The Gift of Flight tells my story of working for Barron Hilton and his guests over three and a half years at his inexplicable Flying ~M~ Ranch. Fact is stranger than fiction and some of my stories, unbelievable as they may seem all really happened. My first day Barron invited me to go for a ride with him in his hot air balloon. I felt like I was working for Willy Wonka! He had balloons, soaring glider planes, antique planes, stunt planes and a helicopter. There were stocked fishing ponds, game birds and I fished the trophy trout waters of the Walker River that runs right down the middle. It was the wild west wilderness getaway for the super elite pilot buddies of Barron Hilton, seen through the eyes of a somewhat naïve newcomer chef trying to make a name for himself in western Nevada. Me.
First and fore most this book is my tribute to Barron Hilton. He was a generous man who indirectly made it possible for me and many more to enjoy the dream like Flying ~M~ Ranch.
In 1995 Darrin McKillup, my boss at the Reno Hilton recommended I go out to Barron Hilton’s 1,000,000 acre Flying ~M~ Ranch and work a VIP hot air ballooning get together. Yes, the CEO of the corporation’s ranch. The undisputed heavyweight champion of hospitality in the whole solar system. I had barely gotten my feet wet as a banquet cook back at the Reno Hilton after being recruited from the CIA, Culinary Institute of America, about a year earlier.
I passed back and forth through an unseen portal of magic. Between the frustrating mundane corporate politics of a giant hotel casino to a mystical ancient place where it seems anything was possible. I made both allies and enemies. A whimsical romp of me stumbling my way through life in 1990’s Reno and The Flying ~M~ Ranch.
It was the best four years of my life.
You will have as much fun reading it as I had living it … well almost.
Broc.
I want you, the reader, to feel like you are standing in my shoes and sitting behind my eyes in my skull.
I feel it is paramount for the reader to experience the sensations I was feeling. The sights, smells and sounds of the environment. Not only the five or six senses we are accustomed, but also the ones you don't think about; balance, bodily functions, like the tightening of your chest or a flood of adrenaline. The taste of sweat in your mouth and the crunch of uneven soil beneath the feet. I will also attempt feelings that can't be easily explained; instinct, fear, impulse and intuition.
Anybody who has ever been way the hell out in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness or entering a dark alley or tunnel in a dodgy part of town knows what I am talking about. Archaic prehistoric knowledge our ancestors passed down for Millenia. Hunter gatherer instinct.
I guess I have always been a story teller and a ham. My greatest aptitude is making friends. I am a social person and have that kind of face most people will talk to. Sure, there are casual acquaintances of folk I only speak with once or twice my whole life. But where ever I live I make friends that last lifetimes.
If you know me you understand. If you don't, I went to great lengths to convey to the reader how my mind works. To the friends and family who helped me to edit the book this process was tiresome, but I thought it was important to try to convey. I hope you get it.
This book is my first. The next one won't be so PG or PC.
I want to tell the stories of us children of the seventies and eighties growing up in Vegas. No names. No questions asked. I am going to publish it as fiction book, so it doesn't even really matter to me if the stories are true. But ... Fact is always stranger than Fiction!
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