One of the most thankless jobs in the United States is being a Border Patrol agent along our southern border. These men and women who put themselves in harm’s way every day come home to people in the neighborhood who aren’t the most embracing.
Since I am so close to the Tucson Sector, I felt I must ride to honor these Heroes. Far too many agents have given their lives doing their jobs protecting our liberties and freedom.
I called Border Patrol Agent Mario Escalante who is the Public Affairs Officer at the Tucson Sector, he invited me to talk with him during my ride. I have to admit that The Kindness Bus looked a bit out of place amongst all the Border Patrol vehicles. I did get a couple of double takes as I drove through the parking lot.
Mario praised me for raising awareness about Heroes to schoolchildren across the country. This always happens when I talk with Heroes, meet with them to express my gratitude and they end up thanking me.
Thank you to all Border Patrol Agents around our country.

Today I rode for the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech tragedy. It will be 5 years tomorrow that this event occurred.
It was because of this event that I founded One Million Acts Of Kindness and my ensuing travels across the country promoting a lifetime goal of kindness for everyone.
Being near the University of Arizona, I decided to ride The Kindness Bicycle on the roadways throughout the campus. I got a great response, but only after interacting with individuals first. I found that the students were eager to give their opinions about reactions to seeing The Kindness Bicycle with the signs about Virginia Tech. I talked with about 100 people and the consensus was nearly unanimous that remembering events and the harm done can help in avoiding future events like these from occurring.
Teré and Uzo, who posed with The Kindness Bicycle thought my being on campus was a great reminder to everyone.
Kelsey a Creative Writing major said it is so important to remember events like these especially with the amount of violence on campuses and in society.
My thoughts and prayers are with the hundreds of thousands of the Hokie family of Virginia Tech.

While riding earlier this week, I met a woman named Pam who had a great deal of praise for The Kindness Bicycle Ride for Heroes. Her family has a long history of Heroes who have protected our liberties and freedom. She is a very proud woman and knows the need of teaching children about Heroes.
Today is her father’s 90th birthday,  Air Force Colonel (Ret.) John Coulahan, who spent much of his career in the Strategic Air Command.   He is a graduate of West Point and had a long career in the military. He helped to keep the peace with the Armistice after WWII. During the Vietnam era, he was the commander at the Phu Cat Air Base. His entire family is coming in town from across the country to help him celebrate. Happy Birthday Colonel and thank you for your service to our country.
Today is a day off from riding and I am going to use the time to help my nephew Ed and niece Meredith move. I need to help Pay it Forward from all of the great kindness bestowed on me every day.

Mary Meredith is a small school that educates students who have had to lead challenging lives because of factors often times out of their control. Special attention is paid to keeping these students focused during the school day. I was asked to give 3 programs to the students by grade level. It was important, as are all my talks, to be as passionate as possible to try to inspire these students to look at all the good they can do with their lives going forward. I loved talking at this school and it must have resonated as 4 faculty spoke to me afterwards, 2 of the long term teachers said the presentations were the best the school has ever had. I don’t want to sound boastful, it was just that important to get these kids to believe that they are capable of achieving anything in their lives no matter their past life.
Principal, Terri Pulan and some of the staff, Priscilla, Eduardo and Dai were in attendance during my presentations and all were very helpful in lending a hand with my set-up. This very dedicated staff is very involved on a personal level in helping these students find their way in life. I am so grateful for the invitation to assist in creating an awareness of kindness on this campus.
Heading back to Oro Valley, I stopped to pick up a copy of the University of Arizona newspaper to see if an article written about One Million Acts Of Kindness online was in print as well. I almost fell over when a huge color photograph was on the front page above tho fold. Thank you Brittny Mejia for helping to spread the word in the Daily Wildcat.

