John Wayne???....uh, no.

Day 3. I walked into Bradford, and found a convenience store to rest in and wait for Judy and then, well,....I'll just reprint what I said in my day 3 post weeks ago. 

Close to the end of my day, I found a quiet peaceful convenience store in the town of Bradford. The clerk, or owner, was the only one in the store. I talked to her and asked her if she had any story about her life to tell me and she said she was not much of a talker. I sat down at a table to rest and drink something. Then, in walked two men. The second one was rather large, and LOUD. He looked at the clerk and yelled, pointing to himself and his friend, "Well, it's 'Dumb' and 'Dumber'." I immediately realized this man was probably a talker with a story. So, I yelled out myself, 'Hey, Dumb, come talk to me a second.' He kindly came over and sat at my table and I told him I was walking across Tennessee and asked him if he had anything to tell the world. 

So, you may ask, 'why did you title this, 'John Wayne'?

In the video he just calls himself 'Rooster'. His full stage name in the ring is Rooster Cogburn, the same name as the John Wayne character in True Grit. 

Click on 'Rooster' if the video does not come up

Hold on! Wait a minute. I'm not finished.

Just a little more fun here. I didn't learn this from Rooster, but from the Baptist pastor that we stayed with that night. Just east of Bradford is the unincorporated town of Skullbone, Tn. According to legend, Skullbone was incorporated back in the 1800's and as I understand it, was and possibly still is a center for 'bare fisted fighting'. It was illegal, I'm guessing according to state law, to have bare fisted fighting within the city limits, so Skullbone 'un-incorporated' itself just so they could keep the fun going. What is left is one store, and one pole announcing mileage to cities all over the world. 

Here is a website explaining the town of Skullbone. Make sure to watch the video inside. 

'Crack skulls here' to get to website. 

Recovering Meth Addict

On day five, I started out in downtown Milan at the Marathon gas Station. I barely went 5 blocks when I saw this man walking toward me next to a cemetery. I stopped and asked him if he had a story for me and he was super excited to share this with me. 

Click here if  the video is not visible. 

Hosts and other kindnesses on the trip.

I have mentioned very little of our overnight stays, so here goes. Months before starting this journey, I started calling and emailing churches all along Hwy 45 explaining what I had planned and that I was hoping that the pastors could find a gracious host family to put Judy and I up for a night. 

Knowing all would not respond, I contacted about three in each major town along the way. Some responded quickly, others only a week or so before the trip started.

I did not speak to any of our hosts about telling their stories, so I will honor every one's privacy and mention no names or specific towns, just in case I have somebody reading this that would be crazy enough to think that since it worked for David and Judy, I will just give them a call and try to drop in also. 

I will say that all our hosts were north of Jackson or in Jackson and we had none south of Jackson even offer us a night's stay, but as you will see from my story, I think , ... I know God worked it out the way it happened.

One of our stays was on a Wed. night and our host was the pastor of the church and weeks before I had arranged with him for me to be the guest speaker for his Wed. night service. 

For 12 years now, Judy and I have been involved with a ministry called VOM, Voice of the Martyrs. It's main purpose is as a prayer ministry showing members of Christian Churches in the western world what kind of lives our Christian brothers and sisters are living, being persecuted for their simply being Christians.

The founder of VOM, Richard Wurmbrand, was a Jewish, converted Christian from Romania who shortly after WW2, was arrested and imprisoned three different times for a total of 14 years in communist prisons just because of his Christian faith. His wife, Sabina, was also arrested and worked in a cruel work camp for three years. 

My part in this is sharing the many times tragic, but always, victorious stories of how people are living under persecution today, and how God is sustaining them through their hardships. 

If anyone is interested in learning more, simply go to  www.persecution.com .

So that night, we had a great time with about 40 members of his church and getting to know him, his wife, and three cute little children.

Another stay was with a family of 7. This couple had adopted their oldest child about ten years ago and since have had two more girls and then two more boys and had just moved into this much larger house to accommodate a growing family. 

One lady called me several weeks before our trip started and told me that it had been worked out by them and their pastor that they would host us either on a Monday or a Tuesday.  "Which day would you be needing?" she asked. "Well, either really," I responded. "So, you need both nights?" she asked. "Great, you will stay with us both nights." 

Then, she found out Judy and I used to live in Texas and she asked where. It turned out that 30 years ago, she and her husband and Judy and I all lived in the same town in East Texas for about three years. Wow, did we have a great time putting the dots together of common friends. One of the couples they knew there, we knew in another town we lived in ten years later.  

