May 14, 2018 - In Ontario

Today is a beautiful day.  Larry and I had several meetings today.  Met a few more RFTW family.

Larry and Ron with Papa Smurf.  He was an ARC (Assistant Route Coordinator) our FNG year, 2015.
Another new term:  FNG.  Fine New Guy/Girl.  :-)   These are  first time riders.

 Terri and Jim Sloan.  Jim is Last Man.  This position is very key for the RC.  He will let him know then all the bikes are on the highway.

First meeting  is a finance meeting.  Ken  (Catfish) is the RFTW Treasurer.  There is a lot of logistics to get so many people cross country.  You saw the list in the post from yesterday.  Many of these teams will have money involved.  We need to be able to keep track for the books.  Jenny and Ken have binders and spreadsheets for ease of keeping track.  All 3 route are in this meeting.

Note: there are 3 routes that go cross country: Central, Midway and Southern.  To see the actual routes, you can go to RFTW.com to see it.

In the lobby, there is this map of the United States.  People will put in pins of where they are from.  It is amazing. There are people from all over the states.  Remember I introduced you to a family from Alaska.  We also talked to a guy from Hawaii.  He has his bike shipped instead for renting one.  Now that is a big expense.  He has been doing it for years.  This is worth every cent was his comment.  We need to continue this mission.  We need to bring them home.

All bikes are backed in.  Here are a few pics of them around the hotel.

In the parking lot are the merchandise trailers.  You can get shirts , patches, coins.... Roger "Cowboy" Mead (one of the first riders) said this and is it on the back of the shirts: 

All Veterans 

Need a Welcome home

And a place

To reflect until they all have

A wall of their own

It's only right

To share ours.

Cowboy's granddaughter is a road guard on the southern route. 

This is the next generation to keep his missions going.

The hotel provided a hose and towels for anyone that wanted to clean their bikes. Amazing how many bugs hop on for a ride to CA.

OK next meeting.  This is for the leadership.  So everyone that has jobs to do.  Again if you look at the list from the prior day, this is a large number of people and they are all there.  We are running on the Central Route.  Each route has their own leadership meeting

We start  with the Pledge of Allegiance. Veterans will salute and other put their hands of their heart.

 Prayer from head Chaplin , Curtis

 Harlan (Whitebirch) walks thru all the teams.  These teams are tasked with the safety of the pack.

Example:  everyday the road guards have a meeting 1 hour before the platoon meeting. They get updates as to any road changes, contruction,  how to set up for fuel stops,..... and then they send a representative to the platoons during their meeting to inform to them.
There are sooo many more team and I hope to show them as we go.

 If you notice the are several color of hats.  Each team get s different color.  This help those in the platoons (not part of leadership)  know who people are so we can help with any questions.
Example: Red = Road guards, Yellow = fuel team, Orange = Platoon leaders and tail gunners......

So one of the teams I have mentioned is the Staging team.  This team lines up the platoons every stop.  They normally have signed with a number or a letter.  Here are a few pics from last year.

This year the box was shipped to Ontario and has not shown up yet.  Seems it is lost in a big warehouse or a truck not yet unloaded or.... So this is a big issue. The staging team went to Walmart today and got some supplies to make signs.  Paper plates for the numbers and large paint sticks to put them on. They had 3 people sitting at a table trying to make 4 signs per number  (2 for platoons and 2 for tail gunners per platoon).  So to have numbers on each side you needed 8 plates per number.  WELL in true fashion, the RFTW family pitched in making them.

Start with 3

 Add a few more....

 ...... and a few more ......

 ...... and a few more ......

 All talked about how their kids would love to be here coloring, or do not grade me if I go out of the lines, or are the any more markers I will help......

112 plates.

 The finished products...... Should work!!!!  

Had to move them to someone's room.  Could not stay in the lobby.

Also found out that the Southern route was also missing their staging number and Midway have theirs but many were broken in transport.  We may be getting the group together to color again tomorrow.  LOL

One day left before we leave.  Everyone is anxious and making final checks.

Remember :  Freedom isn't Free.