11/24/05 Torches Across America news letter with Mike Mohn's letter to me saying what the 2005 ride meant to him
11/24/05
Hi everyone,
I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving Day.
Les is doing a great job on the new home page for the www.torchesacrossamerica.com web site. I never know what is going to be on the page from day to day.
If you get a chance look at the 9/11 video "God Will Prevail" and check out the part with the Firefighter. It is very powerful. I see Les has put the 9/11 videos under "Media Center" on the home page. So click on "Media Center" to see all of them.
We have a new speaker for the Torches Across America ride next year. A couple of days ago Mike Mohn e-mailed me and said he would like to be the speaker for the 2006 ride. I told him I would be honored to have him as the speaker. Mike and his wife Theresa were on last years ride for the first time.
They live close to Oceanside, CA and are members of CMA. Mike has sent me a nice letter he wrote about the ride and Theresa sent me around five hundred pictures they took while on the ride. I will get Les to post them as soon as he gets the home page the way he likes.
Here is the e-mail Mike Mohn sent to me:
Would I do it again? 7410 miles, 20 days, 23 states and a million memories-you bet. What I'm referring to is the Torches Across America run-a run to commemorate and recognize all first responders and to honor those who gave their lives on 9-11-01. In a run as much as you can or want format 11 of us made it coast to coast and were at ground zero on 9-11. Our riding group ranged from 11 to over 3000. Michelle whose brother was killed from Rescue 1 rode with us and was a reader of the killed at the NYC ceremony. It was her first long ride and she did great. Every day she became more of a biker lady. At ceremonies scheduled in each days end or in between she got to read a special poem that she wrote to honor her brother. Other highlights include 5 of the 11 were cma riders. At each scheduled stop numerous cma people were their to love and support us. I was honored to start each day before the ride with a prayer-even when running late someone in the group-mostly secular-reminded us to pray before we left. Three events stick in my mind-first during a stop for fuel on the Oklahoma Turnpike a trucker approached me-said he was trying to catch us for 70-80 miles after he saw my cma colors. He had been in prison and someone from cma visited him and led him to the lord-he had been looking for cma since then so he could get more Hope for the Highways, which I had sent to him. Keep Stephen in your prayers as God has completely turned his life around. At another truck stop in Missouri Michelle asked me to go aside and pray with her. The 3 Cma women had been loving on her and she needed guidance. I was blessed to pray with her-she kept telling my wife and I how glad she was we were with her-we hope to see her in biker church when we get back. Last we had a police escort into Troy, Illinois, as we had had across New Mexico, Texas, Illinois. Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey to ground zero. This lasted for 65 miles in Missouri and then for another 30 in Illinois into Troy. We were leading over 250 motorcycles through town led by fire engines and police. The whole town was out waving and applauding us as we went through town. At the fairgrounds the drive was lined with Cub Scouts waving American flags, over 100-with a huge flag hanging from two extended fire truck ladders. It brought tears to our eyes to see the love for our great country. But 1 person stood out-a boy in a wheel chair-I wanted to break rank and go directly to him but with 250 bikes behind me it was not possible. When we parked and I looked up he was right by me with his dad pushing him. I went right to him-his name is Jacob-and he had leg perthes like I did when I was his age. I gave him some cma coins and a John 3:16 sticker and prayed with him and his dad. We all had tears on our eyes when we parted. A little later his dad came back-his son wanted a picture with me-seems I was his hero-to put on their fridge. Today I received the picture from him, a super letter from his Dad, and my heart is just exploding. What a special moment in time. You never know who you are going to touch. Especially somber was the visit and ceremony to the flight 93 memorial. If you can imagine over 300+ bikers so humbled that you can hear the gravel while they walk you may have an idea of the impact it made. There again there were 2 large headstones in their memory from the biker community. Truly our brotherhood is only second to one-that of Jesus. I could go on as every day was incredible-finally riding with 3000 others to ground zero. We were touched and touched many lives for God-someone is always watching and we are still on a high from the trip. For details on next years ride please contact me-this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity.
I thank all the CMA riders in California for the time and effort they put in making the the starting of the Torches Across America ride possible.
This is my first time working with "Gary's Blog". Les set this up for I can post Torches Across America e-mail ride updates without taking the time to go through him. He is a super guy for offering to be the web master but I do not want to be bothering him every time a change is made for the ride.
