RUN FOR THE WALL Jean and Larry: May 22, 2022 - Day 5 to DC

May 22, 2022– Day 5 – Limon, CO to Junction City, KS

WOW the prayer warrior must have been working overtime. It was an absolutely beautiful day. A little cold at 37 this morning but planning to follow the route. Everyone dressed, packing up and heading to breakfast.

Courtney rides with Jenny so she got cab service today to go to breakfast. (About 2 miles down the road)

Ron and Jamie

Larry and Jean

We got to breakfast and I ask Courtney how many layers she has on? She said 10 on the top and 4 on the bottom. I am surprised she could walk.

After breakfast there are platoon meetings. There are people that are just joining and as a reminder to those riding, we go over all the safety rules. This morning Scott got an interesting gift. On the first day, he hit some gravel and almost went down. He did a great job keeping the bike up and maintaining his composure. At the next stop we asked how he was doing. He said ok but needed a new pair of underwear… hahaha

You have heard me talk about platoons since the beginning. Let me explain a little more and how the parking goes.

Steve and Chuck work for many many many hours on this.

Steve has a booklet of every parking lot with its dimensions. There are over 50 lots. That is a lot of planning.

The ideal situation is for a big enough parking lot to have them next to each other. But when you have a street that is narrow, you have to line them up back to back. This lot has the platoon all over it. The numbers in red represent the platoon number. And guess what. If there are 18 wheels or other items in the lots since the pics were taken….IMPROVISE (there is the word again).

This is the actual dimensions of the lots.

Now to complicate this, the platoons do not line up in the same order every day. Example :

Day 1 - Platoons: 1,2,3,4,5,6

Day 2 - Platoons: 2,3,4,5,6,1

Day 3 - Platoons: 3,4,5,6,1,2, Etc.

Now this is the simple version. We have 13 platoons. One platoon has bikes and trailers, so they need more space. 2 platoons are 3 wheel bikes. So now try and figure out how to combine all of them.

The ideal situation is for a big enough parking lot to have them next to each other. But when you have a street that is narrow, you have to line them up back to back. The list below, tells Steve the order of the platoons. The order is needed for the next leg. My mind is spinning.

You have seen pictures of Dadbo. He is our platoon starter at every stop. So the order of the platoon changes every day. Confusing right? Sometimes he has to go to different sections of the parking lot to get the right order. SO the staging of the platoons is critical to the order they go on the road.

Here is the order of the platoons by day. Platoon 10,11,12,14 are the trikes, and bikes with trailers. They are always at the end except for day 9. Sorry it's too small but hope you can read it a little.

Before the pack gets to the parking area, the staging team needs to know how many bikes are in each platoon. Remember this changes pretty much every day (people leaving and new ones added). They mark numbers in the parking lot and step off the space needed. MORE parts to this staging team. Now you know why when I say what a great job, you get it. They have to go out in front of the pack to set up.

Ok back to the day. We are in position 1 today. Tomorrow we will be at the back of the pack.

As we leave you can tell they must have had their fair share of snow. Glad we missed that one.

Today we traveled I 70 all the way to Junction City KS. Kind of boring , right?

Well wait til you see some of the overpasses!!! You thought I was bad with pics of the land, just wait.

At our first fuel stop, I see 2 guys talking. They both have road names of Thumper. And they tell me there is a 3rd somewhere. Sorry, I kind of forgot to mention that most everyone gets a road name somehow. Some you do not want to know how they got it. The Thumper on the left is the Kansas State Coordinator. These are guys who help with the gas stop, talk to towns about food stops, get donations for food and volunteers for meals. The list goes on.

All those layers of clothes, Coutrney needed a little help zipping them up. LOL

Rick is one of the road guards from Florida. I asked him how it was going and he said not so good.. Oh no, why? He said “ I am from Florida, not liking the cold much”. Hang in there it will get warmer (I hope).

Today we had about 3 rigs honking horns and giving thumbs up as the left.. This is a first.

Tom likes tootsie pops. He even has a unique place to hold them. If you look, it is one of his patches on his vest with the stitching off the top.. How creative is that?

Now into Kansas. They have knocked it out of the park for the overpasses. Thumper said he worked really hard to get a lot of them covered. I would guess that maybe 70% so far have had someone on them. Thanks Thumper.

Remember I talked about the parking lot spacing. Check this out!!! There are 3 pieces of a windmill in the parking lot. WOW, these are huge !!!! This gives you a little idea of the size of them.

Heading down the road to Oakley for Lunch

There is always a bike in the front of the pack with flags on it. State, American, POW. So now that is maybe 14 state flags that have to be carried. Thank you chase vehicles.

This young lady is 97 and she lives in the house across from the part where we have lunch. Seh LOVES the bikes and is so glad to see everyone every year.

Oh My Gosh!! You are looking at our future. What a better way to teach them about America.

The gentleman on the left side designed this. And the rest of the family helped complete it. This is amazing.

This is the memorial. It is beautiful and each panel lists thoses that have died by branch of the service.

OK Here you go. Kansas knocked it out of the park…

Heading off the exit to Russell. This is a little town we have not gone thru before. What a reception.

4H in the green shirts walked around and handed out chapsticks.

Though you may be on flag overload so I threw in a landscape pic. Love the sky.

Heading into downtown Junction City…. WOW!!!!

As I head down this street, I get a big lump in my throat and tears. It happens on this mission. Something hits you and ….. The people have come out by the hundreds. The support , the flags, the cheering…. we are Americans and very proud. As we traveled that last several days, we saw this all over the states. The good outways the bad always.

Love this!! Speaks volumns about Americans !!!

Kansas Vietnam Veterans Memorial

It is constructed of 7 black granite panels and stands 13 feet tall and 46 feet long. Four of the panels bear the names of 753 Kansans killed in action in Vietnam. Another panel displays the names of 38 Kansans who were still missing in action in 1987 from the southeast Asian war. Two military decorations, the Purple Heart and the Vietnam Campaign ribbon are also engraved on the panel with the MIAs. The remaining two panels depict two soldiers in larger-than-life size.

Retired Major Bonnie Templeton was the Master of Ceremonies.

Presenting the colors.

Lt. General Perry Wiggins was the guest speaker. We have our freedom because of the men and women that serve in this country. But the cost of freedom can be very high. He thanks the Run for making sure we all remember this.