab your 15 minbright displays, based on organic lightutes of fame with your own Internet Vine. emitting diode (OLED) technology, have Just insert batteries and watch your body come a long way. LG has developed flexitransform into this Jurassic World T-Rex. ble OLED technology and this is the first Heck, this would even be great for stomp- time it has given everyone an up-closeing around the office and giving a laugh to and-personal look at what can best be deall of your coworkers. scribed as a rollable window into the $299 future. This new technology has the potential to revolutionize TVs, smartphones, and tablets. Coming soon!

WATCH AND LISTEN ANYWHERE

Avegant Glyph headworn personal theater www.avegant.com Glyph mediawear is the world’s first personal theater designed with lightweight portability, rich audio, and amazingly precise video. If you’re a frequent flyer or simply wish you could have your own head-mounted theater in other environments – and are brave enough to risk making a spectacle of yourself – it looks like the best of its kind. The Avegant Glyph will start shipping soon. You can pre-order it now for $599.

7 5

8 A FRIEND FOR LIFE

TRACKABLE CHIC

Oliba www. Indiegogo.com

MISFIT RAY www.misfit.com

Turns regular cuddly toys into connected, storytelling toys! Meet Oliba, a smart toy tracker that has a few tricks up its sleeve. Oliba uses Bluetooth 4.0 to let you find a cuddly toy using your phone. But Oliba is also perfectly safe for children, has a built-in nightlight and can tell stories. Oliba looks like an owl that you can tie around a teddy bear’s arm, for example. You can also record stories and send them to the cuddly toy. At night, Oliba glows in the dark to reassure your kid. It can also sing a lullaby. You can recharge it every now and then using USB. From $35 and $49

Now, wearables and fitness trackers are all about personalization. And to that end, Misfit’s made an activity and sleep tracker that’s discreet, chic, and quite customizable: Ray. Ray is a cylindrical aluminum device that can be worn with a silicone band, cord, ribbon, or a bracelet you already own. It’s hollow in the middle, so you just slide the band through. You can wear it as a bracelet, a necklace, or even as a choker. Ray also works with IFTTT and Misfit’s Bolt light bulb as an easy-access button for turning Wi-Fi-connected things on and off in your home.

SHARP AND AFFORDABLE

Cuisinart Advantage 12-piece knife set Available at most retail outlets including Walmart, Lowe’s, JC Penney & Best Buy The Cuisinart Advantage 12-piece knife set is one of the best kitchen knives on the market whether you are a beginner or a well-seasoned chef. The knife set has high quality stainless steel knife blades with a nonstick coating on each knife that make them very easy to clean, and they slice very well. Color-coding reduces the risk of cross contamination during food preparation. Also, they come with matching blade guards and ergonomic handles.

STEP INTO THE LIGHT

Lighthouse MINI Lantern www.amazon.com Goal Zero Lighthouse Mini Lantern gives 210 lumens of brightness and weighs 8 ounces. It does double duty as a battery pack — plug in your phone or gadgets to its USB port for a recharge anywhere outdoors. A bonus: The company touts the little lantern will run for over 500 hours on its low setting before needing a recharge. $59

From $15 to $21

$100

SPRING 2016 | MAJESTIC LIVING | 65

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