Second Dispatch from Road2Recovery Ride

Here is Karey Harris' report on Sunday's launch of theride featured on Patch on Aug. 25. Her was posted on Sept. 10. The trip began Sept. 11 in New York and will continue through historic Pennsylvania via Philadelphia, Lancaster, Gettysburg, and Bedford, to the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, PA. The tour will end on Sept. 18 at the Pentagon Memorial in Washington, DC. Harris is cycling with 300 others to raise money for wounded soldiers.

"Day 1 of our riding is in the books.  I can't think of a better way to mark one decade than this ride.  We started at 8:46 a.m., which marks the exact time the firstt plane hit Tower 1. The group went a total of 57 miles, with a stop at Liberty Park in northern New Jersey, and a lunch stop.  HUGE thanks to the NJ State Police and the American Legion Riders for the escorts on Sunday.

Our stop at Liberty Park was perfect. We got our group shot with the NY skyline and visited the new memorial there.  The memorial is two parallel walls. When viewed like you're looking down the walkway between the walls, the silhouettes mark where the towers stood against the New York skyline. When you walk between the walls, you see the names of all NJ citizens who lost their lives on the 9/11 attacks.

Also at Liberty State Park, a "changing of the guard" of sorts occurred.  A brother and sister lost their brother in the attacks in NY. He was a firefighter, and all that was recovered of him was his helmet and his shield. 

The surviving brother is a member of the American Legion, and just completed a long group motorcycle ride with the shield on his chest, and the helmet strapped onto the back seat of his motorcycle. 

On Sunday morning, a brother and sister shared the shield for a few moments, before she attached the shield to her jersey. She will ride with it to the Pentagon. This is just one of the memorable and touching stories shared Sunday.

I cannot explain the camaraderie this group has.  Everyone looks out for one another. The entire day was filled with alerts of holes, obstacles, turns, and even letting us know when they are slowing down.  People were being pushed up hill and encouraged by other riders.

I haven't seen such a large group of people work so well together before. They are also humble and grateful- especially with the police escort, our day was filled with people standing outside their buildings waving flags and cheering for us.  When our new-found fans yelled "Thank you!", more than once a rider shouted back "No, thank you!"

Day 1 is in the books, and I cannot wait to see what day 2 has in store.  I hope you have found a way to commemorate this day that is special and means something to you."

________

Ride2Recovery creates custom bicycles for wounded soldiers. Ninety cents from every dollar raised will go to building specially-equipped bicycles for the wounded soldiers to ride in the Road2Recovery event.

To make a donation, visit http://www.ride2recovery.com/sponsor-a-rider.html, type "Karey Harris" on the left hand side where you are asked to choose a rider to sponsor.