"I'm kinda tired...I think I'll go home now."
Posted on 01/16/2005 2:46:22 PM PST by Ellesu
Don Vermilyea is bringing his ten year long walk across America to San Antonio.
The 54 year old West Virginia man has covered an amazing 12,974 miles on foot as he criss crosses the country with the goal of visiting every Church of the Bretheren congregation in America. 1200 WOAI's Charity McCurdy caught up with him as he strolled down Highway 281 Tuesday south of Blanco.
"The only reason I walk is for the Lord," Vermilyea said.
He said that while Texas is the friendliest state he has walked through so far, he's worried about the kind of place America has become.
"We're less trustful, we're less friendly," he said. "Especially since 9-11, we're so fearful, we're so mistrustful and so judgmental.
"It used to be that if you had a bad day at work you would go home and kick the dog. Today you kick the prostitute or the bum or somebody else who's down."
Vermilyea says he always refuses rides because he is doing the 'Walk Across America, not the "Walk Unless I Feel Like Riding" and he conducts his entire walk with no plans and no schedule.
"I pray over and over and over again, please Lord, get me to a dry, safe place tonight."
He says of the 1071 nights he has spent on the road since his trek began, he has spent 447 outside in rain, snow, and desert heat, and 624 of them in the homes of strangers who met him along the highway. He says he spent Monday night in culvert. The night before that he snuck into a horse shed to sleep.
"There isn't a day that goes by that I don't dream of quitting," he told Charity, adding that his faith in the Lord keeps him going.
Vermilyea's walk started January 31, 2002 when he left a home in Tucson Arizona. He says unless he is felled by disease or injury, he plans to walk until 2012.
He says many people have taken his walk the wrong way.
"I've been accused of being a child molester, I've been accused of being a terrorist with a backpack full of explosives. The longer I wear the back pack, the quicker my body wears out. I had no idea that, for the most part, the general public was not going to be nice...and I had no idea of the loneliness...I had no idea..."
He says during a rash of mailbox explosions in Minnesota in he was accused of being responsible, and he has also been accused of committing several other petty crimes, from traffic violations to destruction of property.
He will be at the Falfurrias Church of the Bretheren in Falfurrias Texas January 23, then plans to walk from there to a Church of the Bretheren in Roanoke Louisiana. His plans for this coming summer include walking to Peoria Illinois for the annual conference of the Church of the Bretheren, and to the church's annual young camp in Mount Morris Illinois in July.
"We need to slow down and stop taking care of each other more," Varmilyea says. "Not just as Christians but just as human beings."
He jokes that he has found $910.27 in discarded change found along the side of roads he has walked. He says he's saving up to buy his first treat in three years, a pint of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream.
"People think this is Donnie's Big Adventure, but it isn't. It isn't that at all. This is real. I hurt 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I hurt all night and all day. Want to go on a ten year walk all by yourself? Wanna talk about scary? Try doing this."
mark
That and apparently he doesn't have any job skills...and how much does a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cost anyways?! Dude, buy a pint already!!
Not possible.
Nothing worse than a self-proclaimed 'survivor' of self-inflicted 'pain'.
The Headline indicates that he has mastered sleep walking, sleep eating, and disregard for the digestive process.
BTTT
Run, Forrest! RUN!!!
LOL
Every time I hear the old Earnest Tubb song "Waltz Across Texas" I picture some idiot somewhere between Monahans and Odessa dancing down the highway.
Going from El Paso to Texarcana and has already worn out 3 pair of dancing shoes and is just getting started.
Is that Algore?
He averages about 12 miles a day.
1.5 mph per 8 hour day.
People will blame anything on God.
Headline reminds me of a George Carlin skit when he's doing the news and says:
"A man who attempted to walk around the world............................. DROWN TODAY, off the coast of Florida..."
That's approximately 3.6 miles per day.
Color me unimpressed.
You wanna walk all day, fine, but don't cry "Whoah is me, YOU try it somtime you think it's so easy!" No one asked you to do this, no one's forcing you. A more appropriate response would be "What a great life I'm having, that I get to just pick up and do this unconventional thing and no one bugs me about it! Sure, there's pain, but so what? I'm living the life I want!" Quit playing the victim for something you chose to do.
He must have come from a much worse place than those I'm familiar with.
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