
RFTW Southern Route Newsletter February 2026 Run For The Wall Mission
To promote healing among all veterans, their family and their friends
Call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War & Missing in Action (POW/MIA)
Honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA)
Support our military people all over the world
Hello everyone! I trust you all had a great New Year’s celebration with family and friends. Blanca and I celebrated in our home with each other and woke up to balmy 49 degrees with a high of 69. As of 1 February, we’ll have 102 days until KSU.
Thank you to everyone who has signed up for the Southern Route thus far, taking advantage of the Early Bird pricing. The regular registration fee is $120 as of 1 February 2026. I recommend that you register before you arrive in Ontario (rftw.us), saving the hassle of doing it at the Registration Table. Top Sarge and her team will be glad to help you with registration if you have to wait until you arrive.
While we’re talking about money, Pre-Paid Gas is a good thing and it will save you money, not to mention the hassle of reaching for $10 each time we stop for fuel. I figured that if we have to pay $10 for each stop on The Route, that’s 24 x $10 = $240. You’ll be saving $80! I’ve used it for the past several years and to me, it’s well worth it! To save you the trouble of doing the math, the pre-paid gas charge will be $160.
REGISTRTATION

I’m going to let everyone know that registering early makes it so much easier for all concerned. As a rider, you’ll have comfort in knowing that you’re squared away before getting into Ontario, that your registration is done, and you’ll get to visit with Shirley’s Crew to pick up your packet and check in with Bravo 6 to confirm your platoon assignment. Please remember that FNGs are not permitted in the Side-by-Side platoons. If, however, you’ve demonstrated to your Platoon Leader your riding skills are exemplary, you can request a transfer to one of the Side-by-Side platoons. The PL will chat it up with me and the Platoon Coordinator, who will assign you to a Side-by-Side if it’s agreed upon.
POSITIONS STILL OPEN
We have a few positions that still need to be filled. We need a SITREP (SITuation REPort) Writer. This position entails observing what we do on The Route on a daily basis and posting it on the RFTW Forum. The SITREP Writer is a reporter for the route. As a SITREP Writer, you’ll have the freedom to participate in outreach programs visiting Gold and Blue-Star families, interview leadership folks that interest you, and spend time with support teams like the Fuel Team, Staging, etc. We also need a Social Media person who would post the day’s happenings on the various social media platforms. These two positions are the ones that get information out to those who follow us as we cross our nation or can’t ride but like to know what we’ve been doing.
We also need a 50/50 Raffle person. That person would supervise the 50/50 donations and the raffle and auction we have during our evening meal at our overnight stop in Wytheville, VA (the meal is killer!). I’ve assisted the people who do this, and it’s a handful. That’s why we have two slots for the 50/50 Raffle. As last year’s ARC, I saw what a great job Lynette Handleson did last year. We need a couple of people to step up and help us. One more thing for the auction, if you have anything you want to contribute to the auction, please let us know about it asap so we can inventory it and be fully prepared. We thank you!
COOL STUFF
Angie “Den Mother” Holterman came up with a fundraising idea and it’s really cool. We are designing a Southern Route long-sleeve t-shirt. The shirt will be Navy Blue (they don’t have Army Blue) with either white or black lettering. We just sent our ideas to the t-shirt printing guy, and he’s going to send us his rendering of our ideas. Once we settle on the design, we’ll be able to get an estimate as to the cost, and we’ll pass on the information. We will be taking orders as to size, and we’ll make them for those who pay in advance. We don’t want an overstock, as they will have a date on them.
Also worth mentioning, now that we are getting closer to KSU, this is a good time to start planning maintenance needs for your bike. Whether it be tires, tune-up, fluid changes, or some other thing that has been bugging you, please start making the plans now. We want everyone to be safe and not have any breakdowns or accidents due to a maintenance issue.
I would like to thank everyone who has signed up for the Southern Route and those who will. Thanks to our State Coordinators, Platoon Leadership, Team Leads, and my Exec Team. Without their support and guidance, we wouldn’t be this far along with our planning.
May will be knocking on our door real soon! KSU In 102 days! Ride safe!






























Due to circumstances beyond our control, Midway Route Photos from previous runs are no longer available.