Run For the Wall May 18, 2011

The mission begins today. We leave California for the start of our 10-day journey to DC. The RG’s staged at 0515 so we could get to the staging area. Once there we were all assigned different duties. I relieved one guy whose job it was to direct the riders to the platoon they are assigned to. I did that until I had to leave to join the team I was assigned to. I was part of the Exit team..

By the way, when we left it was cold, windy and raining. When we started out, it was still dark. There are five of us on the team. So we just move down the highway at a steady pace. We rarely had to slow down as most of the traffic was heading in the other direction. About half way to our first gas stop, the rain stopped. It was still windy and cold. We arrived in Coachella Truck Stop and filled up. The Advanced team was getting setup for when the main body arrived. It is amazing how hard and fast they work once the main body arrives. They can fuel over 200 bikes in about 15 minutes.

Our job was to direct the riders to the next staging area and make sure they didn’t try to stop at the fueling location. The riders already know who we are so pretty much follow our instructions. After the last bike is fueled, the Advanced Team Leader collects the money from his team and goes in and pays the bill. In the meantime we hang out, take a break or do what we want for a few minutes.

The Advance team will then mount up and head to the next fuel stop. After some time, we mount up and head to the same stop. The next stop is in Blythe, of Ca. This small town goes all out for us. Not only does most of the town line the streets to wave and cheer, they feed us lunch. While we are eating, the high school band plays for us. They also have a missing man table set up and tell us what it signifies. I have heard this several times and it never gets old. It just touches your heart.

After we left Blythe, the rest of the day was just riding on to Tolleson, Az. We did have other fuel stops but they went well as usual. Also, again this year as we were going thru the desert, we would go under an overpass that had people cheering and waving flags. No matter were you looked you couldn’t see anything but desert. These people would just get there around the time we were expected by, just to show us they supported us. I have seen this for the last three years and always affected by it. Sometimes more than others.

Our Ambassador’s go up to these people and talk to the all and tell them how much we appreciate seeing them there. That is one of the jobs of our Ambassadors. They also stay back after someone has fed us the make sure those people also know how much their efforts mean to us. Is that a great job to have or not? The Ambassadors are all former Route Coordinators and also State Captains. They are people who have put a lot of time and effort into making Run For the Wall so special.

I do have a confession to make. Today is actually Thursday. I started this yesterday evening but was so tired I couldn’t finish. I would drop my netbook when I fell asleep, or I would have to erase the 20-30 identical letters that would appear when I fell asleep. Finally I just shut down and went to bed. I no sooner laid my head down and I was fast asleep.

I will get started on today’s blog when we get to Odessa, Tx. Friday afternoon. So far this has been just as exciting for me as the past 2 years. The farther east we go, the better it gets.