 Marvelous week with your son up in Alaska, we went on his boat trip, it was a great adventure. 13 hours, as I understand it, you had to stand up all the time, did you? I think he would have gone again the next day, he was the most energetic fellow I've ever seen. You haven't been doing that regularly. No, for me it was a one time trip, once was fun. I heard about it, I suggest that you not ask me to go for a boat ride. Have you been on one of those people? Goodness, somehow they're quicker with yours. Somehow they're quicker getting you wired than mine. We interviewed Mike and he gave us some stories about growing up on the ranch, some of his early recollections and this type of thing. Yeah, I tried to start him out on a horse. Everybody set? Mr. President, some of Mike's earliest recollections were there on the ranch. He said that you genuinely did chop that wood and ride those horses. What do you remember about him? Well, he was quite small for many of those years and he loved to help. When he was very small and really unable to help with some of those, I gave him some boards and nails and a hammer and told him to make a jabberwock. And he wanted to know what that was and I said, you know, he'd put some boards together and that's what it is. And oh, he was very happy with that. Were you ever disappointed he didn't go into either the theater or into politics or didn't follow you perhaps in ranching? No, I've always felt about all of them that they're on their own. No one told me what to do with my life and I wouldn't tell them. The funny thing is, very early after he got out on his own, he became interested in the boat racing. And boat racing can be an expensive sport, but he didn't wait until he could afford a hobby. And so I did get into that with him and I said, look, you love this so much and you are so good at it. At one point, I guess he was rated nationally number one. And I said, why don't you go in that business? And then the hobby can, you can afford it because it'll actually be a part of what you're doing for a living. And he did and he was very successful in the speedboat business, or the boating business generally. He had an accident once, I think he was describing it in Texas where he smashed up some ribs and hurt himself and so forth. And now he's running an enormously powerful boat through waters at any time, day or night. The weather makes no difference. They go. As a father, are you concerned for his safety? Well, yes, you can't help but think about that. I know that he lost a motor on this ride that you were on with him hitting a dead head there in the water as they call those submerged logs and things. But I also saw some TV tape of him set a record across the Great Lakes from Chicago to Detroit. And in that film, I saw that boat and it's no small boat. As you know, I don't know just what the length is, but it's a pretty good size boat. But I saw somewhere it was totally airborne for at least two lengths of the boat when it came off a wave. And tell me, did you have to stand up? Because he told me that on that one, and I just assumed that that was regular, that the crew all have to stand the entire duration of the trip. You stand up, you hold on, and you hope for the entire trip because it's a boat that seems to almost want to fly. They're so powerful. Tell me, one thing you told about at the ranch was, you know, it's for real this business of you're going there to refresh your spirit. He said you go and plug into a tree to get your emotional batteries to recharge. Is that correct? Well, I don't know if that's exact, but something like that. I do admit that quotation fits. I look to the hills from whence I come with my strength. But he's right, I remember once there's always something to do at a ranch and I've built more miles of fence than anyone will ever believe. And more recently, in the present ranch, I've been building those fences. I decided some fences that had to more or less fit the scenery. So they're building them out of telephone poles. That can get to be kind of heavy work, notching the poles. You get about a 25-foot pole, cut the bottom six feet off for a post, notch it, then cut about a 14-foot length and get rid of the little stub at the top and notch the ends of that and fit them in. But somebody asked me once when they said, well, when are you going to have the ranch finished? And I said, well, I hope never. Because, no, I'm not a rancher in the kind that wants to walk around with a walking stick looking at the scenery. I like the work. Yes, President, has it put a demand on family? Contact, staying in touch with Mike, with Colleen, with Ashley, with Cameron, the grandchildren. Do you have as much time as you'd like to? No, and particularly since he's not fixed in one place either. For example, I know a number of times that we've gone to California with the anticipation we would and then found he was off on one of these boating ventures and as you know, he takes the family with him. I don't blame him for that. I do the same thing. You know, I have to ask you, though, if he... I'll bet you there's one story about the ranching he didn't tell you. And that was a little bit of Tom Sawyer came out in him and I'd made a deal with him. A flat rate of painting. This was when the ranch that I had previous to this one where the fences that I'd put in miles of them were the Kentucky type, the white post and three rail, two by six fence, you know. And I made a contract with him in the summer, a deal about painting the vents. And then one day unexpectedly arrived at the ranch and he wasn't there. He was the beach, but he had sub-contracted out. Not a bad arrangement. He had someone doing it for him at not quite the total salary but he was supposed to be... A commission. And I had to say that I had to reprimand him as a father in the summer at the same time I had to think, he's probably going to do all right. Certainly doing well now on his boating ventures. You know, when your office, the White House and the presidency, he told us what intimidates him most. He can't call you here in the building and it's fine. But he can't call you on Air Force One. Suddenly when he reaches you or they say he's on Air Force One, he says, oh my God, that's the president. I can't forget the call. I didn't know that. Well, I'm kind of happy because I have to tell you, he feels that way. I never seem to have as much luck on Air Force One with the phone. I'm always having difficulty hearing the