Day 3

Its Day 3 on the tour and we actually slept in till 7am this morning and got a good full 5 hours of sleep. So anyways, this morning we had to be at the trucks at 830a for our escort to the Texas Fire Museum for an event. After arriving, we had a little ceremony with a few people in attendance. That's okay though because we were still able to make an impact on those that were there. While sitting out there with the trucks we started having people drive up and talk with us and sign the trucks. One lady that came was Ms. Bonnie, she is a 13 year survivor of cancer. The joy that she had from seeing us, you couldn't explain it. Specially when she received hugs from 12 out of the 15 of us that are here on the tour in Beaumont.
   Before I go further let me tell you about our cast. First you have Dave, who created the Pink Heals Tour. His drive and commitment can not be compared to anyone that I have ever met. Then you have Bob from CT, I met Bob last year while he was on the tour when it stopped in Memphis. Bob and I are driving Karen together. They had been trying to teach him southern lingo before I arrived and I only felt compelled to try and continue it. I think it might be working. Then you have John (JR) from New York. JR was a firefighter/paramedic that was at Ground Zero on Sept. 11th doing triage when we lost 343 brothers and sisters. Today is JR's birthday and we are still trying to figure out what we are going to do to him all in fire fighter fashion of course. Then you have our movie star in John Rhyne. He was the paramedic in the movie Twister. He comes from Kansas and is a retired fire fighter. He has been on the tour for 41 days cause he missed his flight home. So we are taking him there when we get to Kansas next week. He is also good for unlimited laughs. Next is James or as I like to call him JT. JT is from the Wichita Chapter and is very mellow so far. I can't leave out our 2 county deputies that are part of the Lower Texas Chapter. They drove 13 hours to be in Memphis and be a part of our event there. We have Steve or what we call him which could be Juan, Bam Bam, or Jose. He is funny as can be. Then you have his sidekick Tristan or as we decided to call him Tin Cup since he is a jailer.
    So on to the rest of our day. We actually had a couple of hours of down time today where I came to sit down and start typing here. Well just as I got started I had a knock on the door about going to do a home visit. Let me tell you this the tour has a schedule for what cities we will be in. Its the unscheduled events that really make this that much better. A home visit is when we take all the trucks to a person that can't make it to an event because they have reached that stage that they just physically cant be there. Today's home visit was very emotional for me. When we were greeted getting down from the trucks by a relative that had made bandana's with the help of this young lady. It had such a special meaning for me, and yes I had tears in my eyes. She was carried by 3 of us in her wheelchair out to the truck so she could sign her name on Tonya. I really don't think that there was a dry eye in the bunch.
    From there we had another event that was put together over the last 5 days at a place called Goodfellas. If you are ever in Beaumont I highly recommend going there. The owner is very committed in raising funds for the different charities in his city. We had a good turnout with alot of survivors coming out and signing the trucks and getting lots of hugs from us. He is already talking about planning next years event so that it would be even bigger to benefit the city.

    I can tell you, my friend Todd from Memphis Fire, who was on tour before me said it best. He told me that you will have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I tried to think about what his meaning was behind that. Well being here for 3 days I know now what he meant. Being able to talk to those going through treatment and then those that have beaten it back. We are bringing a message of Hope and Love and sharing it with those and seeing it uplift them I really can't explain it. I do know that without the love and support of my wife, I wouldn't have had this opportunity. I also want to thank all of you that are taking the time to read this and showing your support. Remember, we have to start somewhere and that somewhere is with the women in our lives. So start by giving that person that is battling cancer or who has beaten it a hug and tell them that you care. You will be amazed at the response you receive in return. Hopefully, it will give you a little bit of what I have been able to experience so far being out here. I am going to end this now as it is almost 1030p and we have to be outside at the trucks at 6a tomorrow so we can make our journey to Houston.