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When a 500-strong motorcycle gang thunders into town, Montvale Elementary School's teachers and pupils open the doors, pull out the kiddie chairs and invite the riders to lunch.
By Neil Harvey
981-3376
MONTVALE -- The first sign the gang was coming was the long cluster of lights visible half a mile down the road -- heat rising off U.S. 460 blurred the distant, twinkling headlamps. Then the noise of the engines filled the air.
They rumbled onto the quiet campus of Montvale Elementary School on Thursday, hundreds of bikers on the backs of Harleys and Hondas, BMWs, Yamahas and Suzukis. Scores arrived; scores more followed.
They were the Rolling Thunder riders, making their annual "Run for the Wall," about 500 in all, and they were just in time for lunch.
Most are veterans of the United States Armed Forces and, each year since 1989, they've made a cross-country trek from California to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington, D.C., to honor and promote awareness of veterans.
In recent years, they've stopped at Montvale. There's a friendship between pupils and riders that grows a little with each visit.
"In 2001, we just stood on the road and watched them drive by," said school librarian Meredith Dooley.
The next year, she said, they cruised around the parking lot. Gradually, the visits became an annual afternoon of fellowship between the young students and the more-or-less grizzled vets.
"It's mainly a history lesson about veterans and some of the accomplishments of the armed forces," said Steve Hill, a retired Marine from Arizona who's part of the leadership team.
The school's 300 students get credit for the event and for projects they prepare. An assembly is held in honor of the event and, on Thursday, the school was visited by Brig. Gen. Robert Tucker of the Virginia National Guard, who arrived in a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter.
Tucker, who viewed the procession from the air, told coordinator Ray "Too Tall" McDonnell, "I've never seen a line of motorcycles that long."
Before they ate, the riders -- predominantly large, bearded bikers in black leather, denim and bandannas -- were asked to form a single file in the cafeteria and were led in groups by student council members to classrooms, where they ate their box lunches at tables that offered a pretty tight fit.
"Did you pass this grade or flunk it?" teased Richard "Preacher" Moore, assistant route coordinator, as he watched hungry cohorts being led into the library to eat.
"The folks that have been here before know how it works," said Dooley, who helped coordinate. "The new ones, we really try to get them out to the classrooms. Then we put them everywhere else we can. We were bursting at the seams today."
Hill said the convoy left California eight days ago with about 400 bikers.
"On average, we'll pick up a few hundred along the way," he explained. "Our numbers have increased, even with the economy. A lot of people make this their vacation."
Some bring along family, friends or pets. One bike, a three-wheeled Martin Conquest, was even custom-fitted to be wheelchair accessible.
"We run this in platoon formation because most of us are military," Moore said. There are about seven platoons with at least 50 riders per group. Every year he's ridden, Moore said, the bikers have been joined in their pilgrimage by Vietnam vets who have never seen their war's memorial.
"It gets rough sometimes," he said. "Sometimes, they just have to stand there and cry."
"Run for the Wall" riders visited Salem on Thursday night and are scheduled to assemble at the American Legion on Apperson Drive and leave for Arlington today at 7:30 a.m.
View the riders' itinerary online at www.rftwsr2010.us.
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