|
FROM: The Eagle Standard of Fallon, Nevada
ON 11 JULY 1980, The Eagle Standard of Fallon, Nevada, published the following in their @ Letters to Post Scripts.
P.S. Received a letter about a very interesting person to wit:
Dear P.S.
My family and I were having a picnic at Lake Lahontan when this fellow ran by us to the water′s edge, stripped off his backpack and shoes and dove into the water. He swam out about 50 feet yelling, "Ya-hooo, Ya-hooo." I decided right then and there that I just had to meet him.
So, when he got out of the water we invited him to eat with us and he told us a very interesting story about himself.
First of all his name: Tommy Michel. Age: late twenties. Home: he doesn't really have one, just walks for one campsite to another. Birthplace: southern Louisiana. He told me that up until two and a half years ago he was a design draftsman for an engineering firm in Houston, Texas and had been there for more than six years.
But he got tired of being cooped up in an office all day and he had lost faith in people, so he bought a backpack and took to the road.....walking, and he's been walking ever since. During his nearly three years of walking, he's been through 41 states and has walked the entire two thousand mile Appalachian Trail which extends from Georgia to Maine. When he needs money he stops and works; he says he gets by on very little. He apparently does most of his washing in lakes and rivers. He went on to tell me that since he first started walking he has met some really nice people which has renewed his faith in God and in people, too. Finally I asked him, “Where are you going.... or rather to what?”
He thought about my question for a moment and then said, “I just like to walk, to where or what, I am not sure yet, but I will know it when I find it.” He continued, “Until then I just walk, ...to nowhere in particular.”
We said goodbye and wished him well. However, we couldn't say that we hope he finds what he's looking for; apparently he's found it....Walking!
Peggy R.
| 
