Mikall Ryan

Hi you all, I finally married at 51, in Dec. 1st, 2000.
I have a great wife, Cecile. She is from God!
We are enjoying our nine yr. old granddaughter, Nene. We have her over at least once a week.
Jobs-many. Life pursuit-adventure. Rewards-unimagineable!
We have a very interesting 1938 house and back yard that takes up alot of our time. Love to have you come by and take a look, we love to show off the place. People seem to love it. Was in the Wichita paper. Just give us a call first.
Right out of high school I took a trip with Walter Peters to Canada on the back of his motorcycle (I put the story in his profile). Then I hitchhiked down to Corpus Christi, planning on going to the World Olympics in Mexico City but turned around andheaded back up and through Arkansas to a relatives and eventually back to Kansas. I worked a month on I-35 highway around McPherson unloading sand trucks by shovel and pulling up 3 foot stakes by hand. Driving 30 miles each way and 11 hour days made me join the Marine Corp. Was sent to San Diego for boot camp. You ought to try it, its fun-not. 11 months of electronics schooling and off to Camp Lejune, N.C. for the rest of my 3 yr. stint. Excepted Christ, and became involved with a Christian organization called the Navigators and we'd invite guys out to programs and go and talk to guys about Christ once a week. Got out of the Marines and continued with Nav's but lived off the base with other guys in the ministry. Once I lived with a retired officer who had been over all the drill instructors in boot camp, David Rice, and a helicopter pilot (we would all 3 meet up later). I was a construction worker and later a bricklayers helper and also completed a year of college. I remember pleading with God to not forget me as I was not very happy in the ministry or my job at the time. The headquarters of the Navs was needing a person to be over the grounds crew. God put me on the heart of my Nav rep. and then God reafirmed it with me through my devotion time. Later the pilot I had lived with was on my grounds crew. He knew I didn't like to lead and yet here I was leading him (Ironic). I had also been asked to go to officer training and had declined for the same reason. Then still later David Rice came out and was over the administration of the Nav headquarters in Colo. Springs, Colo. The headquarters was a beautiful setting, right at the foot of the mountains and bordering Garden of the Gods and was comprised of a wilderness camp for kids at 9000 feet and a canyon leading down to the Castle. Big horn sheep would come down the canyon and feed on the 15 acres of lawn. It was originally the home of General Palmer, the founder of Co. Spr. I had a crew of 5 and my commitment was for 2 yrs. During the winter months I helped out the carpenter. Upon completion of the 2 yrs. I and another guy went to Northeastern Jr. College in N.E. Colo., where we lead a bible study in our dorm room and my room partner was over the small campus ministry. We had great times and memories. During the summer my friend and I went custom harvesting from Texas to Montana for 2 yrs. I came back to Kansas and worked in one of the trailer factories in Newton for a year and then spent 3 yrs. in Manhattan, Ks. and got a B.S. in Horticulture from K-State. During the summer I worked for the Santa Fe railroad on an extra gang shoveling gravel under the tracks for a track straightener. We traveled around Ks. and some in Okla. The next summer I worked for the Manhattan Tree Service picking up branches. I also got free board at an Episcopol Church for taking care of things around the church. I had gotten my first girlfriend while at K-State and she was a young tall brunette and a bit strange (but fun), who was from Junction City, Ks. Upon completion of college, we got engaged and I headed off to work for the forest service at Mt. Saint Helens in Wa. while she stayed at home. Its hard to get a job with the forest service as everyone wants one. So I just looked at the map and picked a place that I thought would be a place where few people would want one. It turned out to be the sight of the volcano explosion and they were needing people to survey and replant trees. It was just the year after the explosion and so I got to work with the girl (who was my boss), who called in the explosion for the forest service. They were planting trees when the explosion occured and droped everything and ran for the truck and drove with ash falling down on them and crossing bridges where mud was beginning to flow down the stream. When I worked there we saw lots of elk as the areas that we worked were off limits to the public due to the danger of another explosion. One day I got hazzard duty pay as we flew directly over the volcano in a helicopter and landed in the blow down area where all the trees were laying flat and everything was covered in grey pumice. We hiked down the mountainside and using chain saws and such, we cleared another spot for a helicopter to land. Mean while back at the ranch, my fiance broke our engagement. She had gotten involved with her brothers church which was United Penticostal and they believed that you had to be baptized in the name of Jesus only, and not the
Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. Later I found out that United Penticostal is only one of numerous church denominations that believe what is called the Jesus Only movement. Anyway I got permission to go back and try to straighten out my relationship and was told that if I ever wanted to come back that they would hire me as a forest fire fighter (as while there I had also went to forest fire sch.). I went back to Junction City and put an add in the paper and started a one man landscaping business with my flatbed pickup. Never was able to reslove things but had some very interesting experiances with their church. So I left Junction City and returned to Newton and started applying for jobs in Wichita and my only request to God was that it be a job I could stick with. I got hired on at Coleman and have been there since 1981. Now I have been on many trips both on my own and usually with a group of other paddlers. San Juan River, Rio Grande, Colorado, Green, Snake, Elk, Buffalo,Eleven Pt., Spr.river,Dismal,Arkansas,SouthPadre,Current,Missouri and many more and multiple times and on different stretches of the same river. Great memories and great stories with alot of fun people. Three trips to Alaska, sea kayaking with whales, grizzles-great stories to tell. Three of us amigos spent time camping in both the U.S. and British Virgin Is. (I brought my colapsible sea kayak). We also went to Baja for a couple of weeks of adventure in various towns, whale watching, biking, hiking, and doing the tourist thing. We went hiking up in Alaska. I've been to Yellowstone kayaking on Yellowstone Lake for two weeks by myself. Many trips to Colo. by myself, all over the state. Sailing 50 miles up Lake Powell, Utah for 2 wks. Hiking the Grand Canyon, in and out in one day. Bunch of us kayaked the San Juan Is. in Wa. We've rode the Alaska Ferry to Alaska and back. Only one word to say-Never enough adventure. One day I turned off busy Harry St. in Wichita and suddenly it was just like it was me and God. There was no cars and no one around and a 3 1\2 ft. iguana lizard in the middle of the road looking right at me and the unadible words of God "I'am about to do something in your life". I picked up the lizard and took it home. 3 days later I came home and there was a girl standing in front of my duplex talking to my neighbor and upon seeing me, she said "I've been waiting for you to come home". 3 mo. later we were married. It turned out that she was working for the census. Back when 24 yr. old, I claimed 2 promises from Gods word, concerning a wife: 1. That we would know that it was of God. 2. That it wouldn't come about if it wasn't of God.

I was to shy for much interaction back in high sch. but I did enjoy my chance to be in a play as Jody's twin brother in "Comedy of Errors". I can't say I enjoyed running the mile and 2 mile in competition as its been the most painful experiance I've ever had. I did enjoy running for years after that though. I even ran in the Pike's Peak Marrithon while working in Colo. Spr. I told myself the night before that I'd go out and run 3 miles and if I felt pretty good that I'd give it a go. I finished the race but have no desire to do it again.
I had 11 mo. of electronics in the Marine Corp. and part of that schooling was learning to work on secret coding machines. We had to have a top secret clearance. But you could torture me and I couldn't remember anything about it, or any part of electronics for that matter. I ended up being a shipping and receiveing clerk for an electronics shop at Camp Lejune, N.C. It was the easiest job I ever had.
I went to K-State and got a degree in Horticulture. But I actually enjoy stone sculpting and photography more. I don't have the money for photography anymore and will have to wait for the future to do any serious stone sculpting. I do have some of my pictures hanging up in my art studio. The Bible says a wife is from the Lord and an inheritance is from a father. My father (whom I never knew growing up) provided the money to get this lovely place we have. My dad lived on the other side of the duplex that I lived in from 1982 till 1996. It turned out he had been a technical illustrator for 40 yrs. (20 yrs. for Cardwell Oil Company and 20 yrs. for Cessna). He never made more than 9 dollars and hour but usely held onto his money very tightly. It's a good thing he never remarried. He loved his job. He knew the Lord. He did volunteer work for Via Christi and the red cross after retirement.
My mom raised 4 of us. My older brother who had brain damage and two half sisters, one of whom was mentally disabled. She always took us to church and she was always active in the church. Her rewards will be great in heaven. My folks have both gone now and my sister with mental disability has gone as well. My brother is in a nursing home and my other sister lives not far from us. She has lots of schooling and was excepted by a med-sch. and had some good paying jobs but being bi-polar has stoped all that. She's still plays numerous insturments and plays in a music group in town.