Ellen Biking Through South Carolina

Ellen Pierson is biking from Florida to Virginia this week with about 20 bicyclist officers to hook up with thousands of other bicyclists for this weekend's Police Unity Tour, which memorializes fallen law enforcement who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Ellen is sending daily reports this week and here's her report from last night.

Charleston to Georgetown SC
120 miles, 7 hrs, 4786 calories
Felt alot better today. Been eating more. We had really nice roads and police escorts. There were about 30 of us. Officers from Manning and Myrtle Beach PD joined us.

The day started by going over the Ravenell Bridge in Charleston. Its big. Beautiful views.

We went to a Moncks Corner and met with members of the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). Mrs. Beverly Coates and Mr and Mrs. Rau. Each cyclist in the PUT and the LEU is assigned a fallen officer to honor. The cyclist is given a bracelet with the name of a fallen officer. Upon arrival in WDC, the cyclist presents the bracelet to the family of the fallen officer.

Ms. Beverly Coates is the president of the COPS for South Carolina. She lost her son, Trooper Mark Coates, in 1992.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/420-trooper-mark-hunter-coates

Trooper Coates had never been honored by a cyclist because the ride in only 15 years old. I advised Ms. Coates that we will be honoring her son this year. I am carrying the bracelet to Portsmouth, VA and giving it to one of our PUT cyclist, Ms. Tonya Frare. Ms. Frare lost her brother who was also a SC Trooper, Jonathan Nash.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/20066-lance-corporal-jonathan-shea-nash

Ms. Frare will wear the bracelet to WDC and present it to Ms. Coates.

The Berkley Co. FOP fed us a great lunch. I met retired SA Woody Best. Great to see him.

After lunch we headed to Georgetown, SC.

GPD is super to us. We had dinner at their department and met with Ms. Sally Guerry, the widow of Deputy Chief Spencer Guerry.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/631-major-deputy-chief-cecil-spencer-guerry

Major Guerry's grandfather, Berkeley County Sheriff's Department Deputy Sheriff Warren Calhoun Guerry, was also killed in the line of duty.

The Guerry's son James has submitted his application to be a SC Trooper.

In the photos for this day, May 3, you will see us wearing geeky white socks. We did this to honor our friend Rob Moorhead. He always wore them. He was supposed to meet us here in Georgetown and start riding with us tomorrow. We had a ceremony in his honor. Told stories and listened to bagpipe music. We all miss him.

More tomorrow. Ellen