"Every where we go, people wanna know who we are and where we come from"

All I can say is wow!!! If every day is like this we are in for a great 11 days. The title to this blog is one of the cadence that we call during our runs, it sounds impressive as it is called by the officers and athletes.

Yesterday started off at the Coeur D' Alene resort with the torch being delivered by water on Idaho State Police Boats. Once the torch arrived we had a short outside ceremony before running to the Coeur D' Alene library. As we ran to the library the sidewalks were lined with flags and school children giving high fives to the runners as we ran in a column of two. After hearing from the Idaho first Lady and several other local dignitaries as well as Special Olympics Athletes from the area we ran the torch through the town. It was an amazing site to see all of the residents of this resort town in Northern Idaho get out of their vehicles and come out of their shops to cheer the Final Leg Team on. Once we completed the run the Team separated into two groups, one to east Idaho and the other to Northern Idaho. Chris and I went to Northern Idaho, we took a two hour bus ride through the mountains to the U.S., Canadian border. At the Border we were met by members of U.S. Customs, Border Patrol, Canadian Customs, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and several other agencies. Several of the residents of the area also turned out for the ceremony. The area near the border was absolutely beautiful, I got to see a Bald Eagle in flight as it flew along side of the bus for a few minutes. To see that beautiful animal in flight with the backdrop of the mountains was truly amazing. The Customs and immigrations director for the area had special coffee cups made for all of the athletes, runners and support staff that made it to the Canadian Border. The cups have the Final Leg Logo on one side and the customs logo on the other side. After leaving the Border we went to the town of Bonner's Ferry, which is where my team leader Dave Kramer served as an officer for 30 before retiring as Chief. We started our run just outside of town and again were met by a very warm reception of residents standing on the side of the road waving small American flags as well as a local elementary school that had joined them. The ceremony in Bonner's Ferry was held in the High School Gym, where Chris spoke and did an amazing job. It was obvious that the students of the school were aware of Special Olympics and the LETR through chief Kramers work while he served his community. We then traveled to Sand Point where we had the longest run of the day, 1.6 miles during rush hour. So we for once we can say and I think the citizens would agree that a traffic slow down by this group of officers was more than okay. People were rolling down their windows, getting out of their cars and exiting business so they could hear the cadence and cheer on the runners.

Chris and I both had the honor of carrying the torch yesterday for a period of time, the excitement and pride that comes over you is just amazing. The thought of not only representing my department, our home state but all of the athletes, the 100,000 LETR officers across the world it was a truly amazing experience. We are off for another long day the buses will load all of the runners for a short drive to our first ceremony before we head to central Idaho after a two hour bus ride. Hope everyone has a great and safe day!!