Another host we had was also a pastor. Earlier in the day he had taken his wife to the airport for an out of state trip to see grandkids. So it was just the three of us. He took us to the town of Humboldt where we ate at a downtown coffee shop oddly named, 'The Coffee Shop'. So, a big shout out to Guy and Tammy, owners of  'The Coffee Shop' , home to good sandwiches, soups, and salads, and I assume, coffee. (I don't drink the stuff) 

Friday night was our last known stay with a host family,  we thought. Thinking that I could finish this walk in 8 walking days, I hoped to have been finished Tues or Wed of the second week. We found a nice AirBnB in Jackson and rented it for Mon-Wed nights on week two. We still had Sat and Sun up in the air several days into the trip, so we reserved Sat and Sun night at a motel close to the famous Casey Jones village. By then, I knew I could not finish by Wed, so we made a split reservation for Sat-Sun and then Thur-Frid. 

It didn't take long to realize, that though our room was clean and adequate, there were many aspects of the motel that were very sub-par, especially the noise level around the lobby. And the three closest ice-makers were not working. Several things could be upgraded. 

The main hostess at the counter was very kind and professional. We had told her what kind of trip we were doing, and asked her if it was possible to get out of the Thur-Frid reservation if we did find something down the road. We weren't sure what we might find south of town. She said we would not be charged if we let them know 24 hours in advance. 

Sunday morning, we visited Cornerstone Comm. Church in Jackson. While there, we ran into a family from our own church in Maryville who were dropping their daughter off at a four week class at nearby Union University. We live about a mile from each other. What a coincidence. 

Monday morning I had the privilege of starting very early while leaving Judy asleep in the motel. I walked about 15-16 miles that day, my farthest of the trip. 

The is Judy's excited conversation when she picked me up Monday afternoon just north of Pinson. 

"I checked in to the AirBnB and the wife asked where we lived. I answered 'Maryville' and the wife asked, 'wait a minute. Are you the people walking across Tennessee?'

"Yes we are," Judy answered, very surprised.

'We know who y'all are. We've been praying for you for weeks. We are members of Cornerstone.' (The church I just mentioned from the day before.)

She went on to explain that when the pastor had put out a notice to the church that this crazy guy was walking across Tennessee and he and his wife are looking for a place to stay, that she and her husband had initially sent an email saying they were interested in hosting since they had several empty rooms. But somehow, there was a miscommunication, or a lost email, or something and they never got on the list.

Our Friday night stay was with a family also from Cornerstone.

When Judy picked me up after finishing my walk on Tues, (day 8, Crazy Guy Day) we went back to Jackson for our 2nd night at this AirBnB and we got this announcement from the couple who lived there. They told us that since they had wanted to host us in the first place, that they had gone online and re-imbursed our money for the three days and offered to let us stay through Friday night if we needed, for free. 

God blessed us with 5 free days with this very generous couple who should have made several hundred dollars as a business owner. WOW. And my walk did finish on Friday, and the next morning we headed home. God is good. 

Now to summarize some of the gifts along the way. Many of them have been mentioned already.  Day 1 I had a hat, a hamburger, and a handful of change offered to me, which I refused, since it was from a fellow traveler and I figured he might need the money as much as I. I did take the tire patch kit which was later needed. 

I was given a $20 bill, a $5 bill, two free meals by shop owners and I don't know how many bottles of water and several bottles of soft drinks. Besides one unfortunate incident, we both were showered with love and kindness the whole trip.

Praise be to our God. 

Sean and the Happy Couple

So...Day 7. Monday morning after a good rest on Sunday and good visit at Cornerstone Church.

I had started early, leaving Judy asleep in the motel. I walked about three miles on the  Hwy 45 'by-pass'  and knew I was coming close to two bridges that had very little space to walk on, so I got on to Airway Blvd heading east toward downtown. It was an older, more industrial part of town. Tire shops, warehouses, the abandoned DrPepper plant I earlier showed.

I looked up and saw Sean, walking toward me on the sidewalk, I assume maybe he was heading to work for the day, but he had three or four minutes to spare.

So here goes. It is rather short. But meet Sean.  Click here for Sean. 

William the 'walker/biker'

On day one, I mentioned William, who we almost ran over on our trip west about 20-25 miles east of my walking route. I caught up with him at the Martin, Tn McDonald's along with his dog, who I think I misnamed earlier. William had found out some bad 'family' news and was just about to head back south to Dothan, Alabama. He made it to the Walmart to redo his supplies and then head back south.

