Above, left, a last-minute Road Guard Meeting before traveling to Arlington. Above, right, "Nice jacket, Rich!" Below, Final Morning Riders' Meeting, Lewisburg, VA
Above, the magnificent view of the pack from Judy's chase truck, "coming out of the hills."
Above, right, Waterpoint "The Blue Hats" - plus Grumpy
Below, left, "D.C., here we come!" Below, right, "Boy, they let anyone in the Fuel Crew."
More from David "Bounce" Talley (sent on 5/24):
Sorry I did not send this last night. I took advantage of the chance to actually go to sleep before midnight. We made it from WV to DC without problems. Skeeter (Our last man truck driver) told me today that for the first time ever chase one and chase two were behind him. The Pack looked great as it rolled in. I rode in ahead of them to help set up staging so that everyone could get off the high way safer and faster. We registered another 70 or so folks at Rainelle. The big pay off for me is always the greeting at Rainelle. I rode in with the advance team there too. It made me think of what it must have been like for the first group twenty years ago. there were about 25 bikes then, and we had about that many too. We made a wrong turn and got to do a very interesting uturn at a dead end of a gravel road. Tight and banked into the turn, with a 4 inch pipe sticking about 4 inches out of the ground. But every one made it. Then we rolled into Rainelle. The streets were lined with people, and unlike when the pack parades in there was no police coverage to keep intersections clear, that made it interesting, and we went to set up the turn around point, and the street in front of the school I saluted the pack as it rolled in. We had about 400 bikes. The food was wonderful, as it always is. I delivered my Wife's hand made bookmarks with her letter to the school and pictures of myself, my Wife and Big Trouble Mister making the book marks. Then I called Judy and handed the phone to the principle. He told her that everyone loved the book marks last year and the year before. Then came lunch, BBQ and all the fixings. It was great. Then our ceremony was great too. A piper played as doves were released. The birds flew in formation over the school grounds while the piper played amazing grace. We raised about $18600.00 along the way. Pato Pato presented the kids his leather skin with a patch for all of the ten years that he has been on the run. He raised $600.00 so our total to that point was $19,200.00. Then like normal someone added $100.00. This has become a tradition. In about 5 minutes an additional $1400.00 was raised taking the total to $20,600.00 for this years run. This was great. We had one Donor who gave $10,000.00 and we riders matched him dollar for dollar plus some. Lewisburg to DC was ok. At the lunch stop after staging I rode on into DC ahead of the pack and advance crew. I got the chance to stand a little down the street from J.R. Franklin and mirror his salute of the pack. It felt great and they looked good coming in off the high way. I met and shook hands with all the friends from our route, and a few that I know from the Southern Route. The mission was essentially complete at that point.
Today I rode to the Marine museum in Quantico, VA. The place is huge, and very nice. The have a display that folks walk through a vibrating helicopter body down a ramp and they are on a hill that the Marines took in Viet Nam. The temperature goes up by over 20 degrees, and the display is emotional and a little scary and awesome all at once. This museum is only partially complete. They have a store there that has a great deal of really neat stuff. I am going to put the address in my blog tonight.
After the museum our group rode to the wall. We sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for our traditional group photo. Then I had a personal mission to complete. I went back to clyde (the name I use for my bike, if you have seen my blog you know that) I dedicated my run this year to the memory of Keith Matthew "Matt" Maupin. His story, picture and part of the eulogy I wrote in my blog were on a laminated sheet on the front of my bike. I wrote the words on the paper, and cannot read them. I took a copy and the original to the wall. As I walked along that list of names carved in stone, I thought of Matt, and how young he was and how much he will miss. I then stopped at the apex and read my words to myself. I then posted the copy at the wall. I have the original and will return that with a dog tag with Matt's information on it to his family. The parade is tomorrow. CSPAN usually has a live feed from the staging area. We will stage about 0600 and the parade does not start until 1130, then the park police stop bikes rolling seven hours later. Then I head home so I can go back to work. Quite frankly I need the vacation that working will be compared to what I have been doing for the last 12 days.
Mission Accomplished
Dave Bounce Talley
Trk 1926
