Tuesday, November 4, 2008 4:29 PM CST
Young Okla. man walks across country for love
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
GREENUP — After telling his would-be girlfriend how he feels about her, 24-year-old Dustin Ballew decided to walk the talk.
He passed through the area Monday, barely a month after departing from Washington, D.C., on his quest to walk almost coast to coast and win the favor of Sarah, his “best friend” from his hometown of Durant, Okla.
“I think she’s kind of having a cow about it,” Ballew said.
With the laminated sign “I LOVE SARAH” plastered across his backpack, Ballew, a one-time English major at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, is chronicling his experience in a journal that he intends to present to Sarah. (Ballew declined to give her last name. He said Sarah is only a junior in high school.)
As for the sign on his back, “Everybody thinks it’s (referring to) Sarah Palin,” Ballew said with a laugh. “I have to correct them. I guess that’s what I get for waiting until the election.”
He is traveling along U.S. Route 40 on his way to St. Louis, where he will turn southwest and return home for a while before resuming his odyssey in early 2009. He hopes eventually to reach San Diego, Calif., on foot.
By routing the second half of his journey through the Southwest, Ballew thinks he will avoid the worst of the Rocky Mountains in the middle of winter.
He said he took a bus to Washington, and set off on his journey Sept. 25. He followed the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to Cumberland, Md., and then picked up Route 40.
During an interview along the historic highway west of Greenup on Monday, Ballew estimated he had logged more than 750 miles. “This is really my first time away from home,” he said.
“When I started, I was kind of scared I’d run into some trouble, but I haven’t had any problems. People are always nice to me. It continually amazes me.”
In addition to a sturdy tent, sleeping bag and lightweight trail shoes, Ballew is equipped with a smart phone he uses to communicate with his family and friends. He said he calls his mother in Oklahoma every night; if he is late even by 10 minutes, he receives a panicky text message.
Although he frequently mails postcards to Sarah, he has not talked to her by phone since he departed.
Ballew is carrying his gear in a military-type backpack, which bears more than 20 autographs from well-wishers encountered thus far on his adventure.
He said he has needed to stay in a hotel only once; otherwise, he camps out in his tent near churches or in sheltered areas out of sight from the roadway.
Ballew said he eats fast- food about once per day, and stocks up on snacks at convenience stores. He is trying to keep his costs under $10 per day, and carries less than $50 in cash, relying instead on a debit card.
To pay for the trip, he sold many of his possessions — including two acoustic guitars he acquired last spring. An avid musician, he said he also plays the drums.
Ballew said he met Sarah about two years ago, and they quickly became “best friends.” However, they had a bit of a falling out in February. “She stayed mad at me for a while, and I wanted to (do something) so she knows what I think of her,” he said.
Walking is nothing new to him, as he never learned how to drive a car. Ballew went to and from classes at SOSU on foot nearly every day, and came up with the idea of traipsing across the United States during an eight-hour, round-trip hike to the cemetery where his grandparents are buried.
“I thought, ‘Would I walk that far for Sarah?’” Ballew said. If not, “How could I mean any of the things I said to her?”
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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smilininonu2 wrote on Nov 4, 2008 6:48 AM:
Ok...I dont know about anybody else but this is NOT NEWSWORTHY!!! "