William saw I was totally worn out from the walk already. And he offered me four things. His hat, a hand full of change, a hamburger. These I refused, though I did eat with him inside.What I did take that he offered was a small $2 patch kit. I used it on day 8. Thanks, William.

 I e-mailed William shortly after getting to Mississippi and he had already made it back to Dothan. It's amazing how much more distance you can make a day on bike as opposed to walking. 

So, here is my talk with William the Walker/Biker  (sorry I am a horrible videographer and it was cut short)

Click here if it does not show up

The man and lady at the cemetery

So, I had left Milan a few hours before, and had met and videotaped a man ( a future video) walking past a large cemetery in downtown Milan and then a few miles out in the country, I looked up and there was a 10x10 ft portable awning sitting beside another cemetery, about halfway between Milan and Medina. And under it was sitting a man and lady, a scene I don't think I had ever seen in my life, so I was compelled to cross the highway and check it out.

Click here if your device does not open the video above.

Things along the way.

For an 11 day walk across Tennessee, I spent many, many probably hundreds of hours poring over Hwy 45, on Google Maps, preparing for my walk. One thing I did was make sure there were adequate shoulders and sidewalks to safely walk on. 

There were several towns that had to be navigated around on 'not too traveled' side streets. After hours and hours of Google Maps, I did have the slight worry that I would somehow be too familiar with the roads I was looking at online and kind of be bored on the actual walk. 

Yeah right!!!

I've already told you of the 'important' things along the way, the people, the towns, my interviews, my wonderful wife who wonderfully helped along the way, one crazy emotionally disturbed man, etc., etc., . 

But what of the lesser important things I saw. I promised weeks ago that I would have no more dead armadillo pictures, nor any other road kill kind of stuff.                     So I won't. 

But I will mention that armadillos were one of my biggest surprises on my trip. Growing up in Texas, I thought Armadillos were truly a Texas kind of thing. In San Angelo, Texas, in the late 70's and early 80's our Fiesta del Concho every year would have the 'World Championship Armadillo Races'  The race was only about 12-15 long, but exciting. But I do ask the question. Who let the dillos out?

This is no exaggeration, but at least once a mile, all 122 of them, I saw evidence of an armadillo. A dead one, that is. Sometimes several times a mile. Sometimes it would be just a small 3inch square of shell, others almost a full body of shell. They are easy to spot. I'm not sure how so many of them walked across the very few bridges crossing the Mississippi River, but they did at some point. 

So, what else did I see along the way?

Beer cans. Sadly, they outnumbered the Coke, DrPepper, Mt. Dew, etc. cans

And styrofoam cups. By the thousands. 

Parts of old shoes. Maybe there were a lot of others walking like I was, though I never saw them, just William the biker, and former walker mentioned in day one. 

Random clothes items. I know I didn't undress in anyway along the way leaving myself open to losing any clothes items. 

And one thing that was almost as numerous as Armadillo parts and beer cans???

Bungee cords. 

Not these. 

But these. 

The industrial/farm kind of bungee cord. The kind that would hold the real heavy kind of stuff on the back of 18 wheelers and farm trailers. Which begs the question. If I saw dozens and dozens of them(and most of them were cut in half, that's why they fell off) then where were the barrels of stuff, the piles of hay, the stacks of logs, the wooden boxes, etc that they had been holding up?

I also saw hammers, screw drivers, and other just random weird stuff. Yeah, just one boot. Was it a one-legged guy that lost it?

 
But there were a few things I noticed were almost totally absent from my route along Hwy 45. Deer. Yes those lovable four legged, horned friends in the woods.

Twice, while training here in town, in Alcoa, I saw deer. Once about 5 wandered through the woods. Another day, One startled me by jumping in front of me about 30 yards away. 

And nearly every day there were squirrels along the greenbelt. I love squirrels and deer. 

But sadly on my walk, there were maybe a dozen squirrels I noticed along the way, and a total of ready for this...........One, single deer. On day 5, halfway between Medina and Three Way. Yes, one lone deer in 122 miles. 

Praying Couple in Arby's

Sorry it has been three weeks. You should know by now that this trip started partly as a result of a 100% blockage in an artery that feeds my heart and the heart stent surgery that fixed it. Two people I met, had similar problems in the past, and I certainly had no clue of this when I first met them.

I had just finished my first week of walking, had gotten to Union University in Jackson and had come to the realization that it was going to be too dangerous to cross I-40 safely, so I sought refuge in an Arby's, called Judy, and waited for her to pick me up.

