Today is the day we all wish we were together with our RFTW family in Ontario ready to kick off our Run in the morning. Unfortunately that will not take place this year. However, our mission continues and I am very excited about our “virtual” Run. Please go to our RFTW.US website everyday during our scheduled run. Our website has “virtual runs” for all routes. Check out our Midway Hub for the daily SITREPs and photos. Today, we have our first SITREP posted describing our day before we leave Ontario. It is amazing! I want to thank Jim “Hoofer” McCrain for writing our SITREPs. Jim does an amazing job with them and I personally look forward to reading them every day. Today’s is based on the “Night before Christmas” and is very creative!
I was greeted this morning with a fantastic surprise on Facebook. Milan Elementary created a video for us. I must admit that it brought a tear to my eye. Milan and the children of that school are very special to our Midway RFTW family. It is encouraging to see schools such as Milan teach our children patriotism and love of our country and appreciation for our veterans. It really gives us hope for the future. I would like to thank Principle Clara DeArmond and her teachers for working with the children from their homes to put this video together and make this happen for us. We will miss our visit to Milan very much but we look forward to seeing them next year. The link for the video is: https://www.facebook.com/clara.dearmond/videos/3065867810144192/
Midway received some donations for Milan Elementary. I thank all of you who made donations. Rest assured that I will be a good steward of your money and the donations will be sent to the school. Our New Mexico State Coordinator-Tina Reeves , Cornman, Gearshift, Dan “TapOut” and “Shorty Sifford” will be going to the school to deliver the coins that Ray “Cornman” gives to the 6th graders every year. They are making sure that the class of 2020 does not miss out on their coins. They will also announce the donation that will be going to the school. Thank all of you for doing this and representing RFTW Midway so well!
Gunny Gregory made it to Ontario. Many of you have been following his journey on Facebook. You may even be joining him every morning for the Pledge of Allegiance! Gunny will begin his journey east in the morning. You can keep up with him on his Facebook page. I will be joining Gunny on his way to Arlington and will be bringing all of you, in spirit, with me! Let me remind everyone that this is not a RFTW sanctioned ride and we are not riding as a group. However, maybe we will see some other RFTW family members in Arlington as well.
As we continue with this virtual RFTW, I will be holding the drawing for the hotel raffle. Several of you sent in money for the chance to win “hotel” money. The prize is $1,000.00. You sent your money in so I see no reason not to draw for the prize. I will bring the names/tickets with me and I will ask Gunny to draw the winner. We will video the drawing and announce the winner Wednesday May 20th. Good luck to all of you and thank you for your support. The funds raised from this drawing will be used for our Midway fuel as promised, however it will just be used in 2021.
Please don’t forget about our Tour of Tennessee Reunion Fourth of July weekend. It will be a great event and we can once again get together as our RFTW family. Get your hotel reservations and register now. See RFTW.US Midway hub for more information. During the “virtual run” you will not see the normal Midway Hub menu. However, if you go to the Run Details tab at the top then Midway Hub, you will see the regular menu. I hope to see you all in Tennessee!
Remember to “Ride for those who can’t”. Again, from the Midway hub, print out a BIO to ride for. Remember to post pictures of your rides with the bios. It will be a great reminder of why we ride. We will never forget!
Ride and be safe.
Is it JULY yet?
Honor * Hope * Healing
Ken “Six String” Dugas
Ignore previous comment. The non-english speaking reservation got the dates wron. Took me awhile to figure out what shr did.