Fisher House Ride

My oldest son, Jeremy, is getting hitched in Vegas in May. So, using my usual mantra of, "any excuse for a ride", I decided to ride the Harley out for the big occasion. I also decided to do something different this time around and see if I couldn't raise a little money for Fisher House while taking advantage of the opportunity to ride across this great country of ours. You can find out more about Fisher House at http://www.fisherhouse.org/aboutUs/aboutUs or just go to my donation page at: http://www.active.com/donate/teamfisherhouse/1CRiddle.

So, this ride has officially become, The Fisher House Ride. In addition to welcoming a wonderful new daughter-in-law into the family and seeing some terrific sights along the way, I'm hoping to visit several of the Fisher Houses across the country who assist our military families and make life a little better and a little easier for them. The plan is to take four days to ride out to Vegas, attend the wedding, and then take another six days to make the trip back visiting additional Fisher Houses and checking in on some friends and family along the way.

I'll be blogging on the ride to keep everyone updated on the Fisher House visits and anything interesting that might come up. The plan is to hit several Fisher Houses including:

• Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC
• National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD
  
• USAF Medical Center at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH
  
• Cincinnati VA Medical Center
• Denver VA Medical Center
• William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, TX
• Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX
  
• Brook Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX
• DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, TX
• USAF Medical Center at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS
• Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon in Augusta, GA
• Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC
• Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, VA
• MacGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, VA
• Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews AFB near Washington, DC

Along with the FH visits, there should be plenty of sights to see. For now the plan includes:

• Taking historic US Route 50 across WV and much of OH, IN and IL and then catching it again for a stretch in CO.
  
• Roebling Bridge in Cincinnati (I read the book "The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brookly Bridge" by David McCollough and it piqued my interest in the Roebling family and the suspension bridges they built. The bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati was completed in 1867 and at the time was the world's longest suspension bridge at at 1,057 feet.)
• Gateway Arch in St. Louis
  
• Four Corners (The the only geographic point in the US where the boundaries of four states meet.)
• Grand Canyon
• Hoover Dam
• The bright lights of Las Vegas
• The corner of 2nd and Kinsley in Winslow, AZ (From the Eagles "Take It Easy". You remember, "I was standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona...". I have no idea if there is anything to see there, but when I'm this close, I gotta find out.)
• Silver City, NM
  
• Family and friends in Houston, TX
  
• More friends in Mobile, AL
  
• My folks in Foley, AL
• Visit the site where Jefferson Davis was captured (as it turns out, I should be there on the 145th anniversary of his capture)
  
• Kitty Hawk, NC
• And whatever else the road decides to throw up in my path

I plan to leave on April 30th, so get ready for the ride and make a donation to Fisher House on my donation page at: http://www.active.com/donate/teamfisherhouse/1CRiddle if you can afford it. Either way, join me for the ride.