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Flight of the Valkyrie


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Hey folks,

I’m going to be taking a 2,741 mile road trip from Redmond OR to Rochester, NY this summer. My thought was to try and team up with a charity like 22 Until None or Wounded Warrior Project to organize rides and meetups along the way and raise money for them.

I’m not really sure how to organize anything of that sort, not sure if anyone on here has experience with it and might offer some suggestions. I’ve sent an email out to the charities so I guess I’ve got to wait and see if this is the sport of thing they want to participate in. If not, maybe I can do it myself and set up a charity link through some social media site.

The plan is to depart Redmond on the 13th of July heading for Sturgis. Spokane, Butte, Boseman or Billings might be reasonable locations for a meetup/ride along the way. After that I’d head for Chicago. Maybe Rapid City, Sioux Falls and Chicago would be places to set something up. Then there’s plenty of places from Chicago to Rochester along 80/90.

What’s prompting this crazy endeavor?  Well my dad is having his other knee replaced this spring and says he won’t be able to ride anymore so he’s passing the Valkyrie on. The paint job has a military (unfortunately air force) theme and, as a vet of Iraq and Afghanistan, doing something to benefit a veteran charity would mean a lot to me. If successful, I’d like to make this an annual thing picking a route somewhere across the country (US-1, Appalachian Trail, Pacific Coast Highway).

If nothing else, I’ll try to document the journey for posterity if nothing else. Anyone live along the way interested in seeing some sights?

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The USAF North American XB-70 Valkyrie 🙂

The Valkyrie was a rather sad story... but an amazing project...

 

 

xb70.jpg.0069f3732b29338c30bbece4151a6592.jpg

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There was a thread on ADV Rider 5 or so years ago by a man that did this very thing, although on a Ural with a sidecar.  Ural sponsored him by providing the bike.  He would post up his itinerary and then as he went along other members who followed his posts would offer to let him stay with them.  He had very little invested in the trip as almost every night someone had their door open to him.  It went on for quite some time.  I'll look to see if I can find it - might provide some ideas. 

 

One piece of trivia about the XB-70 was that one of the test pilots was a USAF Colonel by the name of Fitzhugh Fulton.  His subsequent flying career had him flying the 747 SCA aircraft that carried the Space Shuttle Enterprise up on its landing tests in 1977 and later ferried the operational shuttles back to Florida.  Indeed the XB-70 was an incredible project that was well ahead of its time.

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Here it is.  I guess I read it 5 or so years ago . . . it's much older than that.   Photos are mostly gone, but the text can still give some idea of how it went. 

 

https://advrider.com/f/threads/poor-man-uraling-the-u-s-a.454177/

 

He posts a lot of pics on Sugmug - you can see his military-looking Ural there.

 

https://mr-cob.smugmug.com/

 

 

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That's an interesting read. The bike is gifted but I'll have to pay my way for the rest. I've partnered with Wounded Warriors to try and raise some money.

Now I've just got to figure out a logo. Anyone good with graphic design?

 

https://communityfundraising.woundedwarriorproject.org/campaign/SCCWarriorRide

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