Day 9 – Almost Heaven – West Virginia

After a great breakfast in Hurricane, after the Orange Hat Meeting, after the All Rider Meeting, after our Platoon Meeting..  meeting after meeting after meeting… but don’t get me wrong, it’s all good stuff. The last two things our Route Coordinator leaves us with at the end of each morning’s all rider meeting are:

1. An ode to the fallen in Australia, and it goes like this:

They shall not grow old as we who are left behind grow old

Age shall not weary them or the years condemn

At the going down of the sun and in the morn

We shall remember them

Lest we forget

2.  He ask’s, “How far are we going?”

The response is shouted by everyone, “ALL THE WAY”

Eamon, ” I couldn’t hear you.”

Louder Response, ” ALL THE WAY”

Then we are dismissed to our platoon meetings.

On the ride from Hurricane to the capital we passed the kids in this school bus.

Our first stop today was the West Virginia State Capital.

The beautiful dome is having restoration done and has scaffolding all around it.

Once again my friends Perry Bennett and Deanna Spelock were at the Capital to greet us. Perry is the West Virginia Legislative photographer and many of these pics I stole from him.

If you look at the group photo near the right side down in the very front, Ted and I are sitting on the ground in white shirts with our arms around our knees. After the group photo, we mounted our iron steeds for the next, the elementary school in Rainelle in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia 70 miles away. This is one of the most beautiful rides on the Run with waterfalls in beautiful rocks, rivers, and lush forests. However we pass through very economical y hit towns. Your heart goes out to these people yet they are enthusiastically out there waving flags as we thunder through.

Pulling into Rainelle is always a highlight of the Run.

These kids are such a delight. Many of them are children of parents who were just like this 3 decades ago. They come up to you with autograph books they have made and ask you for your autograph. We always have little goodies toggle each child. I stop at the local recruiters offices, tell them about the Run and they provide pens, pencils, stickers, pins, and other great items for the children. This school is where all the donations many of generously contributed as well as all the collections, raffles and donations collected on the Run. The total was nearly $25,000 this year. My sincere gratitude for those of you who contributed.

After the autograph session we have lunch in their cafeteria. Notice the flags of all the armed forces on the wall AND the MIA/POW flag.

This is Elma, she works in the cafeteria was such a delight.

The halls are lined with photos and newspaper articles of RFTW from all the years…  31 of them. I was talking with the principal on my way out and she told me they spend the whole month of May teaching the children about Patriotism and it’s history. Here is a principal who has her value system correctly placed.

Day 10 coming up…   Washington DC.

Stay tuned and thank you .

Bruce