April 30, 2008
He Said
 What's with this He Said/She Said stuff anyway? Her impressions have always been off and I've had to correct her on just about everything! Just keep reading and you'll see what I mean!
We're up at 6:00 am to begin the pack up for departure. We need to be at Ornate High School at 8:00 am. When we arrive, there are all ready kids hanging out and the area is set up very nice! We meet Sabrina's parents and talk to them a minute and then we set up our shadow box and banner and then the program begins. Maria introduces me and I introduce Chris who speaks and then Sabrina's parents speak about their daughter and what it means to them to have Sabrina help so many people.  Sabrina's mom is very grateful that we stopped by and we were all very touched by her story.
There are two Saturn Skys there and some of the team members go for a test drive. How cool are these roadsters? VERY! Ms. Rhodes thinks she had the fastest but that goes to show you how much a girl knows about cars. I had the one with the turbo.
After saying our goodbyes it's off to Phoenix! We need to be there by 3:00 pm but the road doesn't cooperate! First the wind - 50 to 55 mph headwinds, then the high profile Chase Car doesn't go very fast nor do the quads. When we go through the vehicle inspection area, there's this man waving a flag.  At first I'm thinking he's an inspector and we've won the lottery. When we stop he says they passed us on the highway and saw the trailer with all the decals and quads and wanted to know what was up and give us a window flag of there unit. Come to find out they are Army personnel travelling from Texas to Fort Bliss. Well, we take this opportunity to thank them for their service and sacrifice they make for us and then we showed them the flag. We introduce them to Chris Klug too and they were thrilled to meet him. They were very touched and then wanted to know if they could sign it. After all, they are here in the states and their comrades are fighting in Iraq. So they sign the flag. One of the soldiers commented that they were grateful that they actually saw someone doing something for THEM. Sometimes all it takes is a thank you to let them know how grateful we are for the work they do. We drove away from there amazed at the encounter and it's one we'll remember for a long time.
About 10 miles down the road and battling very strong headwinds, Dan pulls up along side and says to pull over and tells me that one of the quads is leaking oil. We take a look and find that one CVC boot on eash quad is leaking so we trailer the quads and keep the bike on the road. We'll have the Arctic Cat dealer in Phoenix take a look and hopefully fix them. Chris finally gets a turn on the bike after the wind dies down a little but by this time it looks like we'll be about an hour and a half late for our appointment. We call and they are patiently waiting for us.
 The wind continues to hammer away at us all the way to the Phoenix and we arrive at 4:30 pm.
We meet a few recipients and the OPOs who helped us organize this event. Chris and I are interviewed by the Arizona Republican and then by this time it's getting late and Chris needs to get to the airport by 6:15 for his 6:45 flight! Chris is off signing photos for the kids and I tell him we better go - he says what times my flight? 6:45! Oh! I was thinking it was at 7:30! He does make it there but just barely!
We say our goodbyes to everyone and then it's off to dinner with family. Elliott's son Cort lives here and he and his family came out to see us. It was great seeing them and I don't see enough of them.
Well, it's late (again). I'm sure there are a lot of typos here but hey, read Renee's…just got say about Renee and BBQ. Just like ice cream - face shirt and in this case, on down the legs…amazing.
|
|
