LAKE COUNTY – Eddie Gray plans to end his 10,000-mile journey around the perimeter of the United States the way he started it – on his feet.
“My knees, my ankles and my shoes – those are my tires,” Gray said.
It was a friend, not his feet, that brought him into Lake County across Cow Mountain on Highway 175 from Hopland on Monday. But Gray said detours like this one are an exception to his no-rides rule. His feet have taken him almost 2,000 miles from where he started more than nine months ago in Billings, Montana.
Starting on his 33rd birthday, Gray set out to get to know his countrymen exactly 10 years after he made up his mind to take the long walk. He made the pivotal decision on his 23rd birthday, April 4, 1998, during a mock ambush while he was on active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
“I thought if this was a real ambush in some other country far off and I die, who am I dying for? I think every service member gets that question at least once in their career,” Gray said.
He set off to find an answer to that question – to meet the people for whom he would die, and for whom he has lost 11 Marine comrades.
What he”s found so far is that “people are basically good.”
But for Gray, simply discovering America isn”t the whole reason for the quest. As a Marine, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and a Roman Catholic, Gray stops at military bases, Veterans Affairs offices, American Legion offices, tribal establishments and churches as he walks.
Sometimes he speaks at schools, ranging from a kindergarten class just weeks ago to a college class before that. The message he likes to spread is that anything is possible.
“There”s not a negative bone in my body,” he said, rubbing his knee.
Gray walks an average of 20 to 30 miles each day, rain or shine, and stops when his body hurts, sometimes regenerating for two or three days at a time. He began his journey in the snow. He likes to run uphill. When he can”t sleep, he starts off during the small, dark hours of the morning.
Beside food and shelter, which he carries on his back, Gray said essentials are minutes for his phone, foot powder and shoes.
Gray”s next stop is Sacramento, where he plans to pick up his third pair of Nike shoes and meet with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He estimated it will take him nine months or more to reach Washington D.C., where he plans to meet President Barack Obama.
For more information about Gray”s journey, or to help, call Jin Kong, Assistant Director of Internal Affairs and Membership with the American Legion at (317) 630-1200, or call Gray”s cell phone at (541) 270-8883.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636 ext. 37.
