June 30, A Month Has Passed!

I am so happy that people are reading my blog! I hope that you continue to be entertained and interested in our travels and our project! Thanks for reading! What I thought I would do today is give you a bit of history and information about what we are all about. As many of you are aware, I was a career firefighter in Dallas, Texas, for over 32 years. It was a very challenging and interesting career, and I learned a lot from it. One of the things that I learned is that firefighters are a family. Sometimes a dysfunctional family! Lol... And I mean that in the kindest way. But, seriously, when one of us is hurt, we all feel the pain. Firefighters spend their lives helping others, and many times they put their lives on the line to do so. Sometimes, they give the ultimate sacrifice in their quest to help others. So, when I got ready to retire in 2013, several things happened. We lost a number of firefighters over a few years in Dallas. Most of them, I knew. I went to the funerals, and was heartbroken along with the rest of my firefighter family. And if you have never been to a firefighter line of duty death funeral, it is something amazing. Firefighters come from all parts of the country to show their respect and honor the fallen.

So I came to the realization that it would be hard to just walk away from part of my family. And, with some of the issues that pop up regarding survivor benefits, and things like that, we decided to form our non-profit, Support For Firefighters. You may be aware that we are registered with the IRS as an official 501 (c)3 non-profit organization. We clearly wanted to put our efforts into helping survivors, so chose the Fallen Firefighter Foundation, another national 501 (c)3, as an avenue to help. But as we did our research, we realized that there were at least 2 other organizations that we wished to benefit. One is The Thin Red Line, which helps volunteer organizations obtain needed safety equipment, and the other is Sons of the Flag, an organization which supports research into healing burn injuries. This particular organization was founded by former Navy Seals, and is doing a phenomenal job of raising money for their cause. But we have decided to split our donations among these three awesome organizations.

You may wonder what the Running for the Hoses really is all about. We knew that we needed a kick-off event, and wanted to get the word out nationwide. Since Jeff is an ultra-marathoner, he thought that if we "ran" across the country, stopping at fire stations and talking to the news media, that more people would hear about us. We are getting a wonderful reception in most areas, so far! Hopefully, word will spread as we get further across the heart of America, with our goal being to arrive in NYC before the 9-11 ceremonies this year.

Our theory is basically that everyone, most everyone, knows a firefighter or has one in their family. Or maybe, is a firefighter themselves. There are over 2,000,000 firefighters in this country, and 75% of them are volunteer. I was blown away by that number, as I never really thought about it! We have set our fund raising goal for $2M. That is a very high goal, but we would rather shoot higher than lower. The idea is that if at least some of the people, say 100,000 that know one of those 2 million firefighters, donates just $20, we will meet our goal.

So please, if it makes sense to you at all, and you are one of those people that has been touched by a firefighter in any way, please consider making that donation! Every little bit helps. We are averaging about $100 per donation, but they are slow in coming in. If you considered perhaps donating ONE PENNY per mile, that is a simple $35 donation. But if all you can spare is $5 or $10, we welcome that!  Share our blog, share our website, share our Facebook page, with your friends and family. Help us make a difference for firefighters in America!

Today, we left our little gravel plot pretty early. There was an amazing sunrise, but sadly I didn't get a picture of it. And last night, you could have reached up and touched the Milky Way, it was so bright and beautiful!I did finally see an antelope, although people have been telling us there are tons of them across Oregon and Idaho. This guy passed right in front of the RV!

Here we are parked next to a wheat field. 

This is Black Gorge, near Grace, Idaho.

I also found this field of something with little yellow flowers! So pretty!

It has been a fairly easy day, just making it down the road mile after mile. We had lunch in Soda Springs, which is a small town on the Oregon Trail. The area was known to the pioneers because of the number of springs in the area. Many of which had effervescent bubbling water, and some even tasted like beer! Many of those springs are now under a reservoir here. I also made a stop at the Pioneer Museum here, only to find out it was only open Friday and Saturday, 1-4 pm. I am so totally awed by the pioneers and what they accomplished. They had to have been some really tough, persistent folks!

The Pioneer Museum in Soda Springs.

This guy was highly lauded around here!

 


Of course, Jeff made some friends on the road. These folks stopped to say hi, and gave him some cold water, after reading about us and what we were doing on the Pocatello Running Company Facebook page! See, social media works!

I also stopped to see a park area where there were Oregon Trail tracks promised by the signage. I'm not so sure I could pick them out!

And of course, Jeff spotted the local fire department stuff! He has a better eye for it than I do!

 


You never know what other interesting things catch Jeff's eye while he is jogging through an area! Stuff that I never even see from the vehicle.

Loved this beautiful herd of horses!

He also managed to find a very large, shiny object on the side of the road, whereas the only shiny things I ever see are beer cans!

Then there was another place, on Georgetown Summit, where the sign said the trail followed back down there, and it was state land so you could walk up it. We went back to it, only to find it had been black topped at some point in time, but it was not maintained. Hmmm....



So we made it to Georgetown today, but there is no place to stay. So, we drove on to Montpelier to find a spot. Jeff will either run backwards or I will drive him back to where he stopped. Since we are sleeping at a country truck stop, the Trail Stop, or something like that. We actually ate dinner at their restaurant, as we didn't want to actually fire up the grill outside in a truck stop! It was pretty darn good, too. There was a KOA  in town, but they wanted $50-60 for a slot, depending on whether it was pull through, back in, or on the creek. No thanks. We found a free dump site in town at the park, and pulled up in the parking lot, near some grass (weeds!) for the dogs. We are fine here.

Mailbox of the Day!