The Peripheral Sur

by Bart Key

  Not too long after his purchase of the adjoining stations, Sur and I were off again to look at a couple of large cattle ranches on the market in South America, one in the Patagonian region of Argentina and the other in southern Chile. Cory came along as usual and Roberto came too as he spoke fluent Spanish. We went first to the ranch in Argentina which was huge and employed many gauchos. It was roundup time and we were invited to come along. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible and the experience quite unpleasant. We tried to help out when we could but mostly just stayed out of the way. Our accommodations at night, let’s just say, were rustic, cold and damp. Even so, the outing was revealing as I was able to witness up close the condition of the pampas on the ranch, or estancia as it was called. Notwithstanding the very large cattle herd being raised on the estancia, I saw no telltale signs of overgrazing.

  The estancia we visited in southern Chile was smaller than the one in Argentina but still large by American standards. It too employed a number of gauchos, or huasos as they were called in Chili. Having Roberto with us proved invaluable as he could chat with the cowhands at length about their cattle operations.

  At both estancias, the cowhands complimented us on our riding skills. Their impression of Americans’ horsemanship skills had been based mostly on their having watched Hollywood cowboy movies which led them to believe that Americans were lousy riders.

  Not to my surprise, Sur purchased both ranches and asked me to supervise their managements. It took me a while but I finally found and hired managers for each. Again they were younger men with not as much experience as I would have preferred but they both spoke passable English and had college degrees in ranching. Above all, I trusted them.

  After purchasing these ranches, Sur wondered if it might make sense for me to give up day to day management of the Bar 7 so that I could devote full time as general manager of all his ranches. I could open a small office in town and hire whatever staff I needed. This made sense of course but I knew it would not be easy for me to relinquish direct management of the Bar 7. But it all came to pass when I promoted my assistant manager to take my place, leased a small office in town and hired a secretary, accountant and range management specialist to assist me. All spoke Spanish as a second language and, for the first year, everyone in the office including me spoke Spanish mostly so that I could increase my proficiency in the language. Whenever I ran into Roberto now, he was impressed at how my Spanish was coming along and taught me some of the local slang he had learned during our trip to South America. For her part, Elizabeth loved my being out of the house during weekdays as it gave her more quiet time she could devote to her writing. Having to drive to town every weekday anyway, I began taking the boys to and from school which they loved as it meant they no longer had to ride the school bus.

  Not to my surprise, it took my full attention to keep on top of Sur’s far flung ranching empire. Each ranch had to be treated separately for corporate and tax accounting purposes and periodic financial reports had to be prepared regularly by my office and sent to David. I usually visited each of the foreign ranches once or twice a year and when the boys were older Elizabeth sometimes would come with me. Roberto and Angela were always happy to look after the boys while we were gone and, if Cory were around, he would volunteer to babysit, a term the boys hated. In actuality, they loved being with him. It was not unusual when the boys were not in school for the four of them to go riding together in the bison compound and be gone the entire day.

  Learning to ride horseback is a necessity in a ranching family like ours. When our youngest, Josh, was old enough to ride, the entire family often rode together on weekends. Thanks to Elizabeth, our boys knew all about my being a college rodeo champion and they all wanted to emulate that. So, starting in their pre-teens and under Roberto’s careful supervision, they first learned calf roping and, as they got older, progressed into highly supervised saddle bronc riding which is much riskier and can sometimes result in injury. I never encouraged them to take up the sport but didn’t forbid it either. Thankfully they eventually all grew out of that phase.

  Speaking of risks, when Mat, our oldest, was just eight, he joined Sur and Cory one time on a ride in the national forest. While coming down a narrow trail from the top of a drainage, Mat’s horse stumbled briefly and, in the process, threw him off and over the edge of the trail where he rolled down the very steep rocky slope maybe a hundred feet and laid there not moving. Sur and Cory quickly dismounted and worked themselves down the slope to him. Cory told me later that Mat was bleeding pretty badly and he would have sworn he wasn’t breathing. Sur quickly picked Mat up and carried him back up to the horses. On the way, Mat started coughing and crying. Sur held him and comforted him as they hurriedly rode back to the ranch and then drove him to the hospital in town. Elizabeth and I had been away from the ranch at the time and when we got to the hospital in a near panic, the doctor calmed us down and informed us that, while Mat had to be stitched up in a couple of places and had few bad bruises, he was otherwise okay. When we took him home, Mat was in pretty good spirits though still in some pain. Elizabeth just kept hugging him and I could tell that this incident really frightened her. As for Mat, he loved showing off his stitched wounds to his younger brothers and soon everyone forgot the whole incident.

  •

  After Luke and I were married, my life became everything I hoped for and more. We lived on the beautiful Bar 7 ranch and both of us loved to ride together. When our boys were very little, all they could talk about was having their own horses and learning to ride. Even though I grew up on a ranch, I always worried when Luke or our sons were out somewhere on a horse. Being around horses inevitably results in occasional cuts and bruises from falling off, getting bucked off or being kicked. It just goes with the territory. But the day Sur and Cory took Mat to the hospital was the worst. He was a very lucky boy to come out of that accident as unscathed as he did. As they say, kids bounce but they don’t break.

