Ride Journal

May 21, Day 9, Brookville Ohio to Bridgeport West Virginia

It was a pleasure to spend the night in Terry and Dee's home instead of a motel. It was pretty cool staying in their house last night and Jan's Bed & Breakfast the night before! Their dogs didn't know what to think of my bike with all the great smelling stuff on it! Dee made herself comfortable on the back of the bike and off to the VFW Hall for breakfast. I once again saw a lot of familier faces from years past, some going on the ride and some stopping by to say hi. Brookville is an awsome community, with friendly, smiling faces everywhere you turn! John and Lisa were there from the AMVETS last night. Lisa to say bye to every one and John to join us. We left with about 40 bikes or so.

We went out I-70 east to 675 south and 35 east to 50 east. Don’t worry, I didn't have to find my way, I was good with following like every one else except Steve (Headdog) Moore who is doing an excellent job of getting us all the way across our beautiful country.

113 miles later found us pulling into a fuel stop at Chillicothe where we were greeted by the good people from that area including riders from AMVETS and American Legion. It was great to see a lot more familier faces from past rides join us again. We rode across the street to the local school. They had a program waiting for us, including a student band and a few speakers too. Off to the side a BBQ was being prepared for the massess. It was a huge display of food and a great dessert table too.

I got a phone call from Randy at the radio station back home in Roseburg to do another update from their “roving reporter”, Rat Bike Milo. I did an update and hit on some of the highlights of the last couple of days. It sure is a great thing when we can get more of the word out about the reason why and what we are doing as the NVAR by going to schools and to visit Veterans too. It was a two hour lunch stop and visiting with the kids. Very rewarding!!! We all rode away knowing that we installed a little more knowledge of the Veteran status in those kids!

90 miles later was another fuel stop at Parkersburg. It was getting a lot warmer than before. 89 degrees from what a thermometer said. The state line was just a couple of miles down the road. Last year I didn't realize that the state line was so close so I left my helmet strapped to the bike. I figured that I would change it and I made it the 70 miles to the VAMC with no cops or problems. I tried it again this year but not with the same results. I heard a horn honk beside me and who did I see when I looked over? When I'm not wearing a helmet when I should be? I try to look extra careful for the arrival of the Men in Uniform. I don't know how I missed this one but I was looking right at a West Virginia State Trooper. He pointed to his head and then pointed to me and he was shaking his finger to me as if to scold me. My helmet was in my lap so I put it on right away. Not two minutes later another state trooper passed by. The second one was to be our escort to the hospital. I'm really glad that I only suffered the finger scolding and not a ticket. If I did get singled out of the crowd I was going to tell the cop that I wore my helmet part way in Iowa where there was no helmet law and that should count for some good time in this state! No, huh? Oh well, a good ending anyway!

This stop found a lot of people waiting for us, including another TV news crew. I don’t know why they always seem to come to my bike right away (yes I do!) but I did the first TV interview there. Yes I am focused on the mission of the NVAR and not too much on the bike! A couple dozen of us went into a fairly new wing that is a State run nursing home that houses 36 Veterans as of now. They have room for a lot more when the time comes. We all talked to a lot of them for quite a while and one nurse told us that one WWII Vet could really sing. We all stood around him and he acted like he did not want to sing. He finally asked "what do you want me to sing?" One of the gals said sing your favorite song. He did not come up with anything so I sugested, "God Bless America". Boy you should have seen his face light up when he heard that suggestion. As soon as he started to sing, we ALL joined in. It sounded GREAT! The other patients were smiling if they wern't singing along too! What an awsome sight. The nurses loved it too. We went downstairs and outside for some more conversation with the Vets soaking up the sun.

After an hour there we went a short distance to dinner at the Clarksburg VFW Post #573. The guys and gals were very glad to see us come back again. One of their officers said that he started looking forward to this day weeks ago! This is to be our last group night together. Headdog gave out a lot of certificates of Appreciation to people including me for being a good PR person, Ambassador for the NVAR among other things. I think comic relief was in there somewhere too! We heard a few more people talk about their experiences too and Vince from Schneider Trucking told us that he has been with a lot of groups while driving the MIA/POW Patriotic Truck, but never with a group with so much heart that has been displayed on our mission. It was a very touching speach by Vince. At first he was going to join us in Laramie, Wyoming for only a couple of days, but soon realized what he was in for and told the head office that he wanted to go all the way to DC with us and do the Rolling Thunder Parade with us too! He was given the green light! Very cool!!!

We then said our thank you's and went a few more miles to Bridgeport for the night. It was there at the motel that Steve and Lee form Roseburg caught up to us. They had a couple of great service related emotional stories to tell. Ask them about it when they get home! It's now midnight and 5:30 am comes quick......