Day 6 – Led By The Cops, Chased By a Storm

I know I’m getting redundant about the hospitality we receive in the towns we stop stopping, but if you’ve never been on RFTW my feeble attempt to describe it cannot do them justice. Actually got to bed by 10:30 last night and slept solid til 4:45 am.   Riding to breakfast at the Fraternal Order of Eagles this morning at 47 degrees felt warm compared the the few previous days. Great breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, fruit, juice and coffee. Then off to our “Orange Hat” meeting.  Orange hats are platoon leadership. Then our all rider meeting.

There two states we pass through where we have police escort through the entire state, New Mexico and Missouri. Today when we left Kansas and entered Missouri, our two wheeled friends in Blue, well, the Sheriff’s are in brown, were waiting for us. Who else gets all the traffic off I-70 so they can pass through with ZERO, NADA, ZIPPO cars or trucks.   Maybe the POTUS, maybe not, but RFTW… yesssireee..  by the way, that’s a cop car in the left lane next to us.

More wavers on the overpasses, there were lots more that I didn’t get pics of. Also many off on the side of I-70

Pulling into Concordia for lunch is always a treat and they have a great ceremony honoring veterans.

IN the food line I met a WWII veteran, Melvin Rehkop, who was in the Battle of the Bulge. I told him I had an Uncle who fought in that same battle.  Here’s a little info on Melvin.     https://www.theconcordianonline.com/story/2528936.html

The ladies serving us were just delightful and thank us for riding and stopping there. These folks deserve a medal. They work so hard to prepare for us to arrive, feed us and clean up after we leave and are overly excited to do it. They are rock stars in my book.

Even at our fuel stop in Columbia Missouri there are people waiting for us to arrive.

Rolling into Wentzville, Missouri VFW Post 5327 is like showing up at a family reunion. They have a great ceremony which always starts with a prayer, the pledge of allegiance and has the mayor along with chief of police who both address the crowd. It seems the whole town comes out.

A local sings the national anthem and there is a 21 gun salute followed by taps.

When we arrive they have water, hot dogs and tap beer for those who want. FYI – not me when I have to ride…period. For dinner, it’s hot sliced roast beef and gravy (over bread if you like), mashed potato’s (more gravy), green beans, corn, lemonade or iced tea, and all kind of desserts. Today I opted for the apple pie…  excellent choice if I must say so myself. So, no pics, had my hand full. After eating, it was to the hotel just a few minutes away. There’s a great church just across the road and down a little from the VFW where we will stage in the morning and shuttle up to the VFW for breakfast… More on that tomorrow…  The church told anyone who was camping that they could sleep inside their auditorium tonight as a huge storm will be passing through. That Blue Dot is us.

Snow it’s late and time for some shut eye.Prayers are always welcome so don’t be shy, God’s always listening.

More to come

Thanks for following,

bruce