8 May

This morning we (except Mark) woke up to rain, thunder and lightning. We have just been hanging out for the past few hours with no real agenda for the day. Several officers that were here yesterday seem to have ventured off for some portion of the day. We understand that there will be numerous more riders arriving this afternoon/evening.

All will be happy to know that about 12:30-1:00 local time Mark woke up and is back in business. Seems to have had a 24 hour bug that has passed and needless to say is back in the groove. We are in trouble now :-).

These are a few pictures of a couple of the support trailers that are here in the parking lot. These are both from the local New Jersey area.

This is one of the support motorcycles that is at the hotel.

So since the early morning rain, the sun has come out this afternoon and it is supposed to be in the low 70's. It is a little windy and humid, but pleasant for the most part. We pretty much will just be hanging around the hotel the rest of the day. I am waiting for the bike mechanics to return to hopefully properly repair my bike.

We think there is some plan for a dinner or meeting this evening for everyone to meet each other. There are numerous people we have met so far that are veterans to the ride so we are just trying to learn.

Talk to ya later.

New Jersey

We made it to New Jersey about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. We were met by an Auxiliary Police Captain who assisted us in getting our luggage and on the van to the hotel. Very nice gentleman who is a lawyer in his full-time profession. On the van we met a female rider from Ohio and four guys from Utah. It took us about a half hour to get to the hotel.

Mark, John and I shared a row on the plane. Michelle unfortunately sat apart from us and at the "back of the bus". The flight attendants were all very nice. As we were nearing cruising altitude the flight attendant got on the intercom and let everyone on the flight know that, "we are joined today by some special guests. We have four officers from the Lakewood Police Department flying with us who are going to New York to do a bike ride in honor of their four officers that were killed in November. They are riding to Washington, DC. Let's give them a hand." Nice applause followed. We were also treated to dig-e players (movies, music, tv shows). Highly recommended on long flights.

Here are a couple photos of New York City on approach to Newark Airport. We did not get close enough to get a good picture of the Statue of Liberty, but we could see it in the distance.

After we got to the hotel it was a matter of finding rooms and getting bikes put back together. Three of the four went well. My bike has a little issue with the rear derailleur that we plan to get fixed in the morning. There are bike mechanics here as part of the Tour that assembled bikes and are helping with any necessary trouble shooting. The other three bikes went together well. Mark seemed to have a little difficulty as he was spiraling into not feeling well. He thought his bike box was locked (just move the latch) and thought the bike shop only packed one of his wheels (look under the lid). It was a good laugh.

Unfortunately the guys we met from Utah found out that their bikes were shipped to the hotel we will all be staying at in Washington, DC. So they basically had the option of taking the train to DC and back or driving. They elected to drive and were given the use of one of the chapter support vans. Sadly this is a six hour trip just for these guys to get there and back, not to include finding the hotel and getting the bikes. The elected to go tonight so that they can go to the baseball game tomorrow. Hope they have a safe journey and get some sleep later tonight.

Mark is sick and pretty much in bed this evening. We are hoping this is a short time illness that disappears quickly!!!

Not certain at this point what the plans are for tomorrow as it is a free day before the ride. A number of people from the Northern California chapter are going into NYC to see the Mets play the San Francisco Giants at 1:30. We don't have a great desire for that trip ... so we'll see and I'll let you all know.

Take off for New Jersey

Good morning all,

Well here we are at the airport waiting for our flight to take off. We came to the airport this morning and had outstanding support from the Port of Seattle Police Department. We especially want to thank Sgt. Jeff Hoyne and his people for helping us get unloaded and through the gat

Here is Mark's truck loaded up with gear for me, him and John. We also have Michelle's bike on board.

Here's John on the drive at the airport as we are unloading.

Here we are at the airport getting ready to go. Sgt. Hoyne took this one for us.

Somebody did not get enough sleep last night. Actually he did not get any.

Be in touch when we get to New Jersey.

Day before lift off

Good evening everyone,

Yes I should probably be in bed by now since we are leaving for the airport at oh-dark-thirty in the morning. I am pretty sure my fellow riders are still up putting the finishing touches on things. Today has been a last minute push to make sure everything is in order and ready to go. Our latest run around was making sure we had the right type of cases to transport firearms. What a headache!!!

So I promised photos of the ride coin. Because of the finish these are not the absolute best, but here they are. Have to work on that professional photography thing.

Today the article I referred to a few days ago ran in the Tacoma News Tribune. The link to that article is: www.thenewstribune.com/2010/05/06/1176084/officers-pedal-with-a-purpose.html. Please go to the site and read the article. It is a good one and tells a little bit more of the story as to what and why we are doing this.

Well off to bed so that I can get up and go in a relatively few short hours. We'll be taking some photos tomorrow and I will be back to post after we get to New Jersey.

Thanks to everyone for your support thus far and to continue as we "Ride for Those Who Died".

5 May

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!!!

Today puts us one day closer to leaving for New Jersey. Right now we are about 36 hours away from our flight taking off. Yesterday, today and tomorrow have been spent with a lot of last minute preparations by the riders. Tomorrow we will all get our bikes boxed up and ready for travel across the country. Nicely we have a direct flight on Friday.

Today was also nice as we received challenge coins that we had made as a fundraiser for the Unity Tour. The design is awesome. Look forward to a photo tomorrow.

We are looking forward to the trip, meeting new friends, having a great ride and honoring those that we miss.

For those that are in Lakewood, think about attending the live broadcast of the Candlelight Vigil on 13 May that is being sponsored by the Blue Light Coalition. I'm sure it will be very near as powerful as being there in person.

Great Visitors

Today we kick started National Police Month with a visit from a couple of Canadians. One is a retired Vancouver Sergeant and the other is a businessman whose brother is a former Vancouver Officer. For the past four years these two gentlemen drive a Hummer from Vancouver to Washington, DC. The kicker here is that the Hummer is all decked out like a police vehicle and the hood has the names of every officer that died in the line of duty that previous year. Today they stopped at the Forza in Seattle in rememberance of Officer Tim Brenton and then came to the Forza where our tragedy occurred to remember our friends Mark, Tina, Greg and Ronnie.

Here is the Hummer

Here is the hood with all of the names

.Here is the spot on the hood with our officers. The signatures are from family and the Chief.

Here is a close up of the names.

Oops forgot to turn that one ... :-)

Here are Deputy Gallagher and Officer Brenton.

Here is the spare tire cover with an awesome note from a little girl.

And "Hey", there's me with the ride.

These guys were awesome and are working very hard to spread the word about officers that are killed in the line of duty. Please take a moment to visit their website at http://www.salutehonor.org/.

Friday

Mark and I went out for the last big training ride today. We went about 75 miles. For those in the know we went from our homes down to the Centralia city limits and back. I think as a whole we will get in one or two more rides next week before leaving.

Friday marked the one week countdown to departure. We will be leaving the morning of the 7th to fly to New Jersey. We will then have a day (8th) to get things all squared away and then begin the ride on the 9th.

This week we will be getting all the little details taken care of so that we are ready on Friday. Figuring out how to put bikes in travel boxes will be priority #1. None of us have experience with this and are getting some help from friends and each other to make this happen.

We are all very much looking forward to the experience that this ride and visit to the National Law Enforcement Memorial will present us. The names of the officers killed in the line of duty here in Washington have been added to the memorial and we have been given the information on where Mark, Tina, Ronnie, Greg, Tim and Kent are placed on the Memorial.