Additional

Hello everyone,

Sorry that we kinda dropped off the face of the earth there. Once we roll in to DC there seems to be many things going on and time is short.

I wanted to let all of our followers know that the day three post was not the end of the story. I will be posting information for day four and the couple of follow on days very shortly.

We thank you for following along with us!!!

Ride day 3

Today was the second of our long days. Once again the sun was out and the weather was great. We have been spoiled this year with the weather. After speaking with several people along the route today that have done the ride for multiple years, this year is by far the best weather. Today was the day of the ride last year that was just miserable for us. We had temperatures that were probably in the mid 40s to low 50s and it rained in the afternoon. Kinda like home actually :-). So to be able to ride in sunny weather was great. We actually paid a little more attention to our surroundings rather than focusing on making it to the next rest stop and ultimately Annapolis.

Essentially today's ride took us through the city of Wilmington in Delaware and then out into the Maryland countryside. We spent most of the day riding through small towns and lots of pasture land. They are certainly in full swing of preparing for crops as the smell of manure was quite thick at times.

Here are a few pictures from lunch time.

And here is the ride marshal at work :-)











So after we left the lunch area we were tooling through the countryside when a helicopter appeared on the horizon. Shortly thereafter we realized it was a Maryland State Police chopper. Last year we briefly saw the chopper as we were coming into Annapolis. Today it hung around for little while before disappearing. At one point it hovered near the head of the pack for a bit while several bikes passed under. It was very neat to see them again this year and to hang around for so long.

The day ride ended with our arrival at a park just outside of Annapolis. Here we loaded our bikes on trucks and were bused into the city and to our hotels. After spending some time getting cleaned up Mark, John and me went downtown for dinner. We found Annapolis is a pretty neat city and wished that we would have a little more time to explore. It was nice to sit outside and have dinner and interesting to see the Naval Middies walking around in uniform. The campus to the academy is huge and parts of it border downtown. Here are a couple shots from the ride and a one from the academy, where it is very possible that one or more of the members from Seal Team Six attended that took care of business recently. And of course where many more leaders are being molded to do great things in the future.

Tomorrow brings our final leg of the journey and our arrival in DC. Again the weather is forecast to be great. We are very much looking forward to the ride into the city and to the Memorial again. We will also hopefully get to see Michelle tomorrow. She has been particpating in the challenge ride which takes a different route into DC from New Jersey. They began riding on Tuesday and will meet with us at RFK Stadium to ride to the Memorial. It will be good to see her and hear what she has to say about her ride.

We'll update you all tomorrow on our arrival. :-)

Day 2 - 10 May

One hundred mile day #1 is over. We have another one to go tomorrow and then the home stretch on Thursday.

We put in 55 miles before lunch. There has been alot of talk on the ride amoung those that have ridden before that the pace seems to be faster. This was validated a little later this evening when I spoke with one of the motor support officers who said we were flying today. We all recognized that we were traveling faster than the suggested 15 MPH for the ride.

We are starting to see a few more accidents happen as we go. However, there have not been nearly as many as last year. Today there was a pretty nasty spill that sent one of the riders to the hospital. She was riding just behind Mark who looked back just in time to see her going over the handlebars. John and I rode up as she was sitting in the roadway and being attended to. We saw her at the rest stop just prior to the last leg. It was good to see her there, but she is going to be pretty sore as she was scraped up pretty good.

It continues to be heart warming to see the number of people that come out to the roadway as we are riding past and thank us. A number of daycares and a few schools have the kids come out to greet us as we ride past. Numerous citizens step out of their homes and businesses to wave, clap and shout words of encouragement. There are of course a number of people that get a bit upset waiting at intersections for us to pass by, but all in all the citizens are positive.

There were not many photos taken today. So I will attach a few photos from the Ground Zero ride yesterday that John took and a photo of the trio from our last rest stop today.

Tomorrow takes us on our next 100 mile day and brings us from Wilmington, DE to Annapolis, MD. This portion of our ride last year was the toughest weather wise. It was pretty cold and very wet. At least for now the weather forecast looks nothing close to this, for which we are thankful.

Until tomorrow ...

9 May - First day of the Tour

Today started early as they all do when we are out riding. The ride started just a little bit after 7, so that means there was breakfast and getting our bags to the trucks a good little bit before that. It was just as impressive to see the number of riders assembling in the parking lot as it was last year. the nice thing this year was that there was no wind and it was at least ten degress warmer.

Here are a couple of parking lot shots.

John getting a little stretch in pre-ride. John and I getting ready to roll.

This year Mark took on the role of ride marshal. We could not find him prior to the beginning of the ride to get a group photo. As as a reminder Michelle is doing the challenge ride this year and was actually arriving today. Because she is going this alternate route we will not see her until we get to the stadium in DC.

So far we could not ask for better weather. And especially when we compare it to what we experienced on the first day last year. As you can see pretty much everyone was wearing shorts this morning. Unheard of last year. By the time we reached our first stop pretty much everyone shed the riding jackets and finished the day in their riding jersey. We even ended the day with noticable tan lines ... crazy.

Hey there he is. We were able to catch up with Mark at the rest stop. This shot was taken before we ventured into Manhattan and Ground Zero.

Each year there are a number of motorcycle officers that participate as support officers for the Tour. Most of the motors come from around the general area. It is impressive and good to see when motors are participating from the west coast. Last year Oakland PD brought over 20 motors out. This year the LAPD and LASD brought numerous. The riders on the left are LAPD and the right is LASD.

So one of the highlights of the day was riding into Manhattan. We got to accomplish this via the Holland Tunnel. John and I were able to get very near to the front of the line to make the trip into Manhattan and Ground Zero. The photo on the left is us about to enter the tunnel. The center is travelling in the tunnel and the right is John's smiling face as we made our way. For those that are not aware, the Holland Tunnel is just about 1.5 miles in length. It was completed in 1927 and runs under the Hudson River connecting Manhattan and Jersey City, NJ. The tunnel was completely closed to vehicular traffic to allow us to make our trip into the city and back. Pretty awesome.


Without doubt the highlight of the day was our trip to Ground Zero. The only drawback to it was that we did not get to stop and take a more in depth look. It was surprising that the area the Twin Towers once occupied is truly not that large. The buildings in the area are very close to each other and these were the same. Of course there is a lot more depth to the area then these pictures depict, but it was an awesome experience to be there and see the location of this most harrowed of attacks.

We came back to Jersey City after our visit to Manhattan to have lunch. Here is a shot of the ride marshals having their pre-departure meeting. Mark is in there somewhere. Last year we had the honor of meeting Craig Floyd at this stop. Mr. Floyd is the president of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation. This is where the money raised by the Police Unity Tour goes to support such things as cleaning/maintenance of the wall and the new Law Enforcement Museum. This year we had the honor to meet Chief William Bratton. Chief Bratton is the former commissioner of Boston PD, Commissioner of the NYPD and retired as the Chief of the Los Angeles PD. We took a photo with him but it is on John's camera. I will try to get it uploaded soon.


As last year on our way out of Jersey City we ride by the main police station. Greeting us were several department employees including their honor guard. Great traditions here on the east coast.

Tomorrow brings the first of our back to back 100 mile days. Many of the riders have had little training time because of weather conditions where they live. We certainly fit the bill on this one. As a result the increased temperature today made for a lot of very tired people. If tomorrow bringst the same for weather it will be a long day.

Stay tuned ... and thanks for following.

8 May - The day before

Today was mostly a hang out and make sure everything is in order kinda day. Not much going on this morning around the hotel. Many people were sleeping until late in the morning or early afternoon. This was a combination of getting to town yesterday and getting acclimated and attending the cruise. The New Jersey chapter had previously arranged a harbor cruise in New York. Mark and I did not attend because we knew they would be getting in late and since we had gotten up early it would be too long of a day. As it turned out they did not get back to the hotel until about 3-4 am. We did hear it was a good time though.

This afternoon John got to the hotel from Boston. The mechanics showed up to assist in putting bikes together and getting them ride ready. Just as last year these guys do a fantastic job of making sure the bikes are road ready. There is a room that is set up for chapters/agencies to sell items. Last year we were pretty successful here in selling our coins. This year there seemed to be a few more tables set up with t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, coins, glasses and other miscellaneous items.

Here is a shot of the room where the bikes are being stored and put together.

Here are a couple photos of the mechanics at work. There were three of them today. This picture was taken after the one of the rushes when they had a line of folks and the mechanics were working furiously. Great guys.

Today also brought a little foreign item to us that we are certain you will all enjoy.

Can you tell us what this is?

We understand for our friends and family in Washington that this may be a real head scratcher. But yes that is the sun, in all its glory :-). Today was mostly sunny and 72. We had one heck of a time adjusting to that for a while.

Tomorrow is an early start for us. We are scheduled to leave at 7, which means up very early to have breakfast and check out of the hotel. The ride takes us to Ground Zero and back into New Jersey. We promise to have several photos to share.

7 May

Mark and I made it to New Jersey this afternoon (still morning on the west coast). The flight was a direct and uneventful (a good thing). The folks here in New Jersey do an incredible job at get this thing organized and under way. We were met at the airport by Stu a Captain with the Essex County Sheriff's Department. He had his daughter Samantha and son Nick with him. Both of them under ten years old. After we located the oversized luggage place to pick up our bikes Sam and Nick volunteered to wheel our luggage for us. Very personable and fun kids. We met up with 11 officers from the Las Vegas Metro PD and then all boarded a shuttle for the hotel.

Once we got to the hotel, we got checked in and a short time later went down and put our bikes back together. It was good to see a few faces from last year and say hello. Ventured out to a Chili's for dinner and now trying to fight the urge to go to bed too early. Jet lag ... blah.

Talked with John this evening. He will be flying down from Boston at 1130 tomorrow. Not a lot planned for the day.

The weather is decent. When we arrived it was 72 and partly cloudy. Hopefully the rain stays away for the next several days of the ride.

See ya tomorrow.

Well here we are mostly making final preparations and ramping up for the Tour. John left early to the east coast to spend some time with family, he will be meeting us in New Jersey on Sunday. Mark and I will be boarding the big ol jet airplane first thing in the morning. Michelle is coming out on Sunday night.

The ride will start on Monday morning. We have been told we have a special side trip this year to Ground Zero. This is a pretty exciting new addition. Being that this year marks the 10th anniversary of that fateful day and the Unity Tour marks its 15th anniversary this year, it is a very cool deal to make that trip. Now there is also a little extra nicety to this with the death of Osama Bin Laden :-). We are certainly looking forward to this part of the ride and will post some photos.

Stay tuned ...