By Jeff Wilson
The Associated Press

Nancy Reagan kisses the former president at their Bel-Air home in February 2000. Associated Press file

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 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 manmade pond Lake Lucky, hand-hewn corral fencing, horses and the giant California oak trees he had recently trimmed.

"I love the dappled look on the ground when the sun comes through," Reagan once said.

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 presidents - Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Reagan and the first 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 1988 Bruce Willis movie Die Hard. He loved lunches at the California Pizza Kitchen, as well as Mrs. Fields chocolate-chip cookies.

After a few hours at his office, visiting with old friends, posing for snapshots and catching an afternoon glimpse of the Channel Islands, Reagan went home to work out in his basement gym.

Dinner at home meant his favorite meal: meat loaf and macaroni & cheese. But in those early post-Washington years, Chasen's restaurant, and the booth where he proposed to Nancy, was a frequent evening destination.

At a luncheon on the eve of the USC-Notre Dame football game in 1990, Reagan told the crowd: "I know some of you are wondering if I'm going to say that line from that certain movie. But I know better than to take sides. So I've come up with what I hope will be a good compromise. As you may know, tomorrow I will flip the coin to officially start the game. So if you'll permit a little modification: Will you tell your teams to go out there and win one for the Flipper?"

It was vintage Reagan, the Reagan most remember.

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. For three years, he continued going to his office each day. He also played golf, walked the Venice boardwalk and attended Bel-Air Presbyterian church on Sundays.

Reagan didn't mention the ranch again for years, and in 1998, heaven on earth for Ronald Reagan was sold to a conservative organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Reagan Revolution. The Virginia-based Young America's Foundation paid nearly $6 million for the former Western White House.