Friday, May 22, 2009

Day 19: The Final Day of The Run

When we got up it was cold, but not very wet. We had camped in grassy fields at a state fairgrounds and the tent had mostly dried off from the night before.

We got repacked and went to a hotel parking lot, where the last morning meeting was held. After it ended we got on the road. We had three eighty-mile long legs of the trip to go.

The first one was pretty nice. We stopped and, since we figured out the refreshments truck would not be with us any more, stocked up on the free snacks. We had to take off soon.

It was hot on the next leg. Chaplain Dean's bike was acting up and he rode in the back near us until we stopped again for lunch. Dad fueled up quickly and tinkered with the bike a little. The clutch was not working right and it looked like it might stop working completely on the next leg.
We got some lunch and took off, hoping we could make it to Washington DC on this very last leg of Run For The Wall. I prayed the whole way, with Dean and Dad both having bike problems.
We had the smoothest, most weather cooperative ride into DC there had been in years. The bikes worked well too.

We rode into DC, parked and were there. We had finished the ride from LA to DC in ten days. The Run was over.

But not the mission of the Run--we still had to go to the Vietnam Memorial. But that we could do later. For the day, we just got into the hotel room we were sharing with Chaplain Arnie Swift, the assistant coordinator. We bought some pizza and spent the day there, trying to get some rest after ten long, hard days of riding across the country. We had started with over 100 bikes. But as we rode into DC there were around 1,000 people, all riding their motorcycles!

We had finished the long trip to DC.

3 comments:

  1. ZACH AND ROLLING THUNDER

    WELCOME HOME!!!!!

    for flag and country,
    Parts and Bunny

    ReplyDelete
  2. COngrats on the long haul! You did it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad you had a great run and made it to D.C. safely. Enjoy the rest of your trip!!

    ReplyDelete