Have a great day.
Gary Covert
Hi everyone,
I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving Day.
Les is doing a great job on the new home page for the www.torchesacrossamerica.com web site. I never know what is going to be on the page from day to day.
If you get a chance look at the 9/11 video "God Will Prevail" and check out the part with the Firefighter. It is very powerful. I see Les has put the 9/11 videos under "Media Center" on the home page. So click on "Media Center" to see all of them.
We have a new speaker for the Torches Across America ride next year. A couple of days ago Mike Mohn e-mailed me and said he would like to be the speaker for the 2006 ride. I told him I would be honored to have him as the speaker. Mike and his wife Theresa were on last years ride for the first time.
They live close to Oceanside, CA and are members of CMA. Mike has sent me a nice letter he wrote about the ride and Theresa sent me around five hundred pictures they took while on the ride. I will get Les to post them as soon as he gets the home page the way he likes.
Here is the e-mail Mike Mohn sent to me:
Would I do it again? 7410 miles, 20 days, 23 states and a million memories-you bet. What I'm referring to is the Torches Across America run-a run to commemorate and recognize all first responders and to honor those who gave their lives on 9-11-01. In a run as much as you can or want format 11 of us made it coast to coast and were at ground zero on 9-11. Our riding group ranged from 11 to over 3000. Michelle whose brother was killed from Rescue 1 rode with us and was a reader of the killed at the NYC ceremony. It was her first long ride and she did great. Every day she became more of a biker lady. At ceremonies scheduled in each days end or in between she got to read a special poem that she wrote to honor her brother. Other highlights include 5 of the 11 were cma riders. At each scheduled stop numerous cma people were their to love and support us. I was honored to start each day before the ride with a prayer-even when running late someone in the group-mostly secular-reminded us to pray before we left. Three events stick in my mind-first during a stop for fuel on the Oklahoma Turnpike a trucker approached me-said he was trying to catch us for 70-80 miles after he saw my cma colors. He had been in prison and someone from cma visited him and led him to the lord-he had been looking for cma since then so he could get more Hope for the Highways, which I had sent to him. Keep Stephen in your prayers as God has completely turned his life around. At another truck stop in Missouri Michelle asked me to go aside and pray with her. The 3 Cma women had been loving on her and she needed guidance. I was blessed to pray with her-she kept telling my wife and I how glad she was we were with her-we hope to see her in biker church when we get back. Last we had a police escort into Troy, Illinois, as we had had across New Mexico, Texas, Illinois. Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey to ground zero. This lasted for 65 miles in Missouri and then for another 30 in Illinois into Troy. We were leading over 250 motorcycles through town led by fire engines and police. The whole town was out waving and applauding us as we went through town. At the fairgrounds the drive was lined with Cub Scouts waving American flags, over 100-with a huge flag hanging from two extended fire truck ladders. It brought tears to our eyes to see the love for our great country. But 1 person stood out-a boy in a wheel chair-I wanted to break rank and go directly to him but with 250 bikes behind me it was not possible. When we parked and I looked up he was right by me with his dad pushing him. I went right to him-his name is Jacob-and he had leg perthes like I did when I was his age. I gave him some cma coins and a John 3:16 sticker and prayed with him and his dad. We all had tears on our eyes when we parted. A little later his dad came back-his son wanted a picture with me-seems I was his hero-to put on their fridge. Today I received the picture from him, a super letter from his Dad, and my heart is just exploding. What a special moment in time. You never know who you are going to touch. Especially somber was the visit and ceremony to the flight 93 memorial. If you can imagine over 300+ bikers so humbled that you can hear the gravel while they walk you may have an idea of the impact it made. There again there were 2 large headstones in their memory from the biker community. Truly our brotherhood is only second to one-that of Jesus. I could go on as every day was incredible-finally riding with 3000 others to ground zero. We were touched and touched many lives for God-someone is always watching and we are still on a high from the trip. For details on next years ride please contact me-this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity.
I thank all the CMA riders in California for the time and effort they put in making the the starting of the Torches Across America ride possible.
This is my first time working with "Gary's Blog". Les set this up for I can post Torches Across America e-mail ride updates without taking the time to go through him. He is a super guy for offering to be the web master but I do not want to be bothering him every time a change is made for the ride.
Have a great day.
Gary Covert
posted by Gary Covert | 7:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home