CHAPTER SIX: DAY 4 WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET

 DON’S MILES:  TODAY 22.4   TOTAL TRIP 886.1

BRETT’S MILES:   TODAY 22.4   TOTAL TRIP 673.7 

It is finally here.  This is the day of the Rolling To Remember parade of motorcycles to raise awareness of the mental heath crisis stealing thousands of veterans’ lives a year and demand a full accounting for America’s MIA’s and POW’s.  Those participating in the ride will start to stage in the Pentagon parking lot at 7:00 AM to ready themselves for a noon start time.

All the riders at the hotel were in the hotel’s breakfast area pretty early.  In fact, there was no food yet but only coffee and juice.  To be honest, that was about any of us needed.  Both Brett and I were there along with the Run To The Wall rider from Odessa, TX and the two Ohio riders who were going to participate in the Rolling To Remember.  The conversation of who had the best story (true or otherwise) that we had started yesterday continued.  Before long the two Ohio riders left for the Pentagon and the rider from Odessa started packing his bike so he could start his ride back home.  This is just a guestimate on my part but I am thinking that in a 2 week period he put around 10,000 miles on his motorcycle.

Brett and I readied ourselves to ride into DC where we would watch and support the parade.  We put the water that we had bought yesterday in our bags so we would have plenty of fluids to drink.  There are pluses and minuses to that.  On the plus side, we could stay hydrated and apparently that is a healthy thing to be.  On the minus side, we were going to be sitting where there were no Port-a-Potties.

We headed out of the hotel and whipped around the block to get onto I-66.  The first thing you notice is the crowd of people standing on the overpass waving hands and flags.  Not only on the overpass right by the hotel but on every single overpass all the way into Downtown. When we got on the ramp the police were temporarily blocking it to let a special motorcycle delegation by that was heading to the Pentagon.  When they had passed our ramp we headed out…….with everyone else that was stuck on the ramp……..for DC.

In previous years when the event was sponsored by Rolling Thunder the bikes poured into the Memorial area and FILLED all the open grass fields.  They would be told not to park there and they would get towed, however, after TENS OF THOUSANDS of bikes pulled in…..well, there just aren’t that many tow trucks on the whole East Coast.  One of the reasons Rolling Thunder stopped the sponsorship was that the city was no longer going to tolerate uncontrolled parking.  Amvets took over the sponsorship and agreed to the city’s demands.  Of course, this was all news to me and Brett and we just tooled on down to the district happy as clams………..UNTIL…………we got there.

The city had COMPLETELY closed off many, many, MANY blocks and all access to the Memorial area.  They had EVERY street blocked with police cares, snow plows, and even city utility cherry picker trucks.  There was absolutely no way to ride or drive in.  We actually got a pretty good place to park near the Washington Monument.  Heck, I’ll bet we didn’t have to walk more than 7 or 8 HUNDRED MILES.  Brett’s GPS said we only walked ¾ of a mile…….personally, I think he should send it back because it is obviously broken.

We got ourselves a good spot to watch the parade pass.  We made very, very sure that there were absolutely NO Port-a-Potties anywhere near us within walking distance.  We were set up by 10:30.   The ride would start from the Pentagon parking lot at noon meaning that they would start passing us around 12:10 or 12:15.  We entertained ourselves talking with those around us.  I had an extra “camp chair” that I didn’t like.  The chair itself was ok BUT when sitting in it I would be only 4 inches off the ground…….HA!  Watching me trying to get out of that thing would be…….well, if videoed it would win the $20,000 on America’s Funniest Videos.  I saw an old guy across the street standing so I took it over to him and told him he could have it.  I didn’t see what happened to him or the chair.  For all I know, he sat in it and couldn’t get out of it and is still there.

Right at 12:10 the parade started around the corner by the Lincoln Memorial.  On the media there were two individuals in full uniform.  One was Army and one was Marine.  Both stood at attention and held a salute for the ENTIRE TIME the parade passed.  This year that took about an hour and a half.  I have no idea how many bikes there were but……for an hour and a half they passed us 3 and 4 abreast and going about 30 MPH…….so, I would say there were a lot of them.  Brett and I waved, saluted, took pictures, took videos, and enjoyed watching the thousands of patriots.

After the last bike passed us by, we folded up our chairs and started the 7 or 8 hundred mile trek back to our bikes.  I suggested that the next time we come that we needed to reserved an uber to take us to and from where we park our bikes.  ALSO, I think that it would be a good idea to rent our own Port-a-Potty and have it set where we will be sitting (downwind of course).  After reaching our bikes, we were busying ourselves stowing chairs, water, cameras, and etc. back into the bikes when three people walked up.  There were two men and a woman with a slight Asian look.  In very broken English the woman asked if they could take their picture with the bikes AND with us.  Of course we agreed although I did jokingly tell them that there would be a $500 fee.  It turns out that they were from Tajikistan…….HUH?  Yeah, I had never heard of it either.  The woman, who was the only one that could speak English much at all, said that she lives here now and these were her brothers.  We could swear that she said that one was the President.  They were very enjoyable people and were very happy to be allowed to take the pictures.  We did look up the president and it definitely wasn’t the guy BUT we saw another dignitary that did look like him.  If we ever figure out where the heck Tajikistan is, who knows, maybe we will be on the front page of their newspapers.

After our hob-nobbing with the rich and famous, we jumped on the bikes and headed out.  Brett had dropped his laptop and busted the power switch so he wanted to go to a Best Buy to see what he could do to solve his problem.  We tracked down a Best Buy that was only about 5 miles from the hotel and he went in…..come to find out, the only way to solve his problem was to buy a new laptop.  Most people are very happy when they have a new computer but Brett was moaning, groaning, grumbling, and mumbling.  Then again, it may have been just because he was hungry.  As for me, I was a happy camper because while he was shelling out a bunch of money I found the Best Buy restroom and made up for the hours of abstinence.

To solve the hunger issue Brett saw a Moe’s in the same center the Best Buy was in.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Moe’s.  However, I didn’t feel like getting a counter order burrito.  I wanted to sit at a table and have someone SERVE ME.   I mean, we just met some guy from Tajikistan for crying out loud.  That should be worth some service………right?  While Brett continued to grumble packing the computer into his bike I hurriedly checked my phone and, voila, problem solved.  There was a Red Robin a couple blocks away……and a couple blocks closer to the hotel.  Yay, off to Red Robin we went for some burgers, steak fries, beer, root beer float, and a cinnamon roll tower (don’t ask).  Life was all good again.

It was an easy-peasy ride to the hotel.  We each went to our rooms for an hour of winding down, catching up on emails, texts, and Facebook, and then were to meet with our chairs to sit in the parking lot by the bikes.  We did and, once again, we seemed to be a magnet for passers-by.   One in particular was a Korean gentleman who was staying at the hotel.  His name was Jon……I am sure that was an Americanization of his Korean name.  He spoke very broken English but he was having so much fun listening to the stories Brett and I were telling.  Finally, after 3 hours we had to tell Jon that we had to go to bed.  Besides, it was starting to sprinkle.  He said he was leaving for Boston in the morning so we said goodbye to him.

We headed to our rooms.  It was a really great day…..exciting, humbling, rewarding.  We all need more days like that.  And, as you will see, tomorrow should be more of the same.  Talk to you after Day 5.