My Dad Is Hiking 600 Miles and Fighting Cancer!
My Dad, the wild man.
My dad is a wild man at heart. I think that if he had been born in the 19th century, he would have been off to the Alaskan wilderness with a tent and an ax, completely content to clear a homestead and live his days in the Yukon.
In fact, I’m not sure he’d mind that life now.
So it’s no surprise to me that Dad is taking on a new adventure – to walk 600 miles across Utah and Nevada in support of his friend Pete, who has set the goal of walking across the entire United States, one state at a time. Oh, and did I mention that Dad is 68 and Pete is 81?
These two men will drive from Virginia to Utah and begin hiking approximately 20 miles a day on May 1st. By May 31, they will arrive in Reno, Nevada, where I hope someone greets them with a Long Island Iced Tea and a roll of nickels for the slots.
Pete in Wyoming on the Lincoln Highway as he completes another stretch of his cross-country walk
At night, they will sleep in my dad’s van – a black Dodge Caravan, if you’re on the look-out – with occasional “shower nights” in local hotels. They’ll walk and talk, and I expect – given the reflective nature of each man – they’ll just observe and learn.
But they aren’t just walking for adventure. They’ve decided to try to help along a cure for cancer with each step. Their goal is to raise $10,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We lost my mom 5 years ago to cancer, and recently, Dad’s dear friend Jenni lost her mom to non-Hodgkins’ Lymphoma. It’s Dad and Pete’s hope that their walk and the dollars they raise will help find a cure for blood cancers and lead the way to a cure for ALL cancer.
If you are able and interested, please consider giving a donation to their walk. You can donate here – http://www.lls.org/pages/va/peteandwoodywalkutnv – and a contribution of any amount is AWESOME. All donations go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and are tax-deductible.
And if you see two older gentlemen walking the roads of Utah and Nevada, pull over and chat with them a bit. They are both kind souls, and they could use all the cheering on they can get. And if you bring snacks, all the better.
I’ll be keeping folks up to date on the walk through a Facebook page we’ve set up, and you can follow along with their adventure here – https://www.facebook.com/events/798415496913054/.
My dad is a strong, tender, courageous man, and I could not be more proud of him for taking on this endeavor. Go, Daddy, Go!
If you have any words of encouragement for Dad and Pete or want to recommend any sites they should look for as they walk, please share them in the comments section below. I’ll be sure they receive them.