Day 9 – May 22, 2014 I’d like to start with a hearty welcome to Al and Annette Voorhees, the winners of the Wall Gang’s Essay Contest. We hope they enjoy the ride. Yesterday’s Missing Man riders deserve recognition. Thanks to Tony Jackson and Mike Swinscoe. We said a fond farewell to Brookville today with an excellent breakfast at VFW Post 3288. Thanks to Greg Hanke for his generous donation to the ride. So many of our Brookville family turned out to wish us safe travels. We love you all and look forward to seeing you next year! Riding Missing Man today will be Bill (Mongo) Luft’s sons, Will and Logan Luft. As we were traveling in road construction on 675 South, the unthinkable happened. One of our riders, Marla Brundies, went down and was seriously injured. Last word was that she is in critical, but stable condition in Miami Valley Hospital. Her son and parents have been notified and are making plans to be with her as soon as possible. Also injured were Joe Sokolik and Einar Lubrekk. Joe has a few scrapes and a sore knee. Einar has an injured ankle. They’re both going to be sore tomorrow. Kudos to Will Luft! His excellent riding skills kept him from becoming involved in the accident. We are so very grateful that the injuries weren’t worse. We took Marla and Joe’s bikes to a Harley Dealership in Chillicothe, OH. Marla’s son will retrieve her bike as soon as possible. Joe is arranging to trailer his bike home next week. He’ll be continuing with us to DC, riding in one of the vehicles. Please join us in praying for Marla’s speedy and complete recovery. We’ll be checking in regularly to monitor her progress. After all of our duties during the road emergency, we were unable to make the scheduled visit to The Chillicothe VA Medical Center. All of the riders visited the Vets for a short time because of our tight schedule. However, a squad of 10 or 15 riders volunteered to be left behind to continue visiting as many Vets as possible. Next was our stop at the wonderful Southeastern School in Chillicothe. The faculty and students always have an excellent program for us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t unable to see it this year. However, we were very gratified catch up with everyone in time for the lunch that they provide. It looked like the table was a mile long! It was groaning under the load of home made dishes of every description. Everything was absolutely delicious, especially the desserts. The sun was brilliant for the most elaborate picnic you can imagine. It surely did sooth the souls of some weary and traumatized riders. Thank you so much, Southeastern School. You are really the best! Refreshed from our super lunch, we traveled another 88 miles to the Clarksburg-Louis Johnson VMAC in Clarksville, WV. Beth Brown was so glad to see us. She said that the Vets had been asking her all day when we were going to arrive. What a warm welcome we got from everyone! One of the highlights was when we found William Dean who, with wife Shirley and their son, was celebrating his 76th birthday. William was an Army Vet in charge of building bridges. After a few of us visited him and said our good-byes, we met a crowd of our guys in the hall. Of course, after he heard of William’s birthday, Crazy Larry gathered a whole gang of riders to go down to the Vet’s room and sing not one, but two rousing renditions of Happy Birthday. William said he’d never forget this birthday! His family blessed and thanked us for our dedicated mission. Then there was the one very sick Vet who was so frail that he couldn’t speak. As happens so many times, the contrast among the men and women we visit are often polar opposites. Most of the time I can honestly say that we left them in better spirits than we found them. At least, we hope so. Ctista, one of our guides and a hospital employee, was so very gracious. She’s been taking care of us for years and expressed how much she appreciates our positive influence on all of the Vets we visit. On the way out, we ran into James Jones, an Army Infantry Vet who served 8 years in Iraq. We awarded the War on Terror medal to James, and basked in his brilliant smile and hugged away his tears. God, I love this ride! It’s amazing how our time with the Vets goes so quickly. Before we knew it we were on the road again to ride 10 miles to our last stop, VFW Post 573 in Clarksburg. We were greeted at the door with a handshake; greeted again with a beautiful flag pin; then served a fine supper and, by George, More yummy deserts! I think we’re all going to need a diet when we get home. We also found anther War on Terror candidate, Donna who is the Sr. Vice Commander of the VFW. Donna served as a flying crew chief in the Air Force. This was also our last family night. Jerry introduced and thanked lots of us that help out with the ride, and all were grateful for the recognition. It really is a huge job to coordinate everything for the ride, and for that we thanked Jerry. He told some funny tories. For instance: Ron Immesoeti suffered from allergies. He would try to get relief by spraying his nose while going 70 miles per hour. Of cours, the wind would catch it and fly in his fase, and into the face of anyone down wind! Ed (Silvertop) Kintzele gets hungry while riding. His wife Sandy (Fancy) Kintzle feeds him from the back of the bike, which is fine; until the wind catches a ju-ju bee or cookie and slams it into the helmet of whomever is, again, down wind! Jerry tells it a lot funnier than I can relate it here, so we really had a great laugh. Ed Kintzele also gave our special buttons to all who were in Auburn, CA. We were supposed to do a ride-by of the Bowman school so that the kids could see the bikes. Well, we forgot. So, in our shame, we will wear the pins he had created for us. They show kids teary-eyed and they say: Remember all the little children of Auburn. Very cleaver, Ed! Jerry then invited anyone who wanted to get up and say a few words on what the ride meant to them. The stories were very personal, touching and poignant. One story in particular was very heart wrenching. Golden Dad Dave Clemmons has been riding since 2003. He read an incredible letter telling the story of his son, EOD Brad A. Clemmons, Air Force, Highly decorated hero, a son, a husband and father of four. We are so blessed that Dave chose the NVAO as riding family to pay respect to his son. We will always be here to support him in his personal mission. Thanks, Dave, for sharing the life of your remarkable son. Well, dear readers, it’s been an emotionally exhausting day and it’s late. I’m not going to proof-read very well, so please excuse any errors. Until tomorrow…Julie
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 03:28:53 +0000
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