Ride Journal
May 16, Day 4 - Cheyenne to Grand Island NE
Yesterday in Wyoming a car with Oregon plates passed us and then slowed down and displayed a sign the passenger wrote, that said: "Hi Milo". The windows were tinted so I don't know who it was. I recon that I will find out later.
Another thing that was memorable happened in Cheyenne at the VA hospital. A guy named Jerry came up to me and was very glad to meet me. He told me that a picture of me and the Ratbike are up on 'The Wall' over in Iraq! He is back from his second or third tour and is almost ready to retire. The Wall, from what I understand, is pictures of a lot of things that remind soldiers of home. He said that our picture was very popular over there! I asked him to email me a picture of the wall if possible. He said he would try but his unit is back home now. What a great feeling that soldiers overseas can see my bike and smile!
We got up at 5:36 cause that’s what time Terry set the alarm for. Terry is from Brookville, Ohio, one of our favorite stops where we will be in a few days. Terry and I have been room mates for the last 3 days. His wife Dee (hi Dee) sang him happy birthday with a lot of help from the VFW Hall last night. They were apparently celebrating his birthday early, and without him! I made sure that our group sang the song on his real Birthday, today. Happy 61 Terry!
We went to the American Legion Post 6 for breakfast. We were joined by Herman and Jeff who rode west from Nebraska to join us. Baby Face Steve also joined us from Colorado. He was signed up to be a road guard right away. After the morning riders meeting, we got bundled up. Yes it was another cold morning. A very cool police escort and two motor cops stayed with us to the county line. 102 miles later and our first fuel stop was in Sidney, Nebraska. We were joined by a few more riders.
Next found us in the Central time zone and a fuel/lunch stop in North Platte. They have a sweet memorial to a lot of wars and are in the process of installing bricks with the names of fallen service people. The North Platte Fire Department sent a HUGE ladder truck and a couple of GIANT sandwiches to boot! A big thank you goes to the Fire Department and the capable hands of Tom and Ed who were there for us. One of them climbed part way up the ladder and took a couple of group pictures. I am supposed to get a picture emailed to this Web site. A couple of familiar faces showed up to meet us as well. I was sitting across from Lee Paterson and Steve Barnhart both from Roseburg Oregon! Lee is a retired Roseburg school superintendent and Steve is a retired Oregon State Trooper. It's great to have a couple more people, especially from my home town.
We hit the road under blue skies. It was cold and overcast and a bit of dew earlier in the day. We did not do the interstate from here on out. We stayed on State Route 30 to Kearney for fuel 99 miles later. Boy oh Boy were we treated to a huge surprise. There were a couple of bike groups waiting for us in FORCE. With our 35 or so 'all the way' riders and the new group, I hear we were about 180 or so strong! It was a very long line to do the last 56 miles. What a sight that must have been. This was the largest group that pulled into the Veterans home to date! Earlier Buzz asked me to join him in the front row, behind the first five man missing man formation and the road guards.
Bill is the State Coordinator and he did a super job along with his wife in getting all this organized! There were a lot of Veterans waiting for us to talk to them. Guys and gals alike. Smiles all around because of this days very successful mission! I was approached to see if someone could do a LIVE tv spot. I told them that I was up to it. We had 2 minutes to do a spot. Of course I ran over and was cut off at 2 minutes!. Live TV gets NO second chances! I was told that I did an awsome job and that I should be the National Spokesman. I politely declined. After that I brought my bike over and sat on it for a longer interview. This time I was able to go on more about our mission, the NVAR ride, and what visiting our veterans means to us. I was also able to mention my sponsor, Oregon Tool & Supply in Roseburg and Coos Bay Oregon, once and ratbikemilo.com twice!
I asked the gals to send me an email of the spots from NTV in Grand Island. After a few more speaches we headed over to the VFW and American Legion hall a couple of blocks away. It was for a sit down meal that was taken care of by Headdog. I talked to Robbie, a fellow shovelhead rider. His front exaust bolt came out and he showed me a picture of his fix with wire to hold it 'close' to the head. I told him that I'm proud of him, cause in order to ride a shovel or pan or knuck you have to be able to adapt, overcome, & improvise! Larry was also a cool guy to talk to. The guys & gals from this area seem to have a handle on how to have fun, organize stuff and have fun still! Thanks again to the great folks for a wonderful reception here in Grand Island, Nebraska!
We headed to the Motel 6 for the night and we will hit the road again at 8 am...........
