40th wedding anniversary gift idea

RONALD REAGAN 1911-2004

A few good years after presidency

Reagan enjoyed ranch, nights on the town

By JEFF WILSON Associated Press

Sunday, June 6, 2004

Los Angeles -- The day George H.W. Bush took over the Oval Office in 1989, the Gipper returned to Reagan Country beaming with an aw- shucks smile and dreams of chopping wood and riding his horse at his mountaintop ranch.

"There's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse," the nation's 40th chief executive said at the time, repeating an oft-quoted phrase.

Ronald Reagan basked in the glory of retirement, but then the slow death of Alzheimer's disease robbed the life of the former president, and he became a recluse under the protection of his wife and caregiver, Nancy.

He filled his first post-White House years with $50,000 speaking engagements, nights on the town with the Hollywood elite and trips to his beloved Rancho del Cielo north of Santa Barbara.

It was there in 1992 where former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev hopped into Reagan's blue Jeep -- a gift from Nancy with the personal license plate GIPPER -- and went for a tour of the ranch with Reagan at the wheel.

Reagan showed off his man-made pond Lake Lucky, hand-hewed corral fencing, horses and the giant California oak trees he had recently trimmed.

Reagan wrote in a 40th wedding anniversary tribute to Nancy in 1992: "We relax at the ranch, which if not heaven itself, probably has the same ZIP code. Nothing draws a couple closer together than to find a pretty spot, maybe a ukulele and a canoe -- Nancy's idea of the perfect romantic setting -- and share happy thoughts of the past."

For the retired cowboy-politician, staying at the ranch one week a month seemed fitting. On the way home, Reagan usually stopped by his presidential library in Simi Valley, midway between the ranch and his Bel-Air home.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library had opened in grand style in 1991 with an unforgettable moment as five men who served as president -- Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Reagan and Bush -- strolled the portico together.

The retirement years weren't always such lofty moments, however.

Reagan thrilled passers-by when he went Christmas shopping at a mall near his Century City office, a lavish space atop Fox Plaza, the glass-and-granite building used in the Bruce Willis movie "Die Hard." He loved lunches at the California Pizza Kitchen, as well as Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookies.

Then, on Nov. 5, 1994, the Great Communicator told the world in a poignant letter that he had Alzheimer's disease. "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead," he wrote.

Reagan was rarely seen again publicly.

Reagan didn't mention the ranch again for years, and in 1998, it was sold to a conservative organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Reagan revolution.

It became clear in 1999 that he was in the grip of Alzheimer's disease. His daily visits to his office ended, and Reagan biographer Edmund Morris told the world of the former president's deterioration in "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan."

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