This beautiful collage was created by Terry Menges. Central Route stopped at the LaJunta, CO, Walmart parking lot for food and fuel, and Ms. Menges was a citizen who sent us her impressions.
The following photo is from Lee Aitken:
Morning briefing in Burlington, CO
Official Sit Reps for Central Route:
May 18, 2008
Day Five - Burlington to Junction City
It was yet another chilly morning as we woke up from our good times the day before and headed to the staging area for breakfast provided by the VFW. We continue to have safe days of riding and are making more and more good friends as we go. While the day will start out cool, the sun and heat are just down the road. As we pull out, we are 197 bikes strong.
Our first gas stop is also our lunch stop as we have a time change entering Kansas. We fueled up and then headed a couple of miles down the road escorted by police and our big flag bikes to the park where burgers and dogs provided by teh VFW are waiting. While we wait in line for food, we have a short ceremony, presentation of the colors and the National Anthem.
Aferwards it was back on the road to Bunker Hill for gas and then on in to Junction City. This is the first year we have stopped in Junction City and they did not disappoint! The town came out to watch us parade in to town. As we made the last turn in to the hotel parking lot we were greeted by hundreds of flags, people standing at attention and waving. It was a beautiful and touching site. We had a spaghetti dinner and then buses waited to shuttle us over to the Veteran's Memorial for a ceremony. After the ceremony, the American Legions opened with more food, drink and good times for all. The people of Junction City are a proud, compassionate and thoughtful group. They proved to us how proud they are of our vets and we look forward to seeing them again next year! Thank you Junction City for making our first visit here so great!!!
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More from David Talley:
Burlington CO to Junction City KS. One minor incident, another guy pretty much just dropped his bike, have not heard much about it except from Road Guard, who said the guy was OK. Saw three Stevens Trucks, one O/O one Alliance and one Company truck, all headed west. Very little truck traffic headed east on I-70. Tomorrow we start at Junction City KS and end at Wentzville, MO All of it on I-70. Not sure of route through Kansas City, but we should have lots of Police support through there. We did last year. We had approximately 350 Bikes today. We have 40+ Trikes and bikes with trailers, and at least two side cars. Pack length today was over three miles, and we were pretty tight. These guys are riding like it is day 8, not day 5. Hopefully KC won't be too bad. It is the only major city that we ride through that worries me. We have a lot of new folks, but the old hands are making it work pretty well. The truckers know what is going on, and 98% of them support what we are doing. If you have any one headed east through KC on I-70 let em know we leave Junction City at 0800 and if they brake for Krazy or Bounce we can let them know what is going on. We may have as many as 400 bikes tomorrow.
