RUN FOR THE WALL Jean and Larry: May 21, 2017 - Day 5 to DC --- Goodland, KS to Junction City, KS

WOW! What another gorgeous day!!!!
Started out with breakfast. This is day 6 and we have not paid for anything since we started. Here they have the kids involved. They were having a good time. They were telling everyone that they had been up since 4:00 AM. Too cute.

Lovely day and not too cold. When we left hotel it was 41 degrees. After breakfast was a brief service. Curtis talked about the ride to Angel Fire yesterday. If you remember I was riding with Ron. Before we left, we had a quick platoon meeting. They were predicting rain/snow on top of the mountain. They guys were to focus on driving and all the women passenger were "prayer warriors". Curtis talked about being on the prayer train. If you remember the pics I posted, the cloud were all around us. We go to top of hill and to dinner before it started. Lovely things happen. Even had totally dry roads with several inches of snow in the morning.

Here is our day today. Beautiful colors. By the time we left it was 60.... yeah!!

First bridge, This is about 8:15 in the morning. They get up early and are ready for us. How about that support!!

Ron is riding in the six pack today, because he will be riding the "missing man" on the next leg. They try to bring them up so they do not have to try to find them among 300 bikes.
Roger our SIT Rep is behind him.

Still very early in the day. Check it out.

"Bones", Tom, is the Missing Man Coordinator. This position is to be treated with the most utmost respect. He is talking to Ron as to what he will expect from him and how to ride. He is not to wave, stay focused, look straight ahead, and think about what he has the honor to do.

We had to lunch in parade formation. Love seeing these flags.

Little closer look ( sorry for both, I was told that maybe not see the ones I crop.

Bones puts the name where the missing man would be riding.

Formation:

Route Coordinator State Coordinator

Escort (Ron) Person Riding for (George Kelly) Missing Man Coordinator Head Chaplin

Refer to May 9 posting to see who George is.

Rose is the one that accepted getting signature for Hugh M. Byrd.

Bones and Ron

We are now in Oakley for lunch. Check out our these little guys bringing us water. Great experience and what a way to show our next generation this mission.

Ron hands them American flag pins

Here are 2 of our ladies from registration. They are amazing. They have to register riders before dinner and usually are there 1-2 hours before we get there. And they are open at least an hour before the morning meeting. They decided to be patriotic and wear these new hair bands =red, white, blue😊

Great weather and good food.

This is Tanker and his wife. They are the platoon leader for #1. The one Ron is in.

Willie, Gomez , Ron and Larry

This ride is truly family. But these are even more. Pretty Boy (on left) is a road guard. His dad is Whiteburch the Asst. route coordinator and his wife Mama O.

Took up the whole street to stage. Always fun to try and get in the saddle bags or just walk between the bikes. They are about 6 inches tire to tire.

Hey this looks like Jenny. Wait!! who painted her Spider? Well yesterday on the ride it just stopped running. Jenny is an amazing rider. She tapped out and coasted to the side. She got picked up and taken to a dealer in Colorado Springs. They worked on it after hours to try and get here back on the road. Most dealer will do whatever it take to keep us moving. Turned out there was something that stopped working that they have never seen fail before. There is no part for it. Needless to say , she was pretty upset. Ken had joined her at the dealer. Long story, short.... she has a new one!! It is beautiful. She will be back in the 6-pack tomorrow. Yeah!!! Definitely weird not having her in front of us.

In the median of the express way. This is one of the coolest sights. County,State, City.... all help get us thru. THANKS guys!!

I have lots of bridge pics. I would be willing to say 50-60% of the bridges in Kansas had people.
Any where from 2-100...Amazing !!!

These are on horseback.. Pretty unique.

Here are several scenery pics. I love sharing. I sit an look at this all day and am just amazed at the colors. Enjoy

Starting to see a little more than just flat road. Little rolling hills,,, maybe not hills because not that big. Looked at the weather tonight and 50% chance of rain all day tomorrow. So now I ask you to become the "prayer warriors" and pray we do not get rain, or at least safe travels. No fun in the rain.

Gas stops are so amazing from the local town folks. We see this reception at most of them.

Remember , earlier we talked about the position of the platoons. The staging team has to put them in the order they will leave. Here is the line up at this one. Planning is key. Every day is different so each platoon gets a chance to be closer up.

Rolling into Junction City. This is one of my favorites.

Jamie, Ron's Daughter is meeting us here. she arrived before us and was able to get some pics. Here is one on the street before we arrived. I have never seen it without all the bikes. When you look thru them, think of all the volunteers!!!

There is always a very nice ceremony for us at the Kansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This year Brigadier General Patrick D Frank spoke. He talked about how our Vietnam veteran never had a proper welcome home. He asked all Vietnam veterans from the Run to come forward and all were presented with pins. The clapping went on constantly until the last man received his. It was about 15-20 min. Very nice.