The ride is over, the flags have stopped
waving, the strangers faces are no longer streaming past, my appearance is cleaner, the bike is tucked away for winter, and
life has slowed down a little. But, I still relive the ride in my dreams, the flag hangs on my balcony,
the strangers faces are now friendly, the beard still hangs (shorter now) from my chin, I still sit on the bike in the garage,
and slow is good right now for I know it will soon begin again.
At the end of the day and the end of
the road we raised money for some very deserving military families; and I’ll be damned if that isn’t a good start
for a couple of people that came together with a dream, little money, and passion for those men and women that sacrificed
so much to give us the right to enjoy the freedoms of this great country. I am proud of our organization,
of myself for not quitting, and for all of those we met along the way that showed such support to this cause; it was inspiring
to say the least.
The time has come to give the money we raised to those whom the Patriot Tour rode for
this year and I cannot wait. Every thing that went into this organization, all of the headaches, the paperwork,
the money, the gas…and the hard work was all for this moment. When we hand over a very special Christmas
present to these families it will be a moment I will never forget. But, I realized something that will
make this moment even more significant to the families and to me. The money that they will receive isn’t
coming from some rich guy, some company, or some government organization, no, it’s coming directly from “We The
People.”
You see, The Nation of Patriots didn’t get some
big whale of a sponsor, we didn’t collect monster company checks; we collected 1’s 5’s 10’s and 20’s
from people all over this great country and stuck it all in the bank. The funds are coming directly from
you, me, us and going to them. WE DID THIS as a country. And that’s something
we can all be proud of.
The members of The Nation of Patriots started out to make an impact on this country
by way of uniting its people through a great cause and under the banner of the flag. As this money changes
hands we did just that. Next year we will do just that again (only a little differently this time) and
we’ll do it again, and again, and again until we’re helping thousands of service men and women and their families
every year. That is my vision and I’m extremely confident WE can pull it off.
We have many new
plans coming to bare on 2010 so stay tuned…it’s gonna get interesting