While there, I saw this couple buy their meal, sit down, and had a quiet prayer before they ate. I walked over to their table, told them I assumed they were Christians, and told them what I was doing.

I then asked if they had any story to share, and Roscoe started telling me about Dale's similar experience, though I was never rushed to the ER with my heart issues.

Click here for Roscoe and Dale

In a few weeks from now, you will hear from Laura Ann, who was told she would never walk again because of an aneurysm.

1st Interview, drunk drivers

I promised you, my followers, to try to get 4 or 5 interviews on each day of my walk. Well.......it didn't quite work out that way. But I do have 9 or 10 of them. And no, none of them will win any kind of awards. So here we go.

This first one was not really on my trip, but two weeks before. One morning I was just completing a good 4 mile practice walk ending up with breakfast at Burger King. As I was parking my cart outside, I noticed this man getting out of his car, very slowly. He needed help from his son just to take a step onto the curb.

I looked up and smiled and the man made a comment about how hard it was growing old. I could tell he was several years younger than me and was wondering what had brought him to this point in life.

Before we got in the front door, I found out. I felt so sorry for him, I bought him and his son breakfast, ate with him and then filmed this.

Click here for Tony and Drunk driving

The next day, Tony called me just to confirm that he had had to go to the doctor to take his cortisone shot. It usually lasts about one month, so every 30 days, because of a drunk driver, Tony has to endure this.

So....If you do happen to be a drinker, do it at home, do it responsibly. Don't create another victim like Tony, his son, and certainly his first wife.

End of trip surprise

Ok, so at about 2:00 on Friday, I finish my walk, and Judy picks me up and we head back north, first to Selmer. We stop at Smokey Joe's BBQ (which I don't have a picture of) , 

Wait a minute, yes I do, there it is. 

Ok, so I technically didn't eat there on my walk, but an hour after it. I still walked right in front of it the day before, in a pelting rain.

I had planned on a dozen or so places I could have stopped and sampled their BBQ, but though some could be found on Google Maps, once I got there, it was obvious they had not been in business for quite awhile. Others, by the time I got close, they were three blocks away, and it was the end of a 90deg day, and I was too pooped to walk the extra three blocks. 

So, here is the winner, Smokey Joe's on E Poplar in Selmer Tenn. Stop by when you are driving through. Not to say they had the best BBQ in West Tenn, but at least the best that I sampled. 

Now, on to my 'End of Trip Surprise"

I told you earlier about the Casey Jones Village in Jackson. Judy and I had eaten there earlier in the week, but had not taken the time to tour the village shops. By the time we got back into town, some of them were already closed, including the RR museum we took the kids to 19 years earlier. 

After we had finished, we were sitting in our car in the parking lot and all of the sudden we started hearing bagpipe music. (So, I am not all that crazy about bagpipes, but it is growing on me. I love the joke years ago about 'when do you know a bagpipe needs tuning?'

At first, we didn't know where it was coming from. Judy commented, 'hey, he's playing Amazing Grace.'  To which I answered, 'well, duh. Amazing Grace seems to be the only song bagpipers know.'

We finally saw this man about 100 yards away at the end of the parking lot, standing next to his car, dressed in full kilt, standing by himself, playing his bagpipe.  I couldn't pass this up, so we drove over to where he was and just stopped and watched for a few seconds until he finished his song.

He finished, and walked over to our car. We thanked him for his music and asked him what he was doing in a lonely parking lot, by himself, playing a bagpipe. 

It turned out that he was a member of the Alvin C York unit of the US Army 'pipe and drum' corp. His sole job with the US Army was to honor our war dead by playing at their funerals. He sometimes played at 4-5 funerals a day in the Tenn/Kent/Mo/and I think Illinois area. 

Astounded that there could be that many in one day, he said that there are an average of 1500 military veteran deaths per day in the US. At the height of WWII there were 12M troops, and also many of the Vietnam Vets are now reaching 70 and 75 years of age and many are also dying. The numbers were staggering to me. 

In the conversation, he asked what we were doing and I pointed to my t-shirt and I said, 'I just finished doing this' pointing to my 'Walking across Tenn' shirt. 

'Oh' he yelled out, ' I read about you a day or so ago in the Jackson Sun. He then stuck his hand through the window, shook my hand and said, 'nice to meet you, I am Dennis Dudley. 

With a name like Dudley it can sometimes be years before I meet a Dudley I'm not related to. In 60 years, I have only met about 7 Dudleys I was not related to. What a shock. And what a privilege to meet one doing what he does. 

Click here for a few seconds of Dennis Dudley