Day 9

When I woke up I found that Chaplain Dean had gone out and already bought us a breakfast of burritos. Then they left me in the hotel while they went and took care of some business. Meanwhile I had to clean up the hotel room and get ready.

When they got back Dad took me with him and we went over to the patch booth. There we were finally able to buy the patch I had wanted yesterday. The man at the sewing machine got it sewed onto the vest, I paid him and then it was over. All I had to do now was fill in the states I had ridden in with ink.

We got some lunch with the others, then went to the nearby Harley Davidson Dealership. Chaplain Dean had to get his tire replaced and Chaplain Duane needed his bike tuned up before we got on the ten day cross country trip, Run For the Wall. A mirror had broken on the way to Rancho Cucamonga and now Dad wanted it replaced while we were still there.

Dad got his mirror and we went to the Chaplains' meeting without the other two, who were still busy with their bikes. When there, we met with the other Run chaplains and discussed things like which of us would pray for who in the mornings and who would stay with someone if they got hurt during the Run. It is the Chaplains' duty on the Run to stay with someone and pray for them when they get in an accident.

Then we went into a large building and had our first dinner completely supplied by the Run. It was very large and good. Then a program opened up with a pledge to the American Flag and an invocation, followed by a welcoming by Mr. Mark Rittermeyer.

Then another person came and sang "Run For The Wall," a song completely made for the Run. Then a few others came up to the stage and spoke a bit. Two of them spoke about soldiers they were related to that had never returned from missions in Vietnam. Run For The Wall is a cross country motorcycle run to raise awareness for P.O.W.'s and M.I.A.'s, which stand for Prisoners Of War and Missing In Action. All that is to help those people.

They sang another song and did a few other things. But I saw on a pamphlet Robley Rex, a 107 year old man I had met last year on the Run. I had gotten to shake his hand and talk to him briefly, but now I saw on the pamphlet that he had died. I got to meet him just in time.

But then something good happened. Raffle tickets were being drawn and just as Dad reminded me to take out my ticket, it was called! I went up and got a shirt. It was pretty cool.

After that it was just about over. We fueled up and went back to the hotel.

When Dad tried putting on the other mirror that evening he found that it wasn't the right size and that we would have to take it back to the store. But it was too late that night, so we just got into the hotel and went to bed.