Today started with an interview by Thelma Grimes, editor of The Explorer, a local, weekly newspaper of communities to the north of Tucson. Thelma thought it a great idea to help spread kindness through her newspaper. I was highly impressed as she asked some very thought provoking questions for the article.
I arrived early this afternoon to the Donaldson Elementary campus for my afternoon program. These Donaldson students were so interested in what I had to say. I love talking with children of these ages. I hope a lifelong message is  reaching them. Thank you to Principal Gist, Guidance Counselor Lopez and IT expert Dyann Vaccaro for the help in visiting this wonderful school.
Later in the day, while packing up, Aidan, one of the students, was so impressed with the messages on The Kindness Bus that he asked if he could write a message as well. When he told me he would like to write “Be the best you can be,” I found a prime spot for his words to be written on The Kindness Bus for the world to see.

The University of Arizona was a must stop today as I found myself less than a mile from the campus in downtown Tucson. This large urban campus, known as The U to students, was a perfect place to park The Kindness Bus and ride The Kindness Bicycle on a perfect spring day. I made contacts with hundreds of students interested in learning about my mission of spreading kindness and raising awareness for Heroes.
Brittny Mejia, a reporter for the Daily Wildcat newspaper, contacted me to write an article about The Kindness Bus Tour and The Heroes Ride. This was a great visit and it was nice riding on these streets and paths throughout The U. There are thousands of bikes on this campus, I never have a hard time finding mine, as you can see.

Last Thursday evening as The Kindness Bus sputtered and limped its way into Oro Valley, Arizona, I had no idea what laid in store for me from two new-found friends. With a long drive in front of me to Albuquerque in a little over a week, I voiced these concerns to Ann Jansen, my contact at Harelson Elementary. She replied to me that her husband Steve is a master mechanic. The Kindness Bus was to be in their drive for a few nights. After a day of programs at Harelson and a dinner with Steve, Ann and their granddaughter, Summer, Steve said, “let’s take a look at what is wrong with your bus tomorrow.” I have to admit that it was music to my ears.
Saturday was to be the day of repairs of what turned out to be a very leaky carburetor. Steve has a tool for everything which is important when you have a bus that is very unique. I heard from Steve that when he was 15 he was hired by an auto dealer when he was told if he could rebuild and install a carburetor on one of their customer’s cars that the job was his. Hearing this, I knew I was in good hands.
With a day of taking this large Holley four-barrel with every pollution control device under the sun attached to it, we cleaned each one individually and Steve started re-assembling. It was amazing to me that he knew where each part fit back together and in which order.
When you get a sealed, rebuild kit from an auto part store, you expect everything to be the correct replacement and the right count. This was not the case. After getting the carburetor reassembled and installed with all the vacuum lines connected, the moment of truth arrived about a half hour after the sun set behind the mountains. I fired up The Kindness Bus and it sounded like a NASCAR lead car on the final straightaway. The engine was running full throttle on its own, a wrong length part was inadvertently part of the rebuild kit.
Sunday morning was to be a quick one as all that it was going to take was to pull the carburetor and a few parts from its side and replace the wrong part. Steve did this with the precision of a pit crew mechanic.
I took The Kindness Bus out for a drive and it sputtered every inch of the way. Pulling back into the driveway Steve knew that there was more wrong than just the original leaky carburetor. Steve put the engine through a series of tests and decided to replace the spark plugs after taking some temperatures of the manifold at each cylinder. Still the same result! It wasn’t until we pulled the distributor cap, which I told was not in need of replacing a month ago, did the problem get discovered.
When I asked Steve if the cap and rotor  were the worst he had ever seen, he in his very polite manner dismissed the question. It wasn’t until we took them to the auto part store and the salesman made a comment that “this looks like something from the Ming Dynasty” that my suspicions were realized.
A distributor cap and rotor are parts that are easily replaced and when I started the engine and heard the sound, I knew that these much needed repairs will give The Kindness Bus another couple of years of trouble-free performance.
One more thing needs to be said, Steve gave up an afternoon of time with his grown son to make sure my travels would be without concerns of breaking down on the side of the road.
With all of this said, and knowing the level of kindness that Steve and Ann showed and that this is how they are to everyone, I think I had better rename this blog, A Lifetime of Continual Kindness.
I told Steve at the end of these two very long days that, he saved me. Nothing could be more true.