RUN FOR THE WALL Jean and Larry: Day 4 of the Run

FYI. I have updated more pics from yesterday.

So far this trip has exceeded all my expectation. Also Ken and Jenny Ward never stop surprising me. Last night , Ken asked Larry to be the Tail Gunner for his platoon. He needed a person to step in for 2 days until we meet up with their son. We are really getting to experience so many aspect of this ride. Larry is all set and a bit nervous but honored Ken asked.

We get up in the morning to ice on the bike. Lord my butt will freeze!! It is 37 degrees and no rain!!!! Yeah. I have 6 layers on, and a heated seat so I was pretty comfortable. Could not move much but was not freezing. LOL

Next thing we find out is that Dave ( the other Tail Gunner) has a flat tire. oh no!! Larry has do it alone? No. Ken got that fixed :-)

I do not remember this last night. It was beautiful

For the HOG chapter, this road was amazing and beautiful. AND the sun was out.

Every day or 2 there is a “break out” team. This is either 1 or 2 platoons that will go to a memorial. They will leave about 20-30 minutes ahead of the other platoons. Today was our turn. We went to Cimerron. Several people were there showing their support of our mission.

I forgot to show you picture from when Platoon 9 and 10 had it (Tim sent me the pic) . These are some of the metal from 911. Please remember those lost.

The day was absolutely beautiful and as we came down the mountain it got a bit warmer.

We got to the first gas stop before the rest of the platoons. It was pretty neat seeing what we look like. Here is Jenny welcoming the riders

As the bikes enter town, the flags on the first bike are unraveled

This is how we come in.

Then take over the whole station.

They have everyone come out, young and old.

Colfax County Young Marines. They were so cute and very good. Some had a little problem standing still.. Lol. They all shook our hands.

One of the RFTW missions is to bring everyone home. Every morning, the leadership will read a person and their bio that is MIA or was a POW. They then ask if someone will carry this person to the wall. ( It is on a lamanated sheet and many carry it in their windshield).

RFTW presented a plaque to the mayor, thanking them as we always do. But this day was very special. They mayor had stated that after 47 years, they brought the remains of Master Sargent James Holt home to rest. Brian is standing next to me and is in shock. This is the person he carried with him last year when he road to DC. We both had tears in our eyes. There is a comment that is used a lot on the ride, and it really hit home with the incident. "This is why we ride, to bring everyone home".

Back on the road again.

I have so many pictures of people on the side of the road, waving, soluting and cheering. This one hit home for me today. They display it proudly.

Beautiful. I wish you all could see this...... absolutely gorgeous.

We see this not only in towns but out in the middle of no where. I am sure i will post more of them. The patriotism we have seen on the trip is ..... cannot find the right words.

Clouds followed us all day long. I am not sure how we dodged most of it. Probably from the prayer from home and all the people we have met. We would be heading into it and it was looking real bad on the left, then we would turn right into beautiful skies.

THEN we got hail!!! oh my goodness does that hurt!!!!. we do not have full helmet and a 50 MPH, it is like BBs. Good thing it only lasted 5-7 minutes. Check out the size of the hail on my pants. They were about the size of a #2 pencil eraser.