West Virginia - Hurricane to Lewisburg - with Rainelle sandwiched in-between.

I passed out patriotic pencils at breakfast this morning to people who needed gifts for the kids today.   The pack rides into Rainelle and passes several school kids who come out of their buildings to the street and wave flags at the pack as we parade by.

Once we land in Rainelle in the mountains of WV, the school cafeteria feeds us lunch, there's a presentation and Run For The Wall hands the school a check representing the coin collection we have done all the way across country before our morning rider's meeting.  Every year the children return with stories, and many have autograph books they have made to get signatures of the riders, they look up people they've met in the past and they know to look for the FNG pin that new riders wear, so they can seek them out and greet them.  This is an elementary school that is relatively isolated, and the veterans have done a good job of putting the community on the map through the years.

There are other riding groups that go through Rainelle these next several days, some even spend Memorial Day weekend in Rainelle instead of going to DC.  It has become the heart of patriotism for bikers over the years.

Run For The Wall in 1989 was on the way to DC when they knew the toll road was coming up and they ran out of money - saw hwy 60 on the map and chose to avoid the toll by running through the mountains - the rest is history ...

see "History" on the Run For The Wall web page.

The 5th grade class of Rainelle Elementary jointly authored this book Veterans Reign in Their Own Parade
with the assistance of the Authors, Martin and Delia Bowman Wach a few years ago, the book is listed on Amazon.

On to Lewisburg. Tomorrow: Washington DC!!