The following is from Jerry, KR4EZZ, who was helping with the (8th annual SOWW) Warrior Ride for the first time: Click on the picture to see the whole article and a slideshow at the end.

I was not going to go to the brewery first and just go to my station, as the schedule had me down to be there at 9:15. But, I decided it might be nice to see things start. At the brewery, I was told the station (Evergreen Country Club) was set up ahead of time and they were waiting for me. So, I took off.

Got there and saw a tent, with two EMTs (Great Falls FD) and two nurses (from UVA Hospital, Haymarket on Heathcote Blvd. and from Prince William) sitting underneath. A bit later, a couple of adults and teens from Aldie Methodist Church came by, bringing water and snacks for the riders. Later, several more EMTs showed up.

The first rider came by at 9:30, but just turned around and kept going. The first to stop was at about 9:45 AM. According to the ops plan, the first riders were estimated to arrive about 10:15 AM. The site was set back from the road, so some riders just did not see us, or they just wanted to get done, as it was about 6.5 miles back to the brewery.

A very nice lady who organized everything stopped by at one point. She had brought me a sandwich, which I appreciated. I don’t eat wheat, but the insides were tasty.

There was a report of someone falling and breaking their scapula. Another report of a woman who seemed to have disappeared. She was the last rider to stop at Evergreen Station. She had low blood sugar (~40 mg/dL), but the EMTs gave her something and she recovered. We were done about noon and everyone was driving off by 12:35 PM. On the way back to the brewery, the traffic was slow and following her. When she rode into the brewery, there were a bunch of people cheering her on for finishing her ride.

Overall, it was a good, sunny day and the predicted rain did not show up. It did get warm later. I could connect well early on to Net Control, but later there were issues being heard. A fellow from a nearby station could not be heard at his location, but could when he visited us. Must have something to do with reaching, or not, the repeater. It was pretty noisy at times, so I plugged in my earpiece. I had issues being heard when I used its speak (PTT) button. I’ll attribute some of the difficulty to operator error. When I got back to the brewery, I picked up a wrist band and got a coke with my ticket. There was some sort of presentation going on. I had a look, but was too tired to stay and just headed home.

Jerry, KR4EZZ