Armand Ortega, from shining shoes to hosting celebrities

It has been a long time since I posted anything on this blog. Many things and interesting trips have happened since then and I think I will publish some of them on this or another blog.

Armand Ortega Sr., 86, savior of the historic El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, when it faced the wrecking ball during the 1980s, died in July 2014.

An employee at the hotel said Ortega had been in failing health for about a year. His funeral was today at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup, with burial at Sunset Cemetery.

I write this because I met Armand on my motorcycle trip across the US. He invited me to his El Rancho Hotel of which he was immensely proud. He also owned some of the best ethnic jewelry and crafts stores in NM.

Not bad for someone who started out as a shoeshine boy.

Ortega Family Enterprises, based in Santa Fe, owns several concessions in national parks, Native American-themed gift shops and restaurants in the Southwest, as well as El Rancho.

But Ortega was especially fond of El Rancho, which was opened in 1937 by R.E. “Griff” Griffith, brother of the famed movie director D.W. Griffith. The Griffiths encouraged filmmakers to shoot movies in the Gallup area, and the hotel benefited by having a bevy of stars — including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Errol Flynn, Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart — stay at the hotel during productions up to the 1960s.

Ortega got his start in business selling newspapers and leading a team of shoeshine boys at the age of 10. In his youth he worked for his father at Indian Trails Trading Post in Lupton, Arizona. He graduated from Holbrook High School in 1946, where he played basketball and the trumpet. In 1952, he opened his first store in Deming. He worked to promote Indian Jewelry throughout the U.S. and he was the first Indian Arts and Crafts dealer to market and distribute throughout the United States.

In his own words

When you stay at the El Rancho Hotel, you will be giving yourself the opportunity to live your own Southwest experience in one of the most authentic places in the Region. You will give yourself the chance to explore unforgettable National Parks, and feel the American Spirit. 

Ak Tenamit Newsletter

Reflections on the Trans-America ride

Posted on October 26, 2010 by admin

Following is the text of the latest Ak Tenamit newsletter on the Trans America Ride. The ride was a financial succes with more than $20,000 raised to help the education of the children in Ak Tenamit.

Ak Tenamit writes regular newsletters to inform about their activities and events. Check them out at :

http://www.aktenamit.org/


Jean prepares for his ride

On July 7, we wrote about the cross-country motorcycle ride that Rotarian Jean Vayssier organized to raise funds for Ak’ Tenamit’s secondary school. Jean believes so deeply that education holds the power to transform lives in Guatemala that he drove across the US to raise support for Ak’ Tenamit’s education programs. He began his trip in Washington DC on June 7, 2010 and made his way to Seattle before finally arriving in Albequerque one month later. Along the way Jean spoke at Rotarian Clubs about the importance of educational programs like Ak’ Tenamit’s and their connection to reducing undocumented immigration. He also invited other motorcyclists to show their support by joining the ride. We are extremely humbled and grateful for his commitment to the Q’eqchi communities we serve. Below are Jean’s reflections about his experience… To read more about Jean’s trip and see pictures of his experiences visit his blog http://transamericatenamit.blogspot.com

“In May 2009 I bought a BMW touring motorcycle in Albuquerque, NM. My intention was to ride around the United States, 50 years after the author John Steinbeck drove almost the same route to rediscover his home country.

On July 8, 2010 I reached Albuquerque again, having covered 12,634 miles, a distance equivalent to half of the earth´s circumference, through 28 states. I had traversed snow covered mountain passes at 10,000 feet altitude in 38 F, and crossed the lowest point of Death Valley at 191 feet below sea level in 110 F. I was burned by the desert sun of Texas, drenched by rainstorms along the Mississippi and blasted by 60 mph winds on the Midwestern prairie during my 2 month trip.

I will never forget the solitude of the wilderness of Idaho and the wind swept beaches of the North Pacific. What joy to sleep on snow covered ground in the Wyoming mountains, and in the majestic redwood forests of the Oregon coast. I saw the vastness and beauty of a great country, the United States of America, learned its history of struggle and discovery and met many good and generous people, always willing to lend a helping hand and invite me into their homes.

It was voyage of discovery and introspection, of joy and loneliness, and of great challenge and freedom. I will never forget!”

