Up at 5:15 and to breakfast at 6:00. Last riders meeting of the trip. We had 95 miles to go for our first gas stop. It was a little chilly going through the Appellations of West Virginia, and the Cumberland Mountains of Maryland. The scenery is very green and the trees are small compared to our Oregon trees. The traffic was getting a lot heavier and there were more narrow escapes. A couple of bikes pulled in front of a loaded dump truck with an empty equipment trailer on the back. The truck had to jump on his air brakes so hard it left a trail of blue smoke and rubber on the road for a long while. I was praying that we would not see any bikes come out from under the truck. The gal seemed a little shook up cause she told me at the next gas stop that it was pretty close; being right in front of the truck like that. Joni and I had to pee so bad that when all the bikes, around 100 or so, pulled in for gas, we pulled into MacDonald’s across the street. Drew followed us and thought it was a great idea. We all used the restroom and Drew got us some hot tea. By the time, we got back to the gas station we only had a short wait to fuel up. I filled the chase truck again, ‘cause of all the things that Pappy & Pumper have done for Joni & I. I went into the store to get a Gatorade and saw the line to the restroom was at least 10 guys long. Steve said,” Let’s go. They can go down the road.” Boy I’m sure glad we have this stuff figured out. Restroom first, then fuel!
16 miles down the road, we stopped at the beautiful Maryland Veterans Cemetery. They had a couple of speeches, a single gun salute with three shots, & taps. Next followed a wreath laying by our crewmembers, with the father of the fallen soldier at the front. The Junior Marines were there as well. The youngest ones looked about 6-8 years old. We saw a lot of the same ones as the last two times that I went there. Valentine & Baldwin were two families’ that had multiple kids in the program. We all went through their line and shook their hands and thanked them for being there. They seemed very proud to be there. They put American flags on every single grave of our fallen veteran heroes for every Memorial Day weekend.
We hit the road again to do another 56 miles to our final lunch stop together. We went to Wendy’s and other people chose other fast food places near the gas station. I called my friend, Bob Larson, at the Country 103 FM radio station back home in Roseburg, Oregon. He called me right back when he was ready to record. I did about a 5-6 minute interview with him. I told about our NVAR ride and about what a good feeling it is to put smiles on Veterans faces. He said he is going to get copies to Kenny, and Randy, D J’S on other radio stations in the same building. That way he will be able to play it right away. After last year’s ride, I gave the newspaper a condensed version of my story. They ran it 6 months later! At least it will run now so it will get the word out about our Veterans before Memorial Day weekend.
During the meal, Joni said that she was feeling pretty fatigued. We decided to go ahead and fuel up and leave early to check into the motel room so she could rest. Randy & Cynthia, Drew & Cliff, Joni & I, and Gary and Nancy, who are a super nice couple from Illinois, all left before the group. As soon as we got on the road, I started to smell rubber burning, and the front end of the bike was feeling very strange. I signaled Drew that I needed to pull over. I had Cliff hold the bike up on the kickstand so I could roll the wheel around. It rolled very hard and made a lot of weird noise. I figured that my wheel bearings were shot. I just repacked them before we left. I tried to call Steve, but no answer. Just then, the pack rode by. All I could do was wave to everyone until the chase trailer came by. I signaled them over and told them, bad wheel bearings in front and I need another trailer ride. Just before they got the back door open, Drew said, “Milo, I think I found your bad bearings”. He showed me a groove that was worn into my brand new (before we left) front tire. It seems that about 27 years ago I bolted a cow head on the front fender, with about a 6” long bolt. The cow head has deteriorated a lot over the years and the bolt had finally slipped down and started to rub on the tire. I pulled the alligator head off the front fender and then got the bolt out of there too. I strapped the head on again and told the chase truck, “Thank you,” yet again!!! The groove didn’t look too bad so we took off again.
We passed all the riders and made our way into D.C. We got on 495 South for a few more miles. I pulled up in front of Gary & Nancy (who were leading us with their GPS), and told them that 395 was just six more miles. So I led the small group to our motel without any wrong turns this time!! We checked in with no line! Joni stayed behind to take a nap, and the rest of us got ready to go to the Wall. That is where our big group went first. Our motel is about eight miles South of D.C. Before we left, a guy yelled at me from over the balcony, “Milo, what are you doing so far away from home?” It was a guy named Keith, from Dallas, Oregon. He introduced me to Les that was riding with him. They are members of the Oregon Veterans Motorcycle Association, OVMA. Some good guys from our home state. We talked for a bit and we all left for the Wall.
We found where the other guys parked and joined their bikes. As we were walking to the Wall, we passed them returning to go to the motel. Boy I am sure glad that we are already checked in! We walked up to the Lincoln Memorial to take some pictures. We then continued on to the Wall.
Randy had visited a WWII vet in a wheel chair a few states back. When Mr. Perry found out that we were going to the Wall, he asked Randy to do him a favor. Randy said,”Sure, anything.” He started to cry as he told of his son, who was killed in Nam. He asked Randy to find his name on the wall for him. He just wanted Randy to look. Randy got a tear in his eyesas well and said,”Sure.” When we got to the wall, we looked up his son’s name, and found six Perry’s with the same first name. I believe he said he was from Indiana. We choose that one at panel 56 East line 15. Randy remembered the guy saying line 15. We found his name, took a picture, and did a scratching on a piece of paper. Randy will get the address of the hospital and send his son’s name to him. I hope that it will be a pleasant and emotional surprise. We then toured the WWII Memorial and talked with a few more people, before we tried to find the freeway back to the motel.
After a couple of wrong turns, we made it back. At 7:00, we left for dinner. We were just going to ride until we found something. Einar, Larry, and Paul joined us. We went to a place called Casa something, thinking we were going to get Mexican food. Wrong, it was a Greek place and we were very surprised. The food was great. An excellent choice by mistake. We had a great time and a lot of laughter. Einar was going to leave in the morning, as he had to get to Chicago to get on a plane back to Norway. Svein, Einar and Paul are all a lot of fun. We are going to miss them. They all say they are going to come back soon to ride in more of our USA. Back at the motel, we visited some more and finally went to our room. Another good day and lots of more new friends. Time for sleep. Midnight here in DC. Good night…
