White House Diaries

Monday, August 12, 1985

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This was our long awaited ranch vacation. We arrived there on Sunday Aug. 11 to beautiful weather. In fact we had such weather (a little on the warm side our last week there) for the entire trip except for one day. That one day was the delayed birthday party for Nancy—Sat. the 17th of Aug. We had fog right down to the ground. Fortunately there was a tent for the 90 guests plus portable heaters. All our family except Moon & Bess & Nancy's brother Dick were there—both absent by reason of distance. Just about going home time the fog blew away & all those who were at the ranch for the 1st time got to see the beauty of the place.

During that 1st week the Dr’s. & Nancy saw that I did not ride & only did light chores like picture hanging. We took twice a day walks.

Then on Tues. the 20th of Aug. we went into Los Angeles & the Century Plaza hotel. That night a family dinner, only Maureen & Dennis absent—they were back in Sacramento. The rest of the kids & our grandchildren were all there & it was a warm, family get together. Nancy had all kinds of errands the next couple of days. I holed up in the suite—had a haircut & a visit from Dr. Bookman for an update on my allergies. But both Wed. & Thurs. evenings were great fun. Wed. was a gathering of 14 at Tom Jones place—all old friends. Thurs. night was a drop by & short talk to a Republican fundraiser at the Century Plaza. We didn’t stay for dinner but went on to Betsy Bloomingdales for another old friends dinner. Again it was wonderfully warm & pleasant. Incidentally the fund raiser was to raise money for a Repub. State H.Q’s. bldg. It will be named the Ronald Reagan bldg.

Fri. the 23rd.—back to the ranch by lunch time. Sat. was 6 weeks since my operation & we had our 1st ride—a short one. That was also the day I received a “secret” phone call from Bud MacFarlane. It seems a man high up in the Iranian govt. believes he can deliver all or part of the 7 Am. kidnap victims in Lebanon sometime in early Sept. They will be delivered to a point on the beach North of Tripoli & we’ll take them off to our 6th fleet. I had some decisions to make about a few points—but they were easy to make. Now we wait. From that Sat. through Sun. the 1st of Sept. the days were pleasantly all the same except for Wed. the 28th when we went down to Santa Barbara for the late afternoon Press party.

Every morning we rode & in the afternoons Dennis LeBlanc, Barney & I did some tree pruning making a tangled clump of trees into a pretty little park like place. Every day I was feeling better & better and the rides grew a little longer. This has been one of our most enjoyable vacations.

This morning Sept. 2nd—Labor day, we left the ranch at 8 A.M. A stop at Independence where I spoke to a large outdoor Missouri gathering. I talked on tax reform and then back on A.F.1 & now we’re in the W.H. at days end.