Dispatch From Road2Recovery Journey to Washington, D.C.

Here is Karey Harris' report on Monday's ride featured on Patch on Aug. 25. Her was posted on Sept. 10. The next on.

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 two is done, it's 10 p.m. and I'm finally sitting down to write this. Today was definitely a longer day than yesterday! We did right around 60 miles from Princeton NJ to Philadelphia PA, with two rest stops.  The bridge crossing the Delaware at Washington's crossing gives me quite a respect for what that man and his fellow soldiers did.

I wouldn't want to cross that on anything other than a boat or a bridge! On a side note- train tracks are not bicycle friendly. Neither are half the streets in Philly, but I'm glad we have escorts!

Before I start on today's update, I'd like to share a quote from yesterday's guest speaker.  He was talking about how to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and how important it is to help each other out. 

"You have not lived a full life until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.Those favors and acts of kindness that have no monetary value and infinite emotional value are the ones that matter the most."

I've pondered that all day today, and I think it's something to try and live by. 

Our lunch stop today (Monday) was at the Bucks County 9-11 Memorial called "Garden of Reflection". (http://www.9-11memorialgarden.org/)

The town of Lower Makefield Township lost nine citizens to the twin towers, including the pilot of the plane to hit the first tower. His wife was there to speak with us today and tell us about the garden.  It began as a memorial to the nine individuals from their township.

Then they included the 17 total that died from Bucks County. Then they realized that they should remember every victim lost that day.  The garden is beautiful. It has nine red maples to symbolize the nine from Lower Makefield Township, 17 pine trees to symbolize those lost from Bucks County, waving grasses to symbolize the ripple effect that the 9/11 attacks had on the nation, and several other very impressive symbols (http://www.9-11memorialgarden.org/creation.asp).

The garden is a beautiful place for residents to go visit, and was started by a few people from a small PA town. I was impressed at what great accomplishments a few people with some drive could do.

Our next rest stop was at a school somewhere about 15 miles north of Philly. I'm not sure exactly where we were, or what the name of the school was.  (If my Garmin were working right now, I could tell you where we were, but I am having some technical difficulties with it).  The same thing happened there- a small group of people did something fantastic for us.

This town looked like it didn't have much, but they had PLENTY of ice cold water and potato chips for us. We were greeted by children waving flags and cheering! We all took turns sitting on the steps with the children. By the end, the kids weren't so thrilled about seeing us anymore... I guess waving a flag for a group of people is only fun for the first 2 or 3 minutes!

We were still very appreciative and grateful that the students and teachers were outside helping us out. They were taking pictures of us just as much as we were taking pictures of them!

Today just brought back some faith in America. There were several school groups out cheering/waving at us, every fire station we passed had a flag at the top of a ladder truck, and their entire crew outside. One crew was even standing at attention saluting! 

I don't feel like I deserve all the attention, but the guys I'm riding with absolutely do. They do some unthinkable jobs and have seen some unthinkable things.  I've heard a few stories, and have great respect for them.  I'm glad they do what they do, so that days like this are possible."

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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.