people at the other end. So maybe it's just as well. His boating venture is, of course, for business. He sells the ads on the boat and that helps keep his company going. And he mentioned to us that every time he sells one of those ads, someone says, that's the son of the president with sort of a question of maybe there's some help we can get from Washington. Is it a problem for you that he's in business? No, I can't stop any of them. My children, I don't think any president should, from going their own way in their own careers. He didn't do this because I'm president. He was doing that. And he would have as much right to object to my being president. He didn't. But no, and the thing that I also like very much about what he's doing is that I guess there's never been an operation like this that has been so successful because all of the ventures are raising money for a worthy cause. Now the one that you were on was, as I understand, assistant fibrosis. And he's done it for the fund for the refurbishing of the Statue of Liberty. He's done it for the Olympic Committee and he's done it for a number of these worthwhile charities. So I have to appreciate that. As a matter of fact, I think they broke kind of all records in the event on this one that you were on and raising almost a quarter of a million dollars for the fund. Another story he told was about when he first realized you were really serious about politics. He said it was back in California when they were getting a group together and you didn't like to fly. And they said, well, you've got to make this trip and you said on an airplane, well, okay, I'll do it. Do you recall that circumstance and that story at all? I remember there was a time when I knew that I was going to have to fly. This was after I had agreed that I would then seek the governorship and it was true. I came out of military service in World War II and maybe a lot of fellows had some kind of feeling when we were together. I'd never had a bad experience flying. As a sports announcer, I'd done many of those charter things in a little two-place biplane with the helmet and the goggles on. But I just came out and I had a, maybe it was suddenly regaining my freedom that I had a hunch that I might get in the wrong airplane. And I just grounded myself. And it turned out to be wonderful then when for eight years I was doing that TV show for a sponsor, which you'd rather I didn't mention now. Because then I had it written in the contract that they couldn't ask me to fly. And in those early days of television I found out how many of my friends who were in television were being run out of town on an errand or an appearance or something for friends of the sponsor every other day. And they couldn't do that to me because traveling by train would take too long. So it paid off. But I knew when I agreed to run for governor that I had to give up my hunch. What he should have told you, maybe, is the story of the first day that I knew I had to fly and I called people who were handing some affairs for me and told them to get me a ticket on this plane. And then I waited for them to get up off the floor. They had never heard me say that before. And you won't believe this, but the same day the way home there in Hollywood I stopped at on the Sunset Boulevard newspaper and got the afternoon paper, put it down on the seat beside me and when the light was red at a traffic light I was kind of looking at it. And the first thing my eye fell on was the very plane that in a few days I would be taking had taken off, lost a wheel on takeoff, had to circle while it dumped its fuel and then land on the foam-covered runway. And I sort of, just as you did, I sort of looked up and said, make up your mind. But have grounded your career right in there. Final question for us, if you will. A father's reaction. Just give me your reaction from a father to what Mike has done, what we've captured on tape and doing. He gets a new boat. On a trip where he said, I'm going to break 14 hours to set this speed record. He does it despite some tremendous mechanical problems and some, at one point I've given up. I said, we're never going to make Seattle. And he said, yes, we are, too. He never, never wavered. And most important of all, he raised more money for cystic fibrosis, the number one genetic killer of children. He raised over $200,000 on this one day event and all his energy, all of his effort that went into it. Give me briefly father's reaction. Well, of course, it has to be one of pride. I'm not that familiar with boat racing and all the problems. I say I was surprised when I learned that for all those hours you stand, you don't sit comfortably as we're sitting. But, yes, I'm proud and proud of the fact that he's doing it not just for a hobby to be racing a fast boat, but for funds of this kind, as we said before, and I'm very proud and I understand from others who do know the ins and outs of racing that he's very good at his job. Mr. President, thank you for talking with us. Well, it's a pleasure. Stop tape, please. Thank you, sir. Can you say hello to our executive producer? Sure. Thank you, sir. Thank you again. We were all on the adventure. Sometimes when you thought maybe you were the enemy of the boat and they have to call you, they had to be back to me. He said press on. Mike said that this body of water that was out there was a lot easier than the dead end. We're smooth than the legs. Of course, I have a question on the great legs. It's like a commercial for Alaska. It is just beautiful. Ah, it is. Do you have a chance to meet the rest of crew? Thanks. Thank you, Mr. President. Hello there. Hi, how are you? Hello. Nice to meet you. Now, if I'm home at the right moment, what moment should I be home at? This is from Mr. Weston. He is the scheduler of events. Where would it be convenient? I have no way of knowing about it. Real fast the word will be, you know, at 10 o'clock some Thursday when I know you're on Blue 30s, you'll be open day crafts. From next week on, keep watching. You don't have a new assistant setting your homely. You don't have a new assistant setting your homely. You're television rated. When you ask me what would be right for me, you know, there's somebody in this building. I am founding that. There's somebody that puts a paper on my desk every day to tell me what I'm going to be doing every 15 minutes for the next day. Well, we're letting people know. We'll be wearing gay. Thanks again. Thank you. See you.