If you are interested in organizing an event to benefit Ak’ Tenamit, please contact our office at theguatfund@gmail.com.

Aftermath

Today I received the news that my motorcycle has been sold in Albuquerque , New Mexico. Apparently, the new owner was impressed with the performance of the bike and wants to do some long-range traveling of his own. I am happy for him, knowing that my trusted companion will be put to good use.

Even so, it is a little sad to say goodbye to such a great bike!

After two weeks at home I am still sorting out the impressions of the ride. There are some many aspects, details and experiences that could not be dealt with in the blog.

So I will continue to write a page from time to time to capture some of the impressions of my journey.

After returning home, I re-read ¨Travels with Charley¨by John Steinbeck.
It was the first English-language book I read in 1963 and it has traveled with me all over the world for almost 50 years. It may well have been the original inspiration for my trip.
Although our trips were exactly 50 years apart, I was astonished at the actuality of the book, and wonder about some of the similarities (He and I were both delayed by a hurricane, great parts of the route he describes was the same, I enjoyed many of the same views like the one from Sausalito to the Golden Gate and his goatee looks somewhat like mine!).

Steinbeck began the book by describing his preparations to travel the country again, after 25 years. He was 58 years old in 1960 and nearing the end of his career, but he wanted to rediscover america. He had a truck fitted with a custom camper-shell for his journey and planned on leaving after Labor Day from his home in Long Island, New York, but delayed his trip slightly due to Hurricane Donna which made a direct hit on Long Island. According to Thom Steinbeck, the author's oldest son, the real reason for the trip was that Steinbeck knew he was dying and wanted to see his country one last time.

I have always felt attached to writers like Steinbeck and Hemingway, because , like myself, they owned boats and loved to go out on the ocean, and loved hunting, fishing , and good food, company and drink and, unlike myself, they can write about it all.

This is the picture of the Steinbeck house in Salinas, now a restaurant.




And by the way, you can still donate funds to Ak Tenamit. In case you came later to this blog, check out chapter 5 of this blog: how to donate...
Jean, the Riding Dutchman

Albuquerque ..the last days

Tomorrow .... back to Guatemala and reality...

I have spent the last days with Fernando and Melinda, who have gone out of their way to make me feel at home here in Albuquerque.
And they have succeeded!
Fernando is going to take care of my motorcycle and find a buyer. We had it cleaned and it looks so good that I almost changed my decision.
Yesterday and today we did some wonderful rides together. We rode to the top of the Sandia Mountains which made a new record for my trip, because we reached 10,678 ft, or 700 ft higher than the Tioga pass.








The view from there is grandiose, we could see another mountain range, 75 miles to the west in the clear pure air of New Mexico.
Hummingbirds were feeding on nectar and the green mountain contrasted vividly with the desert landscape below.

After a visit to the Indy car museum of the Unser family we repaired to a local sports bar for the game.

On the picture, Fernando is watching the World Cup game between Germany and Uruguay.







Our plan for today was to ride to Pojoaque and watch the final game of the World Cup, Spain against Holland. I donned an orange shirt for the occasion, while Melinda and Fernando showed the Spanish colors.



We rode to Santa Fe via Bandelier National Forest, an impressive canyon landscape with volcanic calderas and extensive forests of Ponderosa pine.
After breakfast in a small pueblo, Jemez Springs, we passed Los Alamos, the complex were Robert Oppenheimer produced the atomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific.

At 5:29:45 am MWT on July 16, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb exploded 100 feet over a portion of the southern New Mexico desert known as the Jornada del Muerto - the Journey of the Dead Man. As he witnessed the nuclear explosion, the man most responsible for the bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, thought of a passage from the Bagavaad Gita: "I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds." The creation of the atomic bomb made Oppenheimer one of the most recognized and controversial figures in American history

In just twenty-eight months, Los Alamos produced two atomic bombs of very different designs. Their combat use against Japan did not win the war, but they did contribute significantly to ending it.

The Pojoaque sports bar is part of a casino but few patrons left the gambling to watch the game.
It was a tense affair and the outcome is known to you all. I wonder if I will live long enough to see my country win the cup!!

When we left the bar, I found a Harley parked next to my bike, that was identified as belonging to a Bandido member.

The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is a "one-percenter" motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate with a worldwide membership.

