Pony Express AAR

The Adventures of a Pony Express Rider

Dean "Bear" Meberg

ND Pony Express Coordinator

dakotam@polarcomm.com

The Legacy Run is over and as a Pony Express Rider from North Dakota, I just wanted to write about how much fun my brother DJ and I had.

First, we met in Bismarck and on Sunday morning on August 20^th, we left to meet with the other North Dakota PE Riders at National Vice-Commander Seb Roll’s house in Mott. Upon arriving at Seb’s we were treated to a breakfast and received the pouch to be handed over to National Commander Tom Bock when we would meet up with the Legacy Ride. The breakfast was excellent, we had a group picture of all of the riders with NVC Roll, and then we left on our journey for the first day, which would take DJ and I to Cheyenne.

Along the way that first day, we went through Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota and then followed US 85 through eastern Wyoming until we branched off to see Ft. Laramie. During this leg of the trip we had to wait for about 15 minutes as we watched a thunder shower pass across our route about two miles ahead of us.

Then we took a short cut from Ft. Laramie that ended up being more of a short cut than we intended. Actually, we made a wrong turn and ended up on a gravel road for about four miles until it met up back with the original road we thought we were on.

The twisting road took us into Wheatland to where we got onto I-25 and went on to Cheyenne. Upon arriving in Cheyenne, we finally found a Hotel to stay in, the Historic Plains Hotel is in the downtown area and is very quaint and a very nice place to stay. On Monday morning before we left we had breakfast and while packing our bikes in preparation for the day’s journey, we chatted with a fellow traveler who was waiting for his vehicle to be fixed. With the bikes packed and everything in order, we strike off to meet up with the Legacy Run at Kremmling, Colorado. We unfortunately start a half-hour behind schedule, but we are on our way and will go through Rocky Mountain National Park as a short cut to meet the Run.

Big Thompson Canyon is something you have to traverse to get to RMNP on our route. Scenic- Yes, twisty- Yes, scary for a first-timer- YES! A very enjoyable ride, once you are in Estes Park, but until then, I think I gained a few more gray hairs. Anyway, we are now going through RMNP and I am concerned about my Harley as it has a carbureted engine as opposed to my brother’s fuel injected Victory. With the altitude approaching 12000 feet, the Harley still ran fine, rich but fine.

After following tour buses and meeting a group of Model A’s & T’s coming the other way. We finally get out of the Park and intercept Route 40 and call in to see where the Run is. It is determined that we are almost a full hour behind schedule and we take off for Kremmling with the intent of filling on gas and heading on for Craig to try and catch up with the Run.

We arrive at Kremmling, fill up the gas tanks, and use the restroom facility and we are getting ready to take off for Craig when we look up and here is the Run coming into town.

We then learn that due to traffic accidents on I-70, the Run had been delayed and that the people at Legacy Run HQ had not been in contact since the Run had left Longmont that morning. Therefore, instead of being behind, we were actually ahead of the Run. Now we could relax and we went to the refueling site and grabbed the bag that NVC Roll had given us to carry the donations and we went looking for Commander Tom. We find him and present him with North Dakota’s donation pledges. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

From handing off the donation bag, we then headed off to Craig for the Post Dedication Ceremony there. Because we left ahead of the main Run, we arrived early and relaxed and chatted with a helicopter crew and some of the fine service members from my old division, always enjoy talking to “Ivy men and women”. Quite the assortment of bikes and more importantly, ALR patches.

After the ceremony, we again headed off ahead of the main group and went to the Rock Springs KOA so we would arrive before darkness. The plains of Wyoming and Colorado are beautiful in their own unique way and the scent of sage was in the air. Beautiful does not do the scenery justice. We arrived in Rock Springs and after unloading our gear at the campground, we head to the Holiday Inn and meet up with the other riders and we all head to the Legion Post and our evening meal and program. Very enjoyable camaraderie and excellent food and beverages and more importantly, the donation that the Rock Springs Post and its ALR made to the Legacy Fund.

