We've REALLY got the fever now...

Got an update from Bill Sloan - 235 riders and passengers have now registered for the August 2009 American Legion Legacy Run. Of these, 160 (including us!) have already indicated that they will travel the entire 1,200-mile route in August.

In other news, ALR Post 180 as well as other area ALR Posts rode to Bunker Hill KS to greet the Run For The Wall riders. This is the 21st year for the event, which aims to promote healing among ALL veterans and their families and friends, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (POW/MIA), to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars, and to support our military personnel all over the world.

Brenda and I really have the fever to get going on a long ride with a couple hundred of our closest friends now. Here's a link to some photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2020523&id=1529325895&l=c503e6a6cd

Had a lovely weekend of riding...

Since Brenda was off visiting her niece in Corpus Christi TX, I did a little riding. Went to Wichita Friday night to see Kansas perform at the River Fest, then back that night. Home by 2am Saturday, then up and out at 8am to ride to Oakley KS to help with a Welcome Home for a Sailor returning from 18 months at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan, then to Garden City on Sunday for an ALR Director's meeting.

















Oh, and along the way I broke the 50,000 mile mark on the Wing:


I'm going to do another Iron Butt ride, just as soon as I can find an open weekend. This time it'll be the "Bun-Burner" - 1,500 miles in 36 hours.

Before you know it, it'll be time for the Legacy Run again!

What economic slowdown?

I got an update from Bill Sloan - 189 registrations are in so far, and the official ALLR hotels in a couple of the stops are already full! (Glad I got our KS group's reservations in already!). The ALLR staff is publishing routes to Indy from elsewhere, so as soon as I hear from the other KS riders we'll add ours to the list.

Also - I heard from Bill Sloan that there are 145 registrations and 25 passengers so far and the run is still four months away.

I'm on Twitter now - my username is TrailerTrash180. I'll be using it to send updates prior to and during the run. On a personal note, my father Jerry Krueger (US Navy - Korean War) died last Sunday and the funeral is tomorrow. Our participation in the ALLR this year will be in his honor.

139 Days and counting...

We got more info over the last couple of days: some details on the route, the highways we'll be taking (LOTS of good curvy stuff), and some hotel info. But the real kickers are two special events: A visit to Wright-Patterson AFB and the Air Force museum, and a very special honor - participating in a wreath laying ceremony at the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA. No doubt that this will be a trip no one will forget.

146 Days and counting!

I should have posted this sooner, but on February 15 we were asked to come to the Ness City ALR meeting and show our slide show again. Thanks to Loren and Lynette Stenzel and all the members for their hospitality.

Legacy Run Info: In the last few weeks we've gotten some details about the run, the general route and the dates. We also got our registration forms a couple of weeks ago, and sent them back already, of course. I must admit I was proud to mark "No" for the "First time participant" question!

Here's part of the press release from the ALLR Committee:

For the first time, the ALLR will move east from Indianapolis towards the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Final route planning is underway with cage runs conducted over the next several weeks. However, initial plans are to traverse the states of Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia on a 1,000-mile loop returning to the start point of Indianapolis, Indiana. After a day of rest and meetings at the home city of The American Legion’s national headquarters, the participants will mount up again on Sunday, August 23 for the final leg from Indianapolis, Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky, to lead off the 91st annual national convention parade. Registration will open by March 15, 2009 at www.legion.org.

Let's go! We're ready!

Thanks, we'll be here all week...

We seem to be rock stars now. After presenting our little slide show for the Post 180 ALR, we got asked to do the same for the Legion meeting. Now it sounds like we're taking our show on the road to a couple of other posts out here in Western Kansas! That's fine with us - the more people we can get excited, the better. More $$$ for the Legacy Fund and more riders on the Run next year!

Yeah, yeah, I know. The clock is ticking on our 15 minutes of fame...

Wrapping up...

We've been back for 4 days now, and we're ready to get back on the road! We got to show a few of the 1,233 pictures we took at the ALR meeting at Hoisington Wednesday night. I'll also be showing those pictures at the Legion meeting next week, and I have them uploaded to a web album, which you should be seeing to the right of this blog entry. You can click on the album to see the pictures larger.

The overall contributions to the Legacy fund are now over $515,000 dollars and Kansas' share is now over $40,000! Wow.

We can't wait to see what the route is going to be for next year. Until then, we'll have to busy ourselves with getting started on fundraising for the 2009 Run, along with all the other ALR activities. It was truly an honor to take part in the Run this year, and represent Post 180 and Kansas.

We're home!

Got back Sunday night at 9:45pm. Tonight I'll post some pictures from Friday, Saturday and Sunday to get you up to speed. For those of you at Post 180, I'll have a slide show after the meeting Wednesday night at Hoisington.

I think the donations for the Legacy Fund went over the $350,000 mark on Saturday, and will likely go higher yet.



Here's Socko announcing the final total for Kansas at just over $38,000!




More later...

Mission Accomplished!

Woohoo! After 5 days and 1800 miles, the Legacy Run is over. We are no longer rookies! You can bet we'll back next year.

We rolled from Gallup this morning at 5:30 local time, and arrived at Legion Post 4 in Tempe at about 1:00. Along the way we traveled an absolutely beautiful road through the Salt Fork Canyon. You have to see it to believe it.

Temps started out in the low fifties, and stayed fairly cool until around Globe, AZ. It was funny watching everyone shed leather jackets and chaps (yours truly included) while moving up in the gas line every 15-30 seconds.

From there things steadily got hotter, until we arrived in Tempe at 108 degrees. (How do these people survive here?) We had a lot people that turned out to watch and wave in Globe, and we got a great welcome from the post in Tempe. We had one minor incident where a rider clipped a vehicle at a stop light and went down, but was able to ride her bike on into Tempe.

At the lunch hosted by Post 4, more donations were turned in, bringing our total so far to over $242,000, and tomorrow we should add a significant amount again.

Tomorrow we will participate in a parade from Post 4 to the Legion Convention, with lots of media and press coverage. We hope to have as many riders as possible to maximize the impact of the Legacy Run.




Damn, it's early...and dark. Dave Schoonover from Hutch tells us at the briefing to watch out for deer and elk. Fortunately, we didn't see any.







I know this is a bad picture, but it shows the snake of taillights stretching out for 2 miles in the dark.










Heading south in Hwy 77.









Also on 77, in the Sitegreaves National Forest.







Leaving our gas stop in Globe AZ. We knew we would have police escort out of Globe, but five minutes before leaving the cops told us they wanted us to take up two lanes and ride 4 abreast. We haven't done that at all in the previous 1,700 miles, but we pulled it off. Looked pretty cool too.






Pulling into the Legion Post 4 in Tempe.








Socko presenting Commander Conatser with another donation from Kansas.






Here is the Legacy Run Staff, who put the ride together, did all the planning, and gave up riding to make sure it all ran smooth. These folks are awesome.





The Ride Captains. They encouraged, pushed and prodded us until we worked like one big well oiled machine.



Next year the national convention is in Louisville, so we're not sure what form the run will take, whether a loop or something else. Stay tuned.

New Mexico Rocks!

Today was New Mexico day. Started at Tucumcari in the east and travelled to Gallup in the West. Along the way we stopped in Albuquerque for lunch at the Albuquerque Legion Post 99 where we were treated to another great meal. From the NM border, we had an escort from the State Police, the Alb police and several sheriff depts along the way. In fact we had the interstate all to ourselves going through Alb, as the police had every on ramp blocked as we went through. They much have 50 mounted officers. The State Patrol blocked ramps for at least 50 miles west of Alb as well. They rotated from one exit to the next, and after we all passed one ramp, the officer would flash past us at 100+ on the their BMW police bikes. Very cool. I think they were ejoying themselves.

We started seeing some higher temps today, close to 90. But we had several rain showers that would cool us for a few minutes so it wasn't bad at all. Tomorrow will be a different story, with temps around 105 in Tempe - and they're having a cooler spell right now!




I know these pictures of a line of bikes get a little old, but I think I have a couple of good ones here that are close to being in focus.







You really can't visualize being in a group this big for this long, but after a couple of days we all really start working well together. Even the lead ride captain, "Uncle Dick" says we're doing great.







Here's one of the motor officers escorting us through town.







The police bike in the left lane is doing well over 100, or 40 mph faster than we are. If you weren't ready for it when they came by, it would scare the crap out of you.



Well, I'd better get to bed. KSU (kickstands up) is at 5:30 tomorrow morning. Later!

Day 5 - Rain...and more rain...

Yep,we missed another day of blogging. Let's start with Monday - we left Fort Leonard Wood and had a great ride, leaving the interstate and travelling for a few miles on the old Route 66. through the towns of Catoosa and Claremore. Had lunch at Post 308 in Mohawk, OK. Very good brisket. We rejoined the interstate, and started to get a few drops of rain. Not enough to stop and put the rain gear on, though. Getting through OKC was a challenge - but eventually we made it to the Biltmore (or less) hotel. I don't recommend it. About the time we got there it started RAINING and did so all night.

We awoke to the same driving rain on Tuesday and put on the rain gear. After the usual briefing to start the day, we splashed our way west on I-40. Stopped in Clinton Ok and was treated to coffee and donuts by the Legion post there. Moved on into Texas, and stopped at Shamrock for lunch. The Post not only fed us a fantastic Texas sized meal of ribs, brisket and all the trimmings, but they paid to gas up all of our bikes! They really do things bigger in Texas.

Coming out of Texas, the rain began to slow and finally stopped, and this strange and wonderful yellow ball appeared in the sky, and seemed to follow us into Tucumcari, our destination for the night. We had a great dinner at the Elks lodge, co-hosted by the local Post. We were finally able to present our check from Great Bend, along with Wichita, Hutch and several other KS posts. All together our donation today was over $21,000, with more to come. The grand total is now over $250,000, with more to come.

Instead of staying at the regular chain hotels, tonight we're staying at the Blue Swallow Motel, a Route 66 landmark. Brenda and I stayed here a few years ago on a trip and loved it. Pictures are below.

That's it for now...



I meant to post this Sunday, but here we are with Commander Conatser. Pretty cool guy.






Gas stop on Monday - while it was still dry.








Route 66 and the bridge at Catoosa.








Riding in the rain.







Presenting our checks to National Commander Conatser






Our lodging for tonight. We even have a garage to put the Wing in!

Day 4 - The Ride Starts!

Plenty of movement, even at 4:30 am.





Socko and Jeannie






Flamingo Lisa.








Here's the main group of bikes....





And here's the trailer trash.
















How about we go for a ride?























Several overpasses had people sending us off.









The first gas stop.















Bikes for miles...









More tomorrow!

Day 3, after the fact...

I apologize, but we just didn't get to it yesterday. Too many things to do. We stopped by the post several times, went on a wild goose chase for a tire for another rider's trailer (3-1/2x8" tires are very hard to find in Indy - go figure). Anyway here are some pics from the day.


Brenda with Jeannie from Wichita







Indianapolis Post 64






The only yellow Wing. The only yellow bike, in fact.





Road Captains meeting. Zzzzzzzzz....







Went for a ride, along with my ear...





That's Socko and Dave







...and we're back!






Hmmm...much more people than earlier.






The Kansas delegation!





The flights - note that we're in flight F1, reserved for trailers, trikes and sidecars. We're the trailer trash.







Presentation of some of the fund raising proceeds. We're waiting for a day or two and will present the entire Kansas donation.