Victory Junction Gang...amazing!

I arrived at Victory Junction Gang camp as they were trying to eat lunch. Classic JK timing. This is the largest of the Hole in the Wall Gang camps and was founded in honour of Nascar racer Adam Petty. John Heerema cheerfully acted as my guide and gave me the full run-down. This place is amazing for children. If you were a very sick child or had very real handicaps this place would be heaven. Go to their website www.victoryjunction.org and watch the 10 minute video prepared by George Vaughn. You have to see just how much this place means to these kids and the loving care that the 40-50 staff and 1100+ volunteers show towards the kids. I mentioned how Richard Petty had assisted the Florida camp. Here at Victory Junction you see facilities costing MILLIONS of dollars freely donated by many Nascar racers and huge corporations like Sunoco, Walmart, Best Western, Bass Pro Shops and many, many more. I won't be slagging off these corporations or any wealthy sportsmen after what I have seen here. The indoor baseball pitch was vast. I reckon the swimming pool looked a lot of fun with it's Harley slide. After my tour, I met Mary, Judy and Karen and waited in the admin building for George Vaughn to bring me his DVD. Who walks in but Richard Petty? The girls took a photo of us and I teased him about how I would blow that big black Jeep to the weeds with my R1. He threatened to come down in his Chrysler Hemi and leave me eating his dust. The pictures show the racing theme (love those petrolheads beds) and that waterfall was apparently a donation built in 4 days by volunteers. All the staff were so happy and helpful you sensed that they were very fulfilled in their work. I was beginning to feel embarrassed by the amount of money I could raise but they all emphasised that the many small donations are just as important as large corporate assistance so thanks to all of you who have donated so far!

The countryside is lovely around here and I wished I had more time in this part of America. But I have a fixed date in Washington DC so I rode up the US220 to Roanoke Virginia. The scenery was very nice and tomorrow I plan to see the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive, Shenandoah and still get to Maryland by 6pm.