| 1000 miles in 100 days by Ron and Dorothy Martin |
| Looking for Adventure? Read adventures, incentives, and goals in the book: Challenging the Road Ahead by Dorothy J. Martin Available from AuthorHouse www.AuthorHouse.com BarnesandNoble.com |
1954 and now live in Richardson, Texas near Dallas. We both lived in the rural neighborhood of Fulton County Indiana all of our lives until moving to South Texas in 1995. We miss the country and the small town atmosphere even though we love the Metroplex. So to celebrate our 50th anniversary and the health we are blessed with we decided (rather than a cruise or some other WILD thing) we would enjoy walking through the countryside and visiting with the local people. We walked from Dallas, Texas to Akron, Indiana, a distance of approximately 1000 miles. |
| OUR TRIP SUMMARY And answers to your questions. |
walked farther than I realized. We ended up walking a total of 1038.8 miles and taking a grand total of 2,532, 496 steps. The pedometer was on me so Ron may have walked a few steps more or less. The counted steps also included those through malls, restaurants, service stations, etc. I didn’t have any way of stopping the count when not on the road without taking it off and then I knew that I would forget to put it back on when I was ready to resume walking. This averaged out at 12.37 miles per day over the 84 days that we actually walked and an average of 30,149 steps per day.
begin thinking about, “what next?” My first “what next?” is to give you a summary of our walk and to answer some questions that we have been asked. You who have followed us via the www.1000miles100days.com website know most of the daily adventures. As you know, we left Dallas on March 15th and arrived in Akron, Indiana on June 22nd. We stayed in Rochester…a town 10 miles from Akron with Ron’s brother, Jim, and his wife, Mary, until we left on July 9th to return to Dallas. This time we drove! We offered to walk back if anybody wanted to walk with us but we didn’t find any takers. We had one disappointment at the conclusion of our walk and that was the small amount that we were able to collect for the American Diabetes Association. When we thought we would find drivers to go before us and promote our fund raiser we had high hopes of maybe collecting $100 per day which would total about $10,000. However, since that didn’t happen the only way we had of publicity was telling people that we met and most of them were people we met along the road when they stopped to see if we had car trouble. Would you give to someone along the side of the road? Actually there were a few in Illinois who did and I think one in Oklahoma and one in Missouri. Our only saving grace was the Super 8 Motel staff in Kingdom City who set up a collection station there and contacted local newspapers, radio stations and TV stations. They, alone, raised over $200 of the $456.25 that we raised. We pray that each of you who contributed in any way will be abundantly blessed and that your very dollar will be the one that funds that research that turns around the onslaught of diabetes in our country. When people who stopped to offer us help or a ride found out what we were doing most would mention that either they or a family member had diabetes. We personally believe that there is already nutritional technology that is making great strides in reducing the ravages of diabetes but since most doctors have no, or limited, nutritional training that technology is not widely known. If I could have accomplished only one thing through this walk, it would be to have you ask your doctor how many “Continuing Medical Education” hours he/she has in nutrition. (I’m really tired of seeing the “Ask your doctor if _____ is right for you” commercials.) If he/she does not have information for accredited hours in nutrition you can send them to the www.proevity.com website. Putting our car in the Akron 4th of July parade (held on July 3rd) with us walking behind was an exciting experience. We owe a great big thank you to Mary Fisher and Angie Hudkins for decorating it with signs and cans tied to the bumper in remembrance of our wedding date of July 4, 1954. Then for the perfect ending of our journey we were joined by 61 family and friends for the renewing of our wedding vows and the striking reception that was amazingly prepared by Krista (our daughter and her family) and my sister, Kathy Hunt. The amazing thing about it was that Krista didn’t arrive in Indiana until about 1:30pm on the 3rd. I have to admit that several friends and family members jumped in on Sunday, the 4th to help Krista put it together during the time that we visited between Church and our ceremony…a time of about thirty to forty-five minutes. You guys are awesome. Thanks to all of you! And if this is not enough, we then hurried to the Rochester City Park to join my mother’s Mills Family Reunion. #1. Would you do it again? Yes, we would do it in a heartbeat! There are two reasons that we don’t plan to start right away. First, it is much too hot to start anywhere from Dallas today and second, lack of funds. We allotted $7,000 for this trip…and by the time we arrived back in Dallas that was depleted. The only thing that kept us close to budget was favors given us by some of the motels, Preview (my employer) providing a monthly allowance and family putting us up toward the end of the trip. #2. Did you have any foot problems? No, I only got two small blisters when it was very hot and my feet were so wet with perspiration that the skin looked like it had been in the dishwater too long. We credit Thorlos who provided us with athletic socks which have a lot of padding for our excellent foot health. #3. Being together 24/7 for over 100 days did you find you raked on each others nerves and end up arguing a lot? No. We didn’t argue once during that time. And that was Ron’s fault. He won’t argue unless he is sure he is right so I figured out a long time ago that it was rather fruitless arguing with someone who is right. This adventure actually drew us closer…having the same goal, doing the same things and enjoying the same explorations. #4. How many pairs of shoes did you wear out? We both finished with the same pair that we started with. Mine, however, were in worse shape than Ron’s. The tread was almost all gone from mine but Ron’s still had a little left and the inside of mine sport some rather good size holes in the lining. We both wore Nikes but Nike did not respond prior to our walk when I contacted them for sponsorship so we purchased them ourselves. #5. Did you lose any weight? We didn’t start this venture with losing weight in mind. However, we both lost some. I think Ron lost about fifteen pounds and I lost maybe twelve. We could have lost more if that had been a desire as we didn’t choose our foods with that goal…I would choose my food by eating anything that got in the way. I was always hungry! #6. What next? We would like to do more walks, especially if we can get others to come along. We are considering such things as “wheel chair strolls” and trips for others who have limitations. We feel that our mission in life is encouraging others to do what THEY CAN DO, not what we have done. Also, I am seriously considering trying my hand at writing a book...I've had several suggest that I should. |
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| TRIP SUMMARY |
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