Wesley Barrientos doesn’t mind sitting out the last leg of a cross-country bike tour after a crash injured his shoulder because it doesn’t change the message he and Jeremy Staat are sharing.

So he waited Sunday at Veterans Park in Roanoke Rapids Sunday for Staat to arrive, talking to well wishers about being an Army veteran who in 2007 lost both legs in Iraq from an improvised explosive device.

It was his third tour of duty in Iraq and his third Purple Heart.

Both from Bakersfield, California, Barrientos and Staat, a retired NFL player and Marine, set out on bicycles — Staat’s a standard touring bike and Barrientos’s a hand pedaled touring model — from the veterans wall in Bakersfield.

City council woman Suetta Scarbrough reads a resolution honoring the veterans.

On day 93 of the journey today, their goal is the Vietnam Memorial in Washington on Memorial Day.

(The complete series of photos from Sunday and today’s visit to Belmont Elementary may be seen on our Facebook page.)

Between that there have been visits to other memorials and schools. “It’s been very emotional,” Barrientos said. “We’ve got a lot of opportunity to talk to people and bring awareness to what people need to hear.”

The four main causes for their trip are awareness of veteran suicide in which some 18 veterans a day kill themselves; more effective veterans healthcare; improved veteran education and childhood obesity.

The childhood obesity numbers are staggering, Barrientos said. “It makes them unqualified for military service which is a threat to national security.”

Rudy and Joni Evans listen.

Barrientos logged 1,800 miles before crashing so he has no regrets. “The reality of this is I’m able to go out and help people out. It will be all worth it even if we just motivate one person.”

At the end of the trip Staat and Barrientos will lay a wreath at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington at 1 p.m. on Memorial Day.

For Barrientos, the trip is a way to honor his second chance at life and honor those who didn’t make it. “We’ve got so many who didn’t get a second opportunity. I want to honor my brothers by each day doing something positive.”

Joni Evans of Roanoke Rapids passed out flags to those there to welcome Barrientos and Staat.

Her daughter, Laura Boone, was a volunteer at Ward 57 of Walter Reed where Barrientos was a patient. “It’s where I wish I was working,” she said. “We’re Americans, all of us.”

Staat arrives.

Staat arrived at the park by police escort and explained to the audience the mission. It takes 290 days for a claim to be processed, he said. “Some Vietnam veterans have waited for 40 years. There are 1 million claims backlogged.”

For Staat, who was friends with the late Pat Tillman, an NFL player who gave up his career to enlist, that friendship stays in the back of his mind on the trip to Washington. “It keeps me going along with the other veterans in the communities. That’s what motivates me.”

In Tuesday’s rrspin: Staat and Barrientos visit Belmont Elementary School