Riding Rudy at about sun-up every morning became the highlight of Barbara's life. She looked forward to it most during a full work day and evening, and fell asleep each night anticipating another ride the next morning.
While she rode Rudy up the trails leading from the Genda ranch into the nearby mountains, she was able to forget all the heartaches of the past and uncertainties of the future. She rode and lived in the present, a timeless period over which she felt she had some control. And she felt safe, astride Rudy. He was her ballast; strong and proud. He was her stability; her rock, her foundation.
She had loved Becky as a female friend. She came to love Rudy as a male she could trust, when she feared she could no longer trust any man; just the memory of Paul.
In May, Barbara was being pinched in the behind again serving customers at the Jackrabbit Cafe on the night of the sixth while the owner was listening to a news broadcast on his countertop radio. The newsman was describing the arrival of the German dirigible, Hindenburg at the airport at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Suddenly, the announcer became excited and the cafe owner turned up the volume. Everyone then stopped what they were doing in the cafe. They listened in horror as the announcer described how the blimp suddenly exploded into flames and began crashing to the ground.
"Oh the humanity of it!" the newsman cried as the blimp crashed in flames. Thirty-six lives were lost in one of the most dramatic disasters in history.
Just three weeks later, Barbara took time off from her work. She took her Piper Cub into the air and join a small armada of other planes flying over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in celebration of its grand opening.
But most of their talk when Barbara arrived at Jackie Cochran's ranch in early June centered on three recent events.
First, the very romantic marriage on June 6th of the Baltimore divorcee, Wallis Simpson, to Edward, former king of England. They thought it was very romantic of him to have given up his throne for love of her.
The second topic of conversation was their shock to learn of sudden and unexpected death of Jean Harlow of uremic poisoning at the much too young age of 26. Her co-star Clark Gable said of her, "She didn't want to be famous. She wanted to be happy." Barbara and her friends at the Cochran ranch talked about that for some time.
The third event was Amelia Earhart's unsuccessful attempt to circle the world that spring. With two flying companions, Fred Noonan and Captain Harry Manning, she had flown her $80,000 Lockheed Electra laboratory plane westward from Oakland on March 17. They reached Hawaii safely, but three days later, while taking off again, the plane's right tire blew out.