BELFAST - When Rich Deneka left Barrington, NH on his Honda Goldwing trike Sunday morning, it was 19 degrees. At noon, outside the Bank of America building in Belfast, it was a comparatively balmy 25.

Inside the atrium, Deneka chatted with Maine First Lady Ann LePage about heated gloves, cell phone protocol, and other details of their upcoming trip with the Wreaths Across America convoy. Over the next week, they would travel 650 miles through eight states accompanying a convoy of tractor trailers bearing wreaths for the graves at Arlington National Cemetery.

“The Arlington Project” as it is also known, started with a small gesture 21 years ago by Merrill Worcester of Harrington, Maine, who donated the surplus rings from his wreath company to be placed in an old section of the historic cemetery outside Washington, DC.

As the story goes, the tradition continued quietly until 2006, when photos of the wreaths covered in snow circulated on the Internet, triggering a groundswell of support from veterans organizations around the country.

Today, Wreaths Across America is the centerpiece of National Wreaths Across America Day. Around 500,000 wreaths are donated and placed at 900 veterans sites around the country. Of these, around 100,000 are brought to Arlington National Cemetery.

The annual convoy of wreath-filled tractor trailers traveling from Downeast Maine to Virginia has become a kind of industrial parade, making whistle stops over a number of days at various veterans’ events on the route and attracting roadside spectators.

Deneka, a retired Air Force veteran and member of the New Hampshire chapter of the POW/MIA awareness organization Rolling Thunder has followed a segment of the route — from Kitttery into Massachusetts — several times in the past, but this was going to be his first time making essentially the entire trip.

Asked what he expected, he didn’t mince words.

“It’s cold,” he said. 

His three-wheeled trike would avoid some of hazards of a traditional two-wheeled motorcycle, but traction issues would be the main concern if the weather turned bad, the same as in a car.

“If it wasn’t for this ride, I’d already have mine put up for the winter,” he said.

LePage seemed undaunted by the prospect of a chilly ride as she greeted members of various veterans groups — VFW, AmVets, American Legion and Auxiliary members — also volunteers working on the massive wreath project.

Soon after, the tractor trailers started appearing from the behind the Bank of America building along with dozens of other vehicles traveling with the convoy. They parked around the rim of the vast parking lot, and the drivers streamed into the building for a complementary lunch.

Within a couple hours, they would be on their way.

For more information on The Arlington Project and National Wreaths Across America Day, visit Wreaths Across America.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com