01/06/2021
Returning to Rodeo, New Mexico. In 2008 I travelled to this remote place to be a part of the new sport of Aerotrekking. The infamous John McAfee (of spyware fame) is an extraordinarily creative person that I was intrigued by - he was an extremely successful businessman, a yoga teacher and lover of alternative living. His best friends had told me that he was the world's first hacker - he thus created the world's first anti-virus programs that made him worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
I arrived at the abandoned military base (bought by McAfee) only weeks after John's own nephew was killed, along with a trainee sharing the tandem ultralight craft. A third death occurred soon after, and only a week before my own arrival. The tangled wreckage remained eerily behind the tarmac shed, and was located only steps from my lodging.
This was an uncomfortable introduction, yet I continued with training. The idea of flying ultralights had been in my dreams for years. I was determined to proceed. Learning to fly with the eagles had been a dream of mine since helping friends organize the world's first 'round the world' ultralight flight in the mid 80s.
The highlight of my training included looking down upon the maze of rocky fins where Geronimo and his band of Indians hid out from the Cavalry, including the exact location where Geronimo Surrendered! From 2,000 feet above, I could see how easily Geronimo could lose the hot pursuit of the cavalry within such a maze of slot canyons.
The Sky Gypsy's are continuing a scaled down version of Aerotrekking to this day, but from a different location. The beautiful $16 million Rodeo aerotrekking grounds that John had polished out with movie theatre, restaurant and multiple hangers was sold in 2009 for pennies on the dollar. John exiled himself to Belize as he was escaping the huge liability for the criminal death of his nephew. It was found that his nephew was training without a licence and had made a fatal, if amatuer, decision to fly up a canyon that didn't have the width to turn around, particularly as he approached the pinched walls at the Canyon's head.
John has been on the run ever since, and he lost most of his fortune in the real estate collapse and other bad investments.
A few days ago, 12 years after my time in Rodeo, I've returned to see the abandoned buildings. However, my memories are firmly implanted. I'd been assigned an Airstream trailer located adjacent to Howard Hughes own trailer. John felt a kinship with the world's most famous reclusive billionaire and had paid a fortune for the trailer, and had it hauled to Rodeo. John would sometimes sleep over in the trailer - one eccentric person bonding with the ghost of another.
So impressed by Airstreams, I quickly went out and bought my own, and enjoyed it for the next decade.
John remained on the run for years -- after being implicated for the unsolved murder of his neighbor in Belize, and for tax evasion in the U.S. He was arrested only weeks ago and is currently in a Madrid Jail pending extradition to America.
