Introduction to Sixty Trip

Greetings,

Let me introduce myself. My name is David Dudley and I live in East Tennessee. I am 59 years old and the father of five wonderful kids and husband of one wonderful wife of 37 years.

About five years ago, I started having this dream. The older I got, the more I seemed to see people my age and much younger in really bad physical shape. I realize that many people in bad conditions can't help it, due to accidents, unavoidable disease, crimes against them, etc. But I also realized that many were already in bad shape due to neglect of their own bodies. I did not want to end up in that category, if there were things I could change. Though fairly healthy, I was a couch potato.

I, however, did not and still do not have all the bumps and bruises of many friends and I had no excuse not to get in better shape than I was in.

Now, to my dream. I am one who needs a lot of motivation. So, I came up with the idea of how to get in much better shape and hopefully stay that way.

So, I am going to give myself a 60th birthday present. I am planning to walk across the state of Tennessee. No, I won't be the first, or the oldest, or the fastest, or set any kind of records in doing it. But hopefully through this process, I will be in much better shape than I am in right now, and hopefully can say the same when I reach 65 and 75.

I plan on doing this walk, which will be about a 12-14 miles-a-day trip, sometime around May or June of 2019. Depends on my work schedule.

Some may be thinking, "Wow, Tennessee is a long state." Yes it is. So I plan on doing a north to south trip, about 130 miles, and hopefully, if all goes well, I can do an east to west trip in the future.

At first, I had just this one goal in mind. To get in better shape and walk by the time I reach 60. But the more I thought  about it, I don't want to waste a walk, so I have several ideas in mind for my trip.

One idea is to make it a big fundraiser.  One where people would pledge so much per mile that I walk. I will be choosing several different non-profits that are dear to my heart and have each supporter choose their favorite to donate to. None of this would go to me, but directly to the organizations you choose.

My second idea is to meet people along the way and hear their stories and chronicle them on video.

So, if you have not done this so far, please go to my 'follow my trip' sign in and you will be sent notices every time I update with a post.

Have a great day, David