We have made many trips this summer as we went over the big mountain to Kansas and now to visit my sister and brother-in-law as well as Mike's aunt in Oklahoma and Texas. All of the trips add up in the miles on the car's odometer and except for a couple of excursions that have been planned for a while, we are soon to be done with the traveling. When we come back to Kansas to celebrate the Christmas holidays with our families back there, it will be by plane instead of driving. Winter weather can be so unpredictable here in the mountains and who knows what the pass at Monarch might be like in mid-December. Even if the driving conditions are acceptable at the 11,000 feet level, the prairies of eastern Colorado and the western 2/3 of Kansas can be treacherous to travel across if a winter snowstorm decides to blow through. Just this past March I drove through one of the worst spots ever between La Junta and Lamar, Colorado as blizzard like conditions appeared out of nowhere. So for us, this year it just seems better to fly than to drive in December and so that we shall do.
On one of the trips back to Kansas this past June 13th, Mike and I came across a young man walking near the Morrow Point Dam not all that far from our home here. We stopped along the roadway to visit with him for a moment because we recognized him from a TV interview that we had seen on the Grand Junction station just a few days earlier. He was pushing a cart emblazoned with a sign that read "Fight Childhood Cancer~Coast2Coast FTK". The Renfro Family met Norman Horn that early evening and since that time, we have been following his own personal trek literally from one coast of the U.S. to the other. As we returned back home from Kansas, three days after meeting him, the three of us enjoyed a lunch together in Gunnison, Colorado and we were able to hear more of the reason for his journey. Later on about 3 weeks later, we found Norm again in the far eastern Colorado town of Lamar. We enjoyed breakfast together on that July 4th morning and made plans to meet him once again when we returned from one of our final treks back to my house in Hutchinson. On July 6th we met up with Norm in the town of Holly, just 4 miles from the state line of Kansas. Between the two of us, Mike and I walked back with him to the "Welcome to Kansas" sign near the little town of Coolidge. From there, Norm began the walk across my home state and now, 23 days later he will soon be at the Missouri border where he will continue on towards the east coast.
It was our privilege to help Norm in securing some of the overnight stays that he needed help with as he traversed the roadway along Highway 50 going through the Sunflower State. From Syracuse eastward to his last Kansas stop in Louisburg very soon, Kansans by the score have opened their homes and their hearts to him, set an extra place at their supper table for him, shown wonderful Midwest hospitality to him, and listened to his message of hope in bringing about awareness for the number one killer of children in this country, pediatric cancer. They have visited his website, www.coast2coastFTK.com and made whatever donation they were able to and they didn't keep it to themselves either. They told their friends, their neighbors, and anyone else who would listen about the mission that this 30-year old young man from Pennsylvania was on.
After meeting Norm, a stranger along the roadway who has now become our friend, I was determined to bring a weekly update about his progress as he made it across the plains of Kansas on my blogsite. As I think back to how quickly the days have passed by us all, I am still amazed that he did it. It was done one step at a time and all with one purpose in mind~FTK. To anyone who has helped Norm's mission, no matter how great or small the world would deem it to be, I give you my sincere thanks. It might have been food or shelter, snacks or water along the roadway, a smile or a honk of your car's horn as you passed him, an encouraging word on his Facebook page, prayers for his safe passage, or a donation to his cause. Whatever you may have done, it meant a lot to him and surely even greater it has meant a lot to any child who is living and sadly dying each day from childhood cancer.
So to my dear friend Norman, I would leave this message~
Friend we are thankful that we met you and shared in this tiny portion of your epic journey across America. Thank you for choosing to do this. Not everyone can walk across America like you are but we can ALL do something. Thanks for reminding us of that. Each of us. All of us. Godspeed your journey Norm Horn. We will be pulling for you all along the way until you reach your goal and no doubt about it. You will!
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