Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wednesday, Sept. 19th

We rose before the sun today to make up the ground that we lost due to the severe storm in Maryville. At 5:45 AM, Randy hit the road. He was highly motivated and full of his AM Red Bull. We followed closely behind him to ensure that he was safe as the night shift tried to catch up with the day shift. The day riders went ahead of us to a small town called Horton in Kansas and because of the storm; we missed our rendezvous on Tuesday night. The ride went quickly and we arrived around 8:45 to meet up with them. No sooner did we arrive then the day crew was heading out for Olathe (Kansas City). It was about an 80-mile pedal to the fire station and Mike, Vander and Richard chose to take it on all together. They made great time, other than a stop in Leavenworth to fix a wheel and grab a quick mocha latte at the coffee shop, showing up at around 4:30 PM.


Our welcome by Olathe Fire Department’s Station 6 was nothing short of amazing. We were welcomed with open arms into their “home”. We were given an opportunity to shower, do laundry and even get a massage. Thank you to Christie Smith who cam e to the fire house three different times to be sure that everyone got a rub down.

The entire crew vacated their bunks and allowed us to sleep in them, while they toughed it out on cots. They provided dinner for our entire entourage and went out and washed all of our vehicles while we ate. Obviously, we turned in early knowing that there were comfortable beds waiting for us. These guys were incredible.

I (Amy) got to go on my first fire call and it turned out to be a real fire. A 2-alarm fire in an apartment building where luckily everyone was out safely. Of course my unit, Q56, found and extinguished the fire. Thank you so much to Kale, Gene and Cactus Jack for allowing me that experience. It is one that will forever be in my memory. I really can’t stress enough how wonderful these guys were to us. They made sure every detail of our stay was taken care of. What a difference that made for our very long media day ahead.

Love you all, see you soon.

1 comment:

Jack said...

Thank You for being our guests at Olathe Fire Station #6, home of Q56. We were honored to have you all here and hope we made your noble trip a little easier. You are all welcome back anytime! We which you all the best. It's all for the kids!
Good luck - Ride safe!
Jack, Gene, Kael
P.S. The fire went out due to the hard work of several Firefighters.