Its slogan is: We are the people our parents warned us about. It is estimated to have 2,400 members in 210 chapters, located in 16 countries

The Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada have named the Bandidos an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

Here are my friends next to that motorcycle, but I don't think they would qualify for membership!

At home , I packed my bags after discarding all excess baggage and I am ready to go.

I still received a cheque and a promise from friends to contribute to the ride and will contact the Guatemala Tomorrow Fund to learn the final amount collected.

I will keep this blog going for some time with additional impressions and information of the ride.
I hope you will continue to read and enjoy it.

Jean, the Riding Dutchman

Wednesday, July 8 ALBUQUERQUE

ALBUQUERQUE, THE END OF THE RIDE....

Flagstaff is a nice looking place, nestled between pine forests with lots of golf courses and mountain architecture. Definitely a place to spend a summer playing golf or tennis, biking and exploring Arizona. It is 40 miles North of Sedona, another well known retirement community.

I got back on to the I-40 east and rode towards New Mexico. This freeway is one of the busiest in the nation , and the speed limit is 75 mph which is strictly enforced by highway patrols.

Driving here needs concentration.

Just before reaching the state line, I visited the last national park of the trip: Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest.

PETRIFIED FOREST

The Petrified Forest National Park is located in Arizona in the USA. Long ago the region was covered by a dense forest and mighty rivers cut across the terrain. Water caused by heavy flooding forced dead trees to float to a low lying swampland. In the deep quagmire of the swamp and having, in effect, been hermetically sealed, the trees were subsequently covered by layers of sediment.

Mud, sand and volcanic ash settled above the trees that gradually absorbed minerals from the surrounding moisture. Thus, hundreds of fossilized trunks developed that today are scattered across the prairie.

The landscape looks very much like the badlands in South Dakota with gorgeous bluish colors. and everywhere there are the remnants of petrifies logs that were concentrated here many millions of years ago.
Sadly, a ranger told me that the site has been and is being looted by the tourists, they lose 12 tons of rock PER MONTH!!

I spent some hours in the park, because the actual site of the petrified logs is 2 miles south of the freeway. It was a good way to come to grips with the end of the ride.

Coming into New Mexico, I stopped at the El Rancho hotel, whose owner Armand I had met on the road and where we visited a year ago with Carolina, Fernando and Melinda before starting my ride around America.

The, at 5 pm I came over a hilltop and saw the first sight of Albuquerque, 25 miles away.

Soon I was riding into town, towards Fernando's house.

I stopped at their gate and took the last pictures of the ride:

My tachometer stood at 22,134 miles. I had ridden 7,000 miles or 11,300 kilometers for Ak Tenamit, approximately the same distance as riding from Albuquerque to the tip of South America.

When I bought the bike last year and started my ride around the United States via Florida and the East Coast, the tachometer showed 9,500 miles, so my ride has taken a total of 12,634 miles or 20,332 kilomters.

According to Google maps, this distance is just over half of the circumference of the earth. It equals the distance from Albuquerque to Germany, on to Moscow, then Bejing, on to Tokyo, and then to the volcano Agrihan in the Mariana Islands.

I could not have imagined this distance before the ride.

I had ridden in temperatures that ranged from 110 F (43 Celsius) to 38 F (3 Celsius).

I had traversed snow covered mountain passes at 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), the bottom of Death Valley at 191 feet (58) metres) below sea level. I had been drenched by rain and blasted by 60 mph (96 km per hour) winds.

I had ridden between 300 and 500 miles (800 km) per day, starting at 7 or 8 am and sometimes earlier and finishing usually at 5 or 6 pm, but sometimes riding into the night.

Only once I was in danger of going down, on a patch of gravel in Idaho. Apart from that, I have only encountered good roads and disciplined traffic.

I had met many good and helpful people on the road. There was never a problem finding a hotel room or a home where I was welcome.

And above all, I have seen the the vastness and beauty of a great country, the United States of America.

Melinda had a room ready and I unpacked for the last time, getting all my stuff out of the bike.

It had served me well since I bought it here in Albuquerque a year ago to start riding around the United States.

After having settled in we drove downtown Albuquerque (in Fernando's car!!) to the same micro brewery as last year and met Lorenzo and friends. The welcome was heart warming! There was much to tell and ask.

And the beer was great! I has a Marble Red , an IPA and , since I did not need to ride anymore, I topped off with Double White Ale.

It had been a great end of my ride!

Thank you all who have supported the ride, who have taken me into their homes and company, everyone I have met on the road and who have contributed to the experience. I am left with wonderful memories and new friends.

I will not forget you!

Jean, the Riding Dutchman

Tuesday, July 7 the Grand Canyon

I got up before dawn to pack and get underway before the rush hour of Las Vegas and the heat would start. My first destination would be Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam and from there to Kingman, Arizona.

Attracting more than a million visitors a year, Hoover Dam is located in Black Canyon, just minutes outside of Las Vegas.

In 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam, the largest of its kind at the time. Despite the remote location and harsh working conditions, it was completed in less than five years -- two years ahead of schedule -- and well under budget.

The dam is named after America's 31st president, Herbert Hoover, who played a large role in bringing the nearby states into agreement about water allocations, settling a 25-year controversy. The dam has been called Boulder Canyon Dam as well as Boulder Dam.

At present a large bridge is being constructed to divert the road above the dam. the road now still leads over the dam, from which one can take pictures but cannot really see the dam in its entirety.

From there I reached Kingman, where I entered the historic Route 66.

U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926. The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).

It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by Depeche Mode, the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.

One of the famous photo ops is at the general Store in Hackberry. A 1952 Corvette is sitting outside the store.

A nearby restaurant serves local food as clearly evidenced by its name!! Bon appetit!

At Williams I turned North to reach the Grand Canyon. My lunch consisted of a Greek salad, a turkey sandwich and a Steel Reserve High Gravity beer at the local airport of the Canyon Airlines.

At the visitor center of the Grand Canyon I watched an Imax movie about the canyon. This is recommendable because it shows views of the inside of the canyon and the river which are barely visible from the rim.

A group of female riders from Norway were going down route 66 and we took pictures to send by email.

Ride safely, Anna and friends!

And then I was back at the canyon, the first time after decades. It is majestic, enormous and beautiful. Pictures cannot do it justice.

I stayed all afternoon and rode to Flagstaff in the evening. The total trip for the day was 475 miles so I decided I had deserved a glass of local amber beer of the Flagstaff Brewing Company.

I was a little sad because tomorrow would be the last day of my ride.

But all good things must come to an end.

Sunday 5 and Monday 6 July Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS.....

Business had not been so good on the July 4 weekend, it was only expected to bring $128 million !!

Maybe the Topless vampires went on strike or the "little people" (quote from the BP chairman) ran out of money..

Or maybe the Sin City brewery ran out of beer..

I was lucky because I had a Sin City Amber and a Hefe Weizen at the Mandalay Bay bar.

The new Hotel Casinos are quite impressive. I walked through the Encore Wynn Hotel and stood amazed at the luxury, thousands of metres of precious rugs inlaid into marble floors, exquisite furniture and art, a very tasteful decoration and many cozy corners to sit and poner your losses in the casino.

Treasure Island offers a street performance in which two life size pirate ships do battle over the heads of the spectators, complete with gunfire and a music performance. The Fashion shopping mall next door is home to the best designer stores and restaurants.

At the Sahara and other casinos, roller coasters run right through the building. The shows are booked solid, no way to get tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil, David Copperfield is still there and other shows cater to nostalgia like the Rat Pack.

And Elvis lives.....!

Temperatures were around 110 F at noon and several sidewalks are sprayed with cold mist to cool the strollers. Nobody has ever heard about an energy crisis, nor global warming, nor water shortage...the show must go on.

If you would like to see Paris or Venice..., come to Vegas. Here you can get closer to the Eiffel Tower and you don't need to learn French!

I was surprised to see so many college age customers and so many middle aged women gamblers.

At night Vegas remains lighted up like a christmas tree and you can walk from your room to gamble a little at any hour of the night and find plenty of company.

The fireworks on July 4 were impressive, as expected.

It was fun to be there a few days but I look forward to leave Sin City in the morning. Despite so many people it is difficult to talk to someone. Everybody is too busy living his own personal phantasy to bother about others. The only communication is with the gambling machines.

Maybe Vegas is a window into our future???