Tomorrow morning we roll west.

Getting excited.  Bikes are packed, we are ready to roll, going to be hard to sleep tonight.  Two more days and we are in California, two days after that we roll east on one of the greatest missions ever.  This is the 25th annual Run For the wall.  It is my 7th run and will be my 5th all the way trip.  I have many friends on this run, and am looking forward to talking to them in person again.  Ten days isn't long enough to get all the emotion out, but it is all we have.

Looking forward to all the flags, signs, yells, and hugs.  Looking forward to all those great overpasses.  Looking forward to everything but the end of the trip.   It is going to be a great trip, but it has every time I have done it.  Even when I get tired, or someone angers me, I have the mission to fall back on, and it is that important.

There are too many folks that have not come home, and if we do not do this America and Americans will forget.
We cannot let that happen.
Met a guy today who is a Vietnam Era Vet, he did not go there, and he said he has always felt bad about that.  Hopefully we cheered him up.  Hopefully he will take a look at the rftw.org web page, and then all he has to do is decide, plan, and pack for next year.


Bounce

Starting My Run to the Run. Wisconsin to Colorado. Two days

I left Wisconsin on Tuesday morning, skies were clear and blue, temps were well into the 60 degree range.  I left right on schedule.  OK for those of you who know me I really had no schedule.  I was already packed, and I was awake at 0430. Could of left then but waited till my Wife woke up at 0600, had a quick cup of coffee and some breakfast, then put on gear, kissed her and asked her to take this picture. 

The ride through Wisconsin and Iowa were pretty good, traffic was light, and no rain.   I got to Omaha and the skies were threatening.  I really hadn't planned to go further than Omaha, but got to Lincoln.  If not for dark clouds and lightening I might have kept going for another tank of fuel.  That equals about 180 miles with a 4 gallon tank and leaves 2 gallons in reserve.  I did not feel real tired, but 560 miles on a bike is a lot different than in a big truck.  Had a nice dinner and was asleep before 2100.

Wednesday morning I woke up again before 0500. Had coffee and checked the weather.  Bad news, rain ahead all across Nebraska.  I waited for the sun to rise, and skies were purple behind me and pretty black ahead.  But I went anyway.  After about 30 miles the wind picked up so I stopped at York NE at the Petro truck stop.  The Iron Skillet has a great breakfast, and I had coupons that brought the price down to dare I say FREE....anyway it was pretty good.  Except for the Kashi cereal, it is nothing like honey nut Cheerios, just saying, but everything else was pretty good.  Got into the restaurant just as a real Gully washer rain blew through.  Great timing.

The rest of the morning went well.  I was at about mile marker 125 thinking about stopping at the Pilot for gas when a very large Turkey Buzzard, or at least before it killed itself on my head lamp that is what I think it was, flew straight across the road.  I was doing the speed limit (that is 75 MPH in Nebraska) and feathers flew everywhere.  I do not think he survived, but then again I did not swerve, or brake, I just drove through him.  I was glad he didn't fly a tenth of a second later, cause he would have been between me and the windshield.  I am betting that would have left a mark and been a problem.  I stopped at the Pilot and checked for damage.  There was none, a little blood and a feather or two, but no cracks.  I was surprised cause that bird hit old Clyde pretty hard.
The rest of the day was uneventful.  I stopped for about a half hour in Fort Morgan Colorado to wait for a storm to pass.  I made it safely to my Brother and Sister-In-Law's house about 20 minutes behind schedule (see above note on schedules).  The Bear in the drive  way had the "Go Away" sign out, I laughed so hard I almost dropped Clyde in the drive way.  My Sister-In-Law has a way of making me feel welcome that is really quite special.
All in all the first leg was pretty easy, and I enjoyed it.  Managed to get a little over 38 MPG even with the wind, and a fully packed bike.
It was a nice two days.  Tomorrow will get tires inflated with nitrogen, makes them run cooler, and improves fuel mileage a little.  Or at least it did in 2011.

Memo to Clyde;
Once again you saved my but in what could have been a catastrophe....thanks

Bounce.

Correction.....I am not going to miss this years run

In a post I wrote a few months ago I was lamenting that I could not afford to do this years 25th annual Run For The Wall.  Then something wonderful happened.  The company I work for decided that I needed to do the run.  They are supporting me 100%. So much so that they paid for round trip air fare from Dallas, to Wausau, WI for me.  Also they let me through some creative thinking, complete my lease a little early.  The great part of this is that it will complete every year in April.  They won't have to fly me home next time, but they will allow me the time to do it.   For anyone who knows a vet thinking about getting into truck driving, tell them to do it.  Tell them that Stevens Transport supports Veterans and Guard and Reserve troops too.


So there will be stories here from this years Run, and pictures and videos too.  I have to figure out how to get the pictures here, but google has an application to pull them from my phone, so no extra camera to pack.

Have to decide which tent to take.  I am thinking the easiest one to repack will win, but won't know till tomorrow.

Pictures, and words to follow.

This Blog is not dedicated to Run For The Wall, but the writer is, so there will be lots of posts in the next 25 days about Run For The Wall.


Thanks everyone for reading.


Krazy the unabridged, embellished story will end up here.  I will leave out the part about you getting high centered and needing help in Santa Fe.  Ooops just told it.   :)


Bounce.

650 miles completed, 6350 left to go

I left Wausau Wisconsin this morning heading west.  I got to Lincoln Nebraska tonight, and plan to be in Colorado Springs tomorrow evening.  So far Clyde is performing perfectly.  He is getting over 40 MPG and running like a well tuned top.

I did not have many problems today.  I got a little tired at around 1500, but made it as far as I wanted today.  Looking forward to getting to Rancho Cucamonga on Monday.,  Weather so far has been great.  A little rain this evening, but it was light, and will be gone by morning.


I hope everyone heading to California has a safe trip.  The company I work for is more or less sponsoring me to do the trip this year.  They gave me the time, and flew me home so I could do it.  If you know someone looking for a place to work as a truck driver tell them to go to Stevens Transport.  There is no better company for a Vet to associate with.

Bounce.