A Memorial for Leroy


bottleneck


shade


snakes, snakes!


with his boots on





I finished !

These scenes are from the Billy the Kid race held near Las Cruces, New Mexico that attracted 400 entrants.  Leroy Cunningham (my closest friend) had vowed to win the grand prize – a Yamaha RT360 enduro bike – for his daughter Pamela.  Pam rode everyone else's, when she could, but had none of her own.  Leroy's most serious concern was his eldest son and riding companion, Larry.  But Larry agreed, should one of us win the prize, that Pam should have it.  Not caring for the Yamaha, I silently joined the pact.

The organizers were not bike riders and enlisted local cowboys to scout this particular canyon.  The horsemen reached the "bottleneck", judged it too risky for their animals, and went no further.  Due to dehydration and heat prostration, competitors above this barricade backtracked while those who had got past it holed up out of the sun.  "shade" portrays the crevasse where Leroy perished.  I came upon Larry, sitting with his father's body.  I sent him ahead with the news and took up the watch on a tall boulder, waiting for the search-and-rescue boys or a helicopter.

A contingent from Lubbock, Texas, including Lannette and Roy Pool, were cooling their heels in a nearby grotto.  As I waited, they came boiling out of their shelter, yelling about "snakes, snakes!"  An Army helicopter finally arrived but could land no closer than half a mile.  "with his boots on" tells the rest.