Twenty years ago John Francis approached the downtown area of Newcomerstown, Ohio; backpack and banjo swayed to a gait borne of the many, many miles of roads and hills and weather he had traversed over the previous seventeen years.

We met in the coffee shop.  We communicated for a day.  To this day I am amazed and bewildered about exactly how that communication occurred.  Over the years, when referring to my time and experience and learning with John, I have often said "I said"  and "he said".  Then I correct myself and say "Well, he actually didn't 'say", he signed, he made words with his lips, he drew imaginary letters on the face of his banjo.  When I asked why he was in such a hurry to continue his walk he flapped his folded arms up and down.  Since he had already stated his adamancy to being transported in internal combustion driven vehicles I knew he wasn't going by airplaneno guess there.  A bird told him not to linger in any one place?  Wrong answer.  After pointing at his wrist where most people would have a watch and flapping again Bob and I got it - he wanted to arrive at the home of his parents by Thanksgiving day!  So it took a little more time than if he had simply spoken the words, but look how long I've remembered the message.

It was several years later when my phone rang and a perfectly Midwestern voice averred "Bernie, you'll never guess who this is".  I agreed and he announced that it was John Francis.  He had begun speaking several months before and I was honored that he thought to call me.

So in 2008 when John asked my help in planning his return walk across Ohio, I committed to walking with him to retrace our steps of nineteen years earlier.  Sadly, John's son came down with a sudden illness that necessitated his return to Point Reyes on the spur of the moment the evening before my time to join the walk.  So it would have to wait for the next Earth Day.

"Life is like a roll of toilet paper, it goes faster toward the end."  Blink, blink. The year zipped by and here came another Earth Day.  Scouting for campsites, news releases to newspapers, radio stations for talk show appearances, Rotarians for help with food donations and locating an "environmentally friendly" support vehicle consumed me for quite a number of days over a month or two.  Help came in the form of the Hillenbrands from Kentucky who located dinner meals for two days of the walk.

Jon Waterhouse from Anchorage, Alaska, came flying in - by commercial airliner so you don't get the wrong idea about Jon's "Superman aura" - on Sunday, April 19th.  The following day my lovely bride Judy and I transported him to Newark, Ohio, where Mr. Jason Klein, partner of Mr. Clayton King, both of CNG Auto Sales and ROI Inc. generously provided a huge van for the support vehicle.   Judy and I learned firsthand why Dr. Francis avowed he was an interesting person with "stories to tell".   We enjoyed a wonderful lunch with him in Granville, Ohio, the quaint village that is home to Dennison University.

Dr. John and John Graham and David Rhodes arrived on the evening of the 20th, devoted Tuesday to planning.  The Hillenbrands drove from their home to Louisville and picked up Mikey and Carla.  They all met near the Ross home in Newcomerstown where they picked up a Coleman stove - a necessity for camping and making coffee and quaker oats breakfast cereal - and a Styrofoam cooler.  From there they began their walk from Hendrysburg, Ohio, near the intersection of Rt. 800 and Interstate 70. 

Over the course of the five days of walking our Ohio sojourners had the unique pleasure of experiencing all four of our seasons during the first three days.    Freezing temperatures on the first morning to moderate spring-fall daytime temperatures by day two and mid-summer temperatures in the mid to upper eighties by days four and five!  Water became very much a priority.

As for myself, my goal was those seventeen miles I had walked with John twenty years before.  I left my little MGb convertible at the Snyder's home in Newcomerstown (after driving - with no top -- for approximately three hours in thirty, forty and fifty degree weather) and Joy Snyder kindly drove me to meet the walkers. 

The sun was brilliant, wild turkeys crossed our path when we exited the main road.  Hawks and vultures sailed and swooped overhead against the white springtime clouds.  We passed the home where John and I