RUN FOR THE WALL Jean and Larry: May 21, 2023– Day 5

May 21, 2023– Day 5 – Limon, CO to Junction City, KS

WOW.... Yet another beautiful day. Few more days all you prayer warriors out there.

Before I get started, I wanted to show you a few pics from yesterday. They rumor was true. The Run family took up a collection of most donating a dollar and gathered about $400 for the little boy. Wish I was there when they gave it to him. We always say, "no need to pay me back, just pay it forward." What a great lesson for this young man.

He was seen waving to us as we left yesterday. What a cute kid.

OK back to today. Go Lance!! Few more days to raise money.

We have lost Ed and Lorenzo since they were only able to travel with us to Limon. Michelle and Gilbert join us thru to DC. Welcome. Our platoon is now up to 6.

Lances turn to give the signals. He did a better job than Courtney did the other day. But hers was funnier.

Today we are taking I-70 to Junction City going all the way across Kansas. It is flat, flat, flat. All the riders really need to be alert. Long straight road will be boring.

Did I say it was windy? Well, it was. We ended up riding staggered a lot today. I think i now have stronger neck muscles too. They really got a workout.

Let's hit the road. Wow what a beautiful sky.

The State coordinator for Kansas, Thumper, and his team, really knocked it out of the park. We only saw maybe 4-5 bridges that had no one on them. WOW. I will be showing so many you will get bored, but we did not. It was wonderful to see all the support.

I never get tired of seeing this. Little foggy this morning but clears quickly.

Did I mention that the land was flat? I think so but at least there were beautiful blue skies.

Everyone is getting the hang of the fuel stops. Piece of cake now but still is organized chaos. I once had a lady that would time the stops. Most of the ones she did were about 300 bikes in 20 minutes. Incredible.

Having a little fun at a fuel stop..... Here is one of the road guards guiding us and looked like he was dancing.

Not sure what Courtney said, but her dad was laughing at it.

Head down the road. YEAH more bridges. Some had lots of people and others only a few. Great to see the support!!! Did I say that once or twice?

The road guards will often sit on the right side of the road to check on how the pack is doing. Thanks Boots.

More flags. It could be many....

Or just one.

We head to Oakley for lunch. As we come into town, we are met with the Buffalo Bill Monument.

Fun Fact:

A statue high in a hill that represents how Buffalo Bill got his name.
Near the site of his hunting contest for the right to be nicknamed “Buffalo Bill,” this statue of Cody and an American bison is sixteen feet high and sculpted with 9,000 pounds of bronze.

In the spring of 1868 there were two Williams in the buffalo hunting trade around west Kansas; William
Cody, who supplied the Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat, and William Comstock, who fed the soldiers at Fort Wallace with his catch. To settle the dispute that they had on who the rightful owner of the nickname would be, they held a contest to see who could bring back the most buffalo in a day. Cody, with his large-caliber Trapdoor Springfield rifle he named “Lucretia Borgia” and his circling technique that kept his kills in one area instead of scattered, won the contest 69 to 46. The contest took place 10 miles west of the town of Oakley, and the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center was established there in 1995.

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Whenever we parade into a town, we have 2 bikes that lead us. They carry 3 flags: POW/MIA, USA, and the state flag. This means that we need to have a state flag for every state we cross.

Lunch is great and dining is outside. Temps are about 70 degrees and a warm sun.

We had a special surprise in Oakley today. Besides feeding us, they brought in the GoldStars Tribute Wall. This is amazing 90 foot wall with 7200 names on it.

I hope you can read this.

Each panel has stars with names of those that have died in Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.

This is a person that died from Hamilton, Oh.

We all signed a flag that was going to be presented to a Gold Star family later.

Group pic in front of the wall.

Send off with 21-gun salute.

Back on the road.

We parade thru Russell, KS. The hometown of Bob Dole. This town was so small, I do not remember seeing a gas station. There were about 3 miles of people waving flags. WOW.

Check this out. 2 officers in the median as we pass.