DJ and I head to the campground to get some rest, in two days we had traveled over 1100 miles and had seen lots of scenic America. The next morning we got up, packed the bikes, said goodbye to the Ride, and began our own journey through Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado before we would head for home.

However, we saw something that made us stop to think. When we left the café where we had our breakfast the morning of the 22^nd, a short distance away was a piece of art that we both agree is indeed "ART". Nearby was a flagpole, Rock Springs, you do know how to do it the right way. Thanks for the memories of the ride and the experience. I am already looking forward to next year.

History of the Pony Express – Past and Present

Perhaps no event in Western American history has captured the imagination and held the interest of people as the story of the Pony Express. Since this episode of transportation history blazed across our frontier past (in service only eighteen months), many participants, eyewitnesses, as well as Western writers, authors, and scholars have written about it with great admiration in popular books, and scholarly monographs and journal articles. Even motion pictures and television have adopted the heroic saga as their own, depicting the young men on horseback withstanding weather, enduring fatigue, and facing danger from attack by Indians, in order to carry the nation's mail as rapidly as possible across the nineteen hundred miles between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Today, this saga is deeply ingrained in our American heritage, and has become a symbol of our western past.

Now, 145 years later, the Pony Express rides again. In an effort to expand the horizons of support for our veterans and their families during an era of combat against terrorism, the Pony Express has been resurrected in form and fashion as its original predecessor. The minor difference? An iron pony supplants the flesh and blood pony to carry the precious cargo. That is, essentially, the only difference.

How the Resurrection Began

While sitting in our host’s American Legion Post 379 recreation facility in Bedford, Texas one hot and sultry night in late June, 2006, a group of American Legion Riders Post 135 officers were reviewing the Legacy Run’s overland route from Indianapolis to Salt Lake City. A comment was made by Post 135’s 2^nd Vice Commander, Mike “Sparks” Meccia, that this route encompasses part of the old Pony Express Route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento California. Noting this, our 1^st Vice Commander, Bob:”Doc” Kutzner, made the comment, “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a Pony Express that could move donations throughout the country in support of this Legacy Run.” The next day, this conversation was repeated to Post 135’s Historian, Ron “Fox” Whipple who, by 1000 hrs had accumulated over 38 Pony Express historical documents from an Internet search and the idea of resurrecting the Pony Express of old was born.

Researching how the Pony Express was organized and operated, including a copyright search of the original Pony Express Messenger Badge, it became evident to this core group of enthusiasts that we could accomplish this enormous undertaking with just dedication, perseverance, and a lot of man hours. Splitting up the major tasks of such organization, we soon formed a Pony Express Subcommittee under the Entertainment Committee of our post and produced a Texas Ride Plan that other states could emulate in their own state’s organization across the nation. With the help of our high-level National American Legion management personnel and a thorough scouring of the ALR National Website and other legion sources, the word went out to as many American Legion Posts for which we could find email addresses.

Since this Pony Express Committee envisioned a vehicle for participation in support of the American Legion that non-legion volunteers could use for supporting our troops and their families, we asked and received the full support of the Patriot Guard and, within a day the Pony Express call went out to almost 50,000 Patriot Guards, asking them to locate an American Legion Post in their area to, visit that post, and ask them to join our efforts.

In an amazing forty days, the Pony Express volunteer network grew to 33 states and over two hundred Messengers and, using the Texas Ride Plan as a template, each of those 33 states had galvanized fund-raising efforts and organized their own states’ ride plans that called for the delivery of donations to the Legacy Scholarship Fund all along the Legacy Run’s route. Our National Commander, Tom Bock, was overwhelmed at the Pony Express deliveries all along his historic route and the Pony Express was recognized as a historic and worthwhile endeavor that would undoubtedly make a major impact on legion operations for many years to come.

We stand tall and silent waiting for our next call to arms…

The

American Legion Riders

Post 22, Golden Valley, Arizona

History of the Pony Express – Past and Present

How the Resurrection Began