  Over time, Sur and I have become good friends. I would not describe Sur as being handsome in the classic sense but he had a wise look about him and was incredibly charismatic. He’s clearly somewhat of a loner and, according to Cory, usually lives quietly by himself at one or another of his homes. But when he is around others, he seems completely comfortable and genuinely friendly. There are times frankly when he just seems too good to be true.

  I also have grown to like all the members of Sur’s gang, as he calls it. Jeremy looks to me like the ideal older California surfer which Luke tells me he basically is. But looks can be deceiving as Jeremy, I learned, has a number of important responsibilities as manager of Sur’s Ventura office. Underneath that California tan is an extremely intelligent individual. On the rare occasions when he visits the ranch, he loves to play with our boys and the other ranch kids just like Cory.

  Ward is another interesting chap. It made sense when I learned he was a West Point graduate and former army captain as his bearing and demeanor fit those of a military officer. When Ward visits the ranch, he can’t wait to fly fish whenever conditions permit. He always invites everyone in the family to come along. Ward seems to be a bit of a loner too. We see him more often than Jeremy because he loves to hang out at the ranch sometimes. Luke informs me that Ward is Sur’s man Friday and is on assignment somewhere much of the time.

  Then there’s Cory, our sons’ favorite. Not long after Sur purchased the Bar 7, Cory decided he wanted to have his own horse and asked Roberto to find him one, giving him a signed blank check to pay for it. The next time Cory arrived at the ranch, a three-year old Palomino named Joey was waiting for him. In no time at all, the two bonded. Cory rides Joey every day when he’s at the ranch and, of course, the boys are always invited to tag along. Our sons and Cory have become close and the boys love it when he teaches them things like how to do all those cool taekwondo moves.

  Jeremy, Ward and Cory all treat Luke like their little brother which he soaks up. Luke now
visits each of Sur’s foreign ranches once or twice a year which I wish he didn’t have to do but fully understand is part of his job. When the kids were younger, the whole family went on vacation a couple of times to the station in New South Wales. It was a beautiful place and observing cattle and sheep grazing on the same pastures was not something you would normally see in Idaho. Kevin and his family were ever so gracious and accommodating. We loved their Aussie accents and they loved our Yankee accents.

  Luke has become somewhat of a celebrity in our local ranching community. First, the news circulated about his success at raising bison in their natural environment and then it got around that, in addition to the Bar 7, he also managed several foreign ranches. Sur’s ownership of the Bar 7 is not well known as he rarely leaves the ranch when he is there. According to Luke, his ownership of the ranch is virtually untraceable in the records due to its indirect corporate ownership structure, whatever that means. When Sur is around, he tends to maintain a low profile often riding for hours by himself on one of his horses. Luke tells me that Sur’s privacy is extremely important to him and he goes to great lengths to guard it.

  Now that our oldest, Mat, has left the nest to attend college, I have started becoming involved in local politics mainly as an advocate for environmentally sound ranching practices. While neither Luke nor I have any desire to ever run for public office, I am not bashful about supporting the campaigns of those candidates who concur with my views on protection of the environment. My books often address that theme as well.

  Chapter 21

  The Entertainer

  Immediately after leaving my job at the Sea Breeze, I started putting together a new band. Being very selective, it took me a while. But eventually I found a bass guitarist, a keyboardist and a drummer that met my standards. The band started rehearsing every day in a small rented warehouse space. Our one and only set was comprised of songs I had previously written though some of them I had rearranged to make them rawer and more rhythmic. At first we sounded pretty pathetic but as we made adjustments and fine-tuned things, we started sounding not all that bad. Paying my bandmates was tough on finances and my savings were taking a hit. Paco kind of figured that out and asked if I might want to take on a part-time job as his entertainment coordinator responsible for booking acts in his hotel lounges and the casino. I gladly accepted. One day Paco came over during one of our rehearsals. He liked what he heard and hired us to perform regular gigs at his lounges.

  As the band began to be heard, we were asked to perform at other local venues. In order to give the band more appeal, I decided to add a female vocalist and started auditioning candidates. Among them was Sofia, who was from San Jose and was in the Guanacaste area visiting her grandparents. She had attended one of the band’s shows as she knew my keyboardist, a college classmate. When our set was finished, she came to the bandstand to say hello to him. He remembered her as being a great singer and introduced her to me. The following day she auditioned for me and, after hearing her, I hired her on the spot. Not only did she sing beautifully but she could also harmonize with me almost effortlessly. Shortly after joining the band, we became lovers and soon decided to get married.

  At about this same time, the band really started to take off and was in heavy demand to play venues all over Guanacaste. Before long, Sofia became pregnant and both of us decided it would be best if she left the band so that she could devote all of her time to becoming a mommy. As she had a much better business mind than I did, she also took over the business side of my career much to my relief.

  I soon found a replacement female vocalist and also added an additional guitarist to the band. At Sophia’s suggestion, I began including a set with just me playing the piano and singing some of my more popular love songs. One evening after our show, I was approached by a record company executive who asked if I and the band were interested in cutting an album. We jumped at the opportunity and, after it was released, the album sold well enough that it made the Latin American charts. That resulted in our being booked for gigs all over Costa Rica and in other Latin American countries as well. Our second album was even more successful than our first. Our audiences increasingly were larger and we began playing to some sold out crowds particularly in Mexico.

  To describe my music is difficult as my songs cover various genres. In high school, I was into simple Mexican folk music. In college, my songs were influenced by the great rock scene going on in California at the time. I wrote some songs, particularly love songs, in the soft rock mode because of their appeal to women. In college I learned that having a special girl listening to you sing while playing your guitar sometimes led to more intimate activity later. When I moved to Guanacaste, I discovered the area had a local folk music tradition which I picked up on and sometimes combined with my rock roots. Over time I added touches of reggae, salsa and bachata to some of my songs. As all of my music had Spanish lyrics, on our third album I decided to add some English stanzas to several of the songs. After its release, the band really hit the big time. We began playing to sold out audiences in small arenas and large night clubs. When the album went platinum in the United States, I agreed to do a tour there which lasted nearly three months. Our venues now were mostly larger arenas and field houses. The tour sold-out from the beginning and we sang many of our hit songs at least partially in English including four of my solo love songs. When the tour wrapped up, the band was exhausted. We were so happy to be rid of the groupies, the security, the constant press conferences and the stress of the road. When I returned home, I wasn’t sure I would ever want to tour again but in any event not for a long time.

  Several times during our tour in the States, Sofia joined me and one evening I persuaded her into singing harmony with me on one of my famous love songs. The audience went wild. She realized from that experience what incredible joy a performer can experience by performing live in front of a large appreciative audience. After returning from the tour, she could tell immediately how exhausted I was and suggested that I just take it easy for a while. Any decision to continue touring could be postponed until after the band’s fourth album had been cut. About seven months later it was released, received rave reviews and was phenomenally successful. One evening Sofia and I went out for a quiet dinner and she asked me if I would always regret it if I didn’t do a world tour. She knew me so well.

  The tour began several months later when we played to a sold out crowd of several thousand fans in London. Every concert for the remainder of our tour was sold out as well. For nearly five months we played to appreciative audiences in various European, Japanese, Korean, Australian and South American cities. When the tour wrapped up in Buenos Aires, we returned to Guanacaste and that was it, tours were over. I would never give up my music of course and formed my own recording company. Over the next decade, I would release three more albums, all to great acclaim. Being famous is a real high but has its downsides, one being lack of privacy. Fortunately, my beach house in Sur’s subdivision is inaccessible to the paparazzi so my family and I can live our lives with some degree of normalcy. As my beach house shares a private beach with Paco’s beach house, our families are together often.

  •

  Not long after I became the female singer in Miguel’s band, I found myself head over heels in love with the guy. He was charismatic, too cute for his own good, ridiculously funny and, in my view, a musical genius. The songs he wrote were captivating. Sometimes when the other band members had left for the day, the two of us would just sing together in harmony and then later sleep together. One day we decided it was time to make our relationship official. Our wedding was a bit unorthodox as the ceremony took place on the beach below the Sea Breeze hotel where Miguel used to work. It was very brief and was followed by a reception during which the band played a few numbers. My life now would be making music with Miguel and I never tired of looking at him especially when he tried to show off for me on his surf board.

  When I became pr
egnant with our first child, Miguel and I agreed I should become a live-at-home mom and manage the business side of his career. Even though we no longer sang together at gigs, at home we continued to harmonize together just for fun. In time, our three daughters would join in too.

  •

  I remember when Miguel was just fourteen and following his big brother around during the refurbishment of Sur’s Wild Beach house. Once they found out just how good a surfer I was, they all but begged me to show them how to improve their skills. With Miguel, it was always how to do new tricks while in a wave. He was always humming or whistling even while waiting in the surf for waves. When he graduated from college, he could play a mean guitar and was equally as good on the piano. I caught a couple of his gigs while he was in college and watched him tantalize the girls with his love songs. And now he was famous, really famous.

  When he toured the States, he sent me primo tickets to all of his West Coast concerts and I attended every one. It was fascinating to watch him on stage in front of thousands of people. He would electrify the place with his incredible voice and beautiful songs. He rarely spoke between numbers letting his music speak for him. At the end of his band’s final set, the crowd would go ballistic, cheering for encores. Backstage passes were always waiting for me after every performance and he was always on the lookout for me. When he spotted me, his face would light up. Even then, he treated me like his big brother and I could not have been more proud.