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Central Route 2017 – Day 1 – Ontario, CA to Williams, AZ

May 17, 2017. The first fay of our journey and it was a great one. Beautiful weather to start before the sun came up in Ontario and we were crowding into the parking lot just north of the Radisson. The excitement was electric and all of us were ready to get started as we renewed old memories of past RUNs and looked forward to this one. We left the site at 8:00 just after the presentations and a brief fly over showing us the missing man formation. Harry “Attitude” Steelman,  gave his last speech as President as part of the ceremonies and presented to us the current BoD members. After a short time of prayer we were off like a herd of turtles. We quickly made our way to Barstow and then on to Ludlow and on to Needles. The weather was very good with a high of about 85 degrees, which is much better that the usual 100 degree heat. The people of Needles came out in force in their usual hospitality and had a good nutritious meal and some ice cream and cookies to top it off.  We had a  performance by the Fort Mojave Tribal band. Dr. Edward Paget, M.D. is mayor of the City of Needles and he and others made us feel very welcome and appreciated. I think the thing that we appreciate the most is of course the great food but the genuine hospitality is very treasured by all of us.

We covered a little over 400 miles today and we arrived in Williams Arizona at about 7:00 PM, doing a short parade for the great people of Williams and then on to the Hall. We were cold and very hungry and their great homemade food really hits the spot. Two ladies that were part of the Ladies Legion Auxiliary were Dorrie and Katrina.

See you tomorrow, Roger “Pops” Hageman



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