The Tour of Honor Ride is an annual motorcycle tour of memorials and monuments, starting with eight states in 2011: CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, HAWAII, ILLINOIS, NEVADA, OKLAHOMA, TEXAS and UTAH. There will be seven selected memorials in each state, with more states added annually.
The Tour runs from February 1 through October 31, and I can visit as many sites as I want, in any order or any route I choose. I will be riding with Tom Lashbrook, at least part of the time, while competing in the Tour.
The memorials will be posted on February 1. I am hoping to get California, Nevada, and Utah pins. I also plan on posting pictures of my progress so check back often!
You can read more about the TOH here:
http://www.tourofhonor.com/
Cheers...
My first stop:
Carson City Vietnam War Memorial
Carson City, Nevada
I was hoping to make a 'lap' around Nevada and get all seven sights in three days. However the weather was against me. I was able to handle a wind-chill of 17 deg...but a wind-chill of -4 was daunting and made me re-think my 'lap'. I'm going to reschedule for warmer weather.
El Dorado County Veterans Memorial
Placerville, California
NEW START FOR THE TOH RIDE!
Well, the way I had it figured by the time Memorial Day came around it would be a good time to finish my TOH Lap Around Nevada. It really sounded good on paper...May-warm weather-kick off to summer-what could go wrong?....HA!....someone didn't get the memo. It all started out well enough. Left Napa Thursday morning around 8:00 a.m. and met Tom Lashbrook and some other Blue Knights in Winnemucca, Nevada. Had a good lunch and dinner and headed out to Elko, NV for the first stop, the Elko County War Memorial.
Here it is::
(thats it in the background...honest!)
The next stop was in West Wendover, NV. It's right on the border of Utah...funny enough it borders Wendover, Utah...not too creative if you ask me. That memorial is the 509th Composite Group Monument. The 509th is a United States Army Air Force Group created during WWII, and tasked with operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The memorial:
and the patch from the 509th
The next day we headed to Ely, NV and spent the night there. The memorial at this is the White Pine War Memorial. This memorial has the names of all White Pine County men and women who gave all during all major wars our great nation has been involved in fighting.
The next morning we woke up and headed south to Hoover Dam and Boulder City. We had been keeping an eye on the weather due to snow and rain forecast on out trip home. Our first stop was in Boulder City, NV. The memorial was located in a large park named Veterans Memorial Park. The actual memorial was a group of about eight large rocks assembled in a circular pattern representing each war our nation has fought.
The memorial:
The next stop was Hoover Dam. One of the greatest under takings of modern man.
and a couple of extra shots
We stayed the night in Las Vegas and paid extra attention to the weather. It was very windy, 25 mph steady wind and gusts over 40mph. Snow and rain was being called for up in Tonopah, our next stop. Heading back to Napa via I80 did not look promising. I planned on cutting west on Hwy 6 out of Tonopah and then head south on I395 to Mojave and stay the night in Bakersfield.
We got as far north as Beatty, NV and ran into a wall of cold rain. We fought a steady side wind of at least 50mph for 20 miles or so. It was not a fun ride. Once in Beatty we had breakfast and broke out the laptop and checked the weather. It did not look at all promising. The radar showed the storm that was hitting Beatty was on its way out and about 90 minutes later it stopped raining. The only trouble was some truckers who just came in from Tonopah reported 3 inches of snow. Not a good mix for a motorcycle and the forecast was for more rain/snow. So we decided to stay the night in Beatty and the weather for Monday looked much better. Turned out to be an expensive night...lost $50.00 on a $2.00 blackjack table. Guess I'll keep my day job.
Anyway, woke up the next day to cool, sunny weather and headed to Tonopah.
Here is that memorial:
And a picture without the motorcycle:
This memorial is dedicated in memory of United States Army Air Force personnel who lost their lives in training accidents at the Tonopah bombing and gunnar range. They used remains of a B24 bomber that crashed south of the gunnar range in 1944.
After taking the picture it was time to head home. Finally made it to Napa around 4:00p.m. Had to take a circuitous route home to avoid the Memorial Day going home traffic.
A pic of my ending mileage from my GPS:
STAY TUNED....
After a one year hiatus from the Tour of Honor in 2012, I signed-up for the 2013 Tour of Honor on January 8th. It has now grown to an AMA sanctioned Grand Tour and a couple of special rides to get an Iron Butt certificate. The list of sites will come out April 1, 2013 that will now cover 40 states. Looking forward to a new riding season!
I received my rider number last week, #58, so I am locked in. The list of states where the tour is going to be run will be released at midnight April 1st. Gonna stay up late, plan my route, get some rest, and head out the morning of April 1st. I plan on hitting all seven sites in three days and claim the first place trophy for California.
The states I do hope to complete are California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada-Utah, and possibly Arizona. Pretty ambitious, but we will see. I will be updating this blog with pics and stories as I go. Zero hour is right around the corner..
TOUR OF HONOR 2014
I haven't been very good at keeping my blog updated. I did manage to get a first place trophy in the 2013 Tour of Honor ride for California and Oregon. I did finish Idaho, but not soon enough to get a trophy. I have signed up for TOH 2014. I am riding the Fisher House Foundation this year. The Fisher House is a network of comfort homes where military and veterans' families can stay at no cost while a loved one is receiving treatment.
These homes are located at major military and VA medical centers nationwide close to the medical center or hospital they serve. Fisher Houses have up to 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, laundry facilities, dining room and living room. There is never a lodging fee. Since inception, the program has saved military and veterans families an estimated $200 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.
This years TOH 2014 covers 49 states and 300 memorials. My plan is to get California, Arizona, and New Mexico the first week of April. I will do my best to update my blog with stories and pictures.
STAY TUNED!!!!
Tuesday, April 1st is fast approaching and I'm getting my bike ready and things in order. I have a donation web site set-up where you can donate a flat amount or a per memorial site visited donation. Click on the following link (it will open a new window) Tour of Honor 2014 Fisher House to get to my donation site.
