Lewisburg, WV to Washington D.C. area

We had 3 easy legs of about 80 or so miles each today, the last 20 miles of the 3rd leg brought us into Arlington, VA where all the traffic in the world is stuffed into 2, 3 or 4 lanes, everyone in the wrong lane it seems, and everyone has an agenda, and probably written proof that their cause is most important than the people in the next vehicle..

We weaseled our way through all the traffic, kept our wits, and arrived about 9 minutes later than scheduled with hundreds of bikes and riders, in spite of the tough challenges of road work, rush hour and missing escort.

Breaking the pack into platoons helps keep each small group on track, we planned to arrive as platoons, but ended up arriving as one big pack as if we were escorted.

Tomorrow THE WALL

437 Korean War Prisoners Return To Freedom (ca. 1950's)

Run For The Wall (May 24, 2010)

TRUCK

We give each other road names.  Don't know how he got his, but this time last year, TRUCK was asked to be honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery, laying the wreath for Run For The Wall.  We were all so honored watching him our guest of Run For The Wall, a new participant who is still active duty military.  He stood alongside a veteran rider of Run For The Wall, "Manybikes" guess how he got his name.  This guy works his heart out getting us off the right exit as we roll down interstates across country, then stands in a salute as we follow his directions, with a sweet grin on his face.

This year I had the opportunity to get to know both riders a little better.  I had the honor and privilege of working with Manybikes at registration in California.  We registered 620 riders, whew, fast and furious!!

 Here's a pic of TRUCK in front of somebody's RV all decked out for Run For The Wall!!


Then TRUCK was asked to step up to the 6-pack, a group that rides just behind the lead element, keeping an open space called a POCKET, for the Road Guards to come in and out.  I had the distinct honor of pacing many of our riders that were active duty as we rolled down the highways of this great country - wish everyone could see the AMERICA I SEE on Run For The Wall, does the heart good.




me

Wentzville to Corydon Indiana

Off to Mt Vernon and then to Corydon.  We are the State Coordinators for Indiana, and we have great friends from a couple of Assembly of God churches in the Evansville area providing hydration and snacks, etc at the Evansville Indiana gas stop today, plus CORYDON, IN really turns out when we arrive. 

Mt. Vernon Illinois is always a great lunch stop and fuel!!  We hope to rejoin the pack there today.  This is the first time in 8 years we haven't made it to the Jefferson Barracks, we'll miss it but Russ has to get his strength back before we ride, safety first.

Hated to miss the VFW in Wentzville last night too - they always do a good meal and ceremony. 

me!

Junction City to Wentzville, MO

Our son lives in Kansas temporarily, so he was able to come to our fuel stop in Topeka and meet a lot of the fine folks from Run For The Wall.  He got some pictures of us leaving and standing around on break, I'll see if he wants to share them here.  Thanks for coming out Ken, and thank you for your service to our country, (4 years in the Navy.)

Going through Kansas City escorted by so many law enforcement was quite an honor.  Not sure the pack could find the right lane and the right exits without such an incredible escort.  Of course our fearless leader is from the area, so we know he could've gotten us there, but the escort was impressive, thanks guys!!

It was so awesome to be close enough to the front to watch the ballet dance that motor cops do as they weave in and out, stopping traffic at the on-ramps and pass the pack at very high speed, then rejoin their group in the front.  STAY ALERT was the word of the day.

HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE - how many times do we hear this from each other and fellow riders.

Well, Monday (day 6) took a major toll on Russ.

He was overheated at lunch.  I could tell he was winding down, and several of us showed concern, he finally got cooled off enough to ride the next 160 miles out of the pack (ahead of them).  We arrived at the hotel hours before the pack, he went to bed at 4 PM and now at 8:00 AM is in the shower, ready for a short day.  We'll meet the pack at lunch in Mt Vernon Illinois and decide from there if we're going all-the-way.  The heat and humidity are giving him labored breathing, he's a little congested which may be adding to the breathing problem.  He's so exhausted, it worries me.

We love Run For The Wall because of the healing it has brought us and the friends that we have made over the 8 years we've been involved, but we gotta be wise in the decisions we make about continuing.

Goodland KS to Junction City, KS

Yesterday we dealt with wind most of the afternoon, the rider behind me said my bike was riding at a 45 degree angle all the way across Kansas!  Go figure - wind in Kansas.

Here's a pic I took after Breakfast at Goodland (riders meeting with Platoon Leaders) this morning,  The platoons get their final instructions before we head out across more of Kansas.  We had so much open space that platoons looked tiny, they had several clusters of riders out in the open air.  We don't know what to do with so much space on Run For The Wall!!

Goodland really turned out - it's so amazing to see small towns come out on their lawns, step out to the curb, come downtown to the center of their hometowns and greet us waving flags, holding banners, honking horns, truly a heroes welcome for all the HEROES in our pack ... always outstanding job.  Thank you Goodland.

So fun seeing Kevin's bike set up for Registration ... we've got people trained now to look for his bike - and the wonderful canopy supplied by Annie - super job.

We were promised more than last year in Junction City, and oh my goodness, I wish there was a way to take pictures and ride (well there probably is but it wouldn't be safe for me to attempt it).  We rode into a town that had people out all along our route, then when we hit the intersection that took us to their memorial park, there were so many people holding full size flags, narrowing our path to simply just enough room to ride through flags, it was a RED, WHITE and BLUE tearful event, I could hear sobs over the rumble of bikes ...