This started about a year or so ago when I saw some posts on Facebook by a friend of mine regarding him doing Tour of Honor rides. Now he is an Iron Butt rider and I just kind of figured that these rides he was doing had something to do with that, but that assumption was incorrect. Then, over this winter, I got a few unsolicited emails and post suggestions that also mentioned the Tour of Honor. My curiosity was piqued, and I needed to find out more. Goggle being my go-to in cases like this, I used the app to find out what this all about. upon entering the words tour, honor, motorcycle, and ride into Google it immediately hit upon the website,
www.TourofHonor.com
After riding the information and looking around the website, I got the picture that this is a series of monument destinations that one can search out and ride to. Once at one of the destinations, you are encouraged to take a picture of the landmark, with your bike and the Tour of Honor Flag in the picture, and then send that back to the main clearing house. Trophies and certificates are what you can win for reaching different numbers of monuments visited and documented. However, that’s really not what the purpose of the organization is. The real purpose of the organization is to raise money for veterans and first responders causes and to make sure that our vets and public service people are not forgotten and are honored forever. Participants pay a fee to enter and some of the money is sent to the designated charity of the rider’s choice. There are four to choose from.
I have a special and personal reason for wanting to be involved in this: When my mother retired from a career in nursing she began to collect and set down in chart form and books our family tree. She worked on this for many years and was able to go back several hundred years. It turns out that my family has a long military history that goes back to the Revolutionary War here in the United States. Ancestors of mine have fought in virtually every war that the US has been involved in. The most recent examples being both my parents who both served in WWII (Army and Navy respectively for my dad and mom), and my son who just finished up a 12-year career in the USAF. My father was wounded and partially disabled due to his service time in Belgum during the winter of 1944-1945. In addition, my grandfathers served in WWI and one of them also served during WWII and the Korean War. As I said, my mom also was a nurse during and after WWII and served at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. All my uncles also served at one time or another in various branches, along with cousins and siblings having served in various forms and services. I decided that I really needed to do this series of rides as a way for me to acknowledge, commemorate, and celebrate their services and sacrifices. I also figure that it will be a great excuse to get out and ride and to explore places that I normally wouldn’t go. My plan is to bring you all along on the journeys and hopefully inspire some of you to set out on your own journeys of exploration and discovery. Maybe we will all learn a few things along the way too!
The website is easy to use and packed with lots of useful information:
The first challenge is to ride to 7 monuments that are located in your state or region. Doing so earns pins and finisher certificates for everyone. The first 3 to do it for every state/region also earn a trophy. A special award is given out to the person that reaches the most of these destinations. Those memorial sites are going to be released on April the 1st and riders will have until October the 31st to complete the “ride”. You choose whatever route you want to use. Beyond these 7 memorial sites, there are several other ride challenges that you can choose from.
If you choose for example the 9/11 Memorials, you simply click on the link and see this:
Further down that page you’ll come to an interactive map that shows locations all across the United States. The further you zoom in the more detailed the map is. There is also a listing on the side bar that gives you more location information.
If you go down far enough you can click on individual sites and get coordinates and addresses too.
However, while all that information is certainly helpful, it’s really only a start. You’ve got to plan your rides next. Careful planning will allow you to maximize your rides to gather the most objectives while minimizing your time and miles needed. Many cities and areas will have more than one of the sites listed in the different groups and how you reach them in the most organized way is part of the challenge. I enjoy route planning anyway, so I’ve been doing some of that already, while I await the announcement on April the 1st of the 7 major sites chosen in my state. I started by listing what cities were covered in each of the categories: Doughboys, Hueys, War Dogs, Gold Star, 9/11, and Cemeteries. I then listed all of the cities alphabetically and then listed under them what sites they contained. For example, Bowling Green, Ky has a Huey and a 9/11 site. Crestwood has a War Dogs and a Gold Star Family site. From these lists I’ve started grouping them by geographic areas that make sense for reaching within the same day. That will be fluid as I begin the actual mapping out and creation of the rides and see how much time reaching the sites might actually take me. I will cover some of that in the next installment. So, if you can, please follow along with me as I explore not only my home state of Kentucky, but also parts of Ohio and Indiana for sure, and any sites close to some of our MSTA rallies in North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia that I can reach on the way to and from them or while there at them. This should be fun and informative for all of us.