Run For The Wall 2009 started off, actually, with a very inspirational dinner on Tuesday evening. It was a time to talk to old friends, enjoy some food, and hear from some special guests, including Medal of Honor recipients. The number of participants are down a little this year due, from what I hear, to the economy. We have about 220 motorcycles on our route.
Wednesday morning was full of excitement, apprehension, and purpose as everyone gathered to start the Run. As usual, the desert passage was extremely hot. However, on the plus side, I didn't have to bury a bike in the desert. We stopped for lunch in Needles, CA before heading to our first overnight stop in Williams, AZ. Just about the whole town turned out as for our parade into town. The local American Legion put on a whopping meal for us and the mayor stood and shook hands with every single visitor.
Day 2
We left Williams, AZ and headed to Holbrook, AZ for a lunch stop at the American Legion there. This town is located on, as is Williams, on historic Route 66. Holbrook has a wigwam motel and theater that looks very similar to the ones in the movie, "Cars".
Again, many in the town turned out to welcome us and the theater even changed their movie title on their sign to a welcome for RFTW. From Holbrook, we traveled to Gallup, NM for an overnight stop. 
Gallup is always special as the Navajo provide us with a traditional welcome home ceremony in full regalia.Day 3
We left Gallup, NM and headed north to Santa Fe, NM for lunch and then to our overnight stop at Angel Fire, NM and the first Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the country. Both yesterday and today have been unseasonably cool, but no rain thankfully. Angel Fire is a special place for Vietnam Veterans. It was started by a doctor who lost his son in Vietnam. He built a chapel on top of the mountain in this New Mexico town as a memorial to his son. Over the years, a visitor center and exhibition area has been added. After the doctor's passing, the foundation and the State of New Mexico worked out a public/private partnership that has turned the memorial into a state park and allow for it to have the necessary funding to continue. Here are some of the scenes from the Angel Fire Memorial.
Day 4
We left Angel Fire, NM heading down through a beautiful canyon ride. I really need to get one of those helmet cams! We traveled to La Junta, CO for our lunch stop. From there, we traveled to Burlington, CO for our overnight stop. Since we traveled the back roads except for the last 78 miles, we were able to parade through several towns. All of the towns had good turn-outs with everyone welcoming us and waving US and POW/MIA flags. What an awesome feeling! And, once again, Burlington, CO turned out the town as we paraded through and had the combined drum corps from their high school and middle school playing for us as we arrived. Once again, the day was unseasonably cool and very windy, but no rain.
Day 5
Today we traveled from Burlington, CO to Junction City, KS. Once again, we had unseasonably cool weather and, thankfully, no rain. We stopped for lunch in Oakely, KS and visited their new memorial.
Often times, as we travel the interstates, people will assemble on bridge overpasses to welcome us, show their patriotic support, and fly flags. Once we crossed into Kansas, almost every single overpass was lined with people welcoming us and flying flags all the way to Junction City. The town had thousands of people welcoming us and lined the last half mile of our parade route with people on each side of the street holding 3x5 American flags 
and then as we pulled in to stop at their memorial, they released hundreds of POW/MIA balloons into the air. 
It's great to see how much people still care about this country and what it stands for!That's all for now folks. For those of you wanting more, I apologize, but I don't have as much time to do the blog this year due to having more involvement in serving Run For The Wall. Stay tuned for the next update.
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