May 21, 2016 - Day 4 to DC --- Eagle Nest, NM to Goodland, KS

What a heck of a day!!!  Started at 36 degrees. BRRRR!!! Bundle up. Our bike has heated seats, nice.  I used mine for sure.
Two things I forgot to mention.  Last 2 days we got in earlier that projected.  Also the town of Eagle Nest is population 290.  We came in and doubled the population.  They served us breakfast and it was so yummy... The Mayor of Eagle Nest rode with us today to the first stop.  Pretty cool !!

Every stop, the staging team is hard at work getting everyone lined up.  Jenny get the same spot since on a trike.  Rest of us fall in. But here is the chalk I talked about earlier.  Every platoon has the same staging person and they have to get everyone lined up.  They do a great job marking the start of the platoon and where the platoon leader and assistant platoon leader start.

Check out this site. Beautiful  (I probably use this a lot , but.... it is)

Heading out of Eagle Nest

 Heading down the mountain.

This is what is behind me.  I get lucky once in a while and get a pretty good pic.  Most of the time it is the ground or sky....ha ha   As you see , these are the trikes behind us.  The platoons change positions in the pack so that the same platoons are not always in the back. The back is the toughest spot, lots of rubber banding. Meaning slowing down then playing catching up.

  Here is Boiler Maker.  Hope your crew likes the pic.  

By the time we got to the bottom it was 54.  Much better.

Now in Raton

 This is Sgt. Walrus.  He is our exit man.  Love the gloves

 Junior Marines went thru a few drills.

 They presented the colors.  Very nice.  You could tell they worked hard.

 After colors posted.  Check out the little guy in the middle (yawning).

I watch as the kids run thru the drills, camera in hand. That is where is it most of the time.

  Thanks Brian for pic.

 On the road again.  Check out the people seeing us off.

 Love the little girl

 Remember, NM gives us an escort and shuts the expressway.  Already stopped as we approach.

 2 officers that have the traffic stopped as we enter. 

 Thumbs up and road guards back in the pack.

 As we get to the state boarder, this is one of the coolest sites!!! 

Many of the officers sent us on our way.

I mentioned we are in platoon, this gives a pretty good pic of the groups.

 Check out the stand on the left, this is made of 2X4s.  How long you think he worked on this then to put it up.  Again for a 5 minute ride by...... what support.!!!

 BEAUTIFUL.  We saw this off and on all morning.

 This flag is up the middle of no where!!!

 The pack as we exit off the expressway.

Coming into Pueblo, CO

Check out the wind on the flags.  

 After this stop, we staged to head to lunch. Gas and go.  But as we were waiting for everyone to finish a gentleman came up and started talking to Larry and me.  Interesting fact, he said he served and has the flag when it had only 48 stars. Googleed: Alaska became a state in Aug. 1959 and Hawaii Aug. 1959.  I would love to have talked to him more but on to lunch.

 Lunch in Fountain, CO was at the fire station.

 See what a nice job the staging crew does!!!

 Now let the fun begin.  THE WIND was CRAZY from here to Goodland. Check out all the flags.

Random places and seems like in the middle of no where people show up.

 I think we spooked these horses.  Cows not so easily or maybe they just do not want to run.

 At an intersection , just getting on the highway tons of people.

 Look for all the yellow hats.  These are the staging crew waiting for use to get in. 

 You figure many people have now been on the road for about 2 week.  Here is a pic of Boilermaker (Dan) and some of the family that came to see him.  They drove about 2 hours to see him for 45 minutes.

 Here is Bones (Tom) with his granddaughter.  She was walking around giving everyone hugs.

 So the wind got pretty bad today.  Several places we saw the wind farms. Larry's comment was "if someone would just turn off these big fans, the wind would die down"

 Thumbs up. You have permission to come back into the pack.

The last 2 legs were in the FLAT plains for Colorado and Kansas. The wind was brutal!!!  It was hitting us about 1:00 and I am sure my neck will be sore in the morning.  Felt like whip lash at times.  We got the the gas stop in Limon and I felt beat up.  I do not think I was the only one.  Last leg was 109 miles of more of the same.  Until we crossed the boarder into Kansas.  The winds seemed to kick up about 10 MPH harder and 10 degrees colder.  I was about done.  Hard day.

Our reception into Goodland.

 Great meal. Check out the flag, it was huge

 This lady sang the National Anthem.  First time I remember them asking us to sing along.  It was amazing and in this big hall, it echoed.

 Then we were directed to this table.  It is for our POWs and MIAs.

 You will need to double click this one to read what all the symbols mean. You may want a tissue.

 WILD day!! But we all got there safe.

We rode 415 miles and temps from 36 to about 75.

If you want to know the route we take, you can look at RFTW.org, Central Route.

I show lots of neat picture, both of this beautiful (there goes that word again) country and of the people that support our mission.  It may look like a lot of fun but there are a lot of long days.  Most of us get up between 5 -5:30, except for the road guards and the staging team. They get up about 4:30. And our days end about 7-8:00 by the time we finish eating.  They have to stay focused because of the tight formation for many hours in a day.  This is truly a mission.  Larry has often commented " I will have to read the blog to see what I missed while driving".  Keep us in your thoughts for the next few weeks.

One more item.  I talked about Daniel earlier. Here is a little more info. Thanks Daniel for sharing.

From the SIT report by Boiler Maker:

Daniel Slocum and his Father, Duane Slocum, are FNGs.  How cool is that?
To ride ALL THE WAY with your Father.  Both are from Olympia, WA.  Duane
is 73 and is a US Navy PO2 and Viet Nam era Veteran.  He was a Radioman
during the war. Daniel served as both an enlisted soldier and as an
officer in the Army and Army Reserves.  He retired from the Reserves at
the grade of Captain in 2006, after 21 years of military affiliation, many
of which were Active Duty, both during the Cold War and our most recent
Middle East conflicts.  It is very inspiring to see a 73 year old Navy manand his Army son make this Run For The Wall together. 

Daniel rode in the Missing Man Formation for a friend.  US Army SSG Jason Reeves KIA, Afghanistan.  After riding into Gallup yesterday to the incredible reception we got with flags flying and people saluting, Daniel wrote on his blog that he had now received the Welcome Home Parade you should have gotten.  Thank you for your sacrifice.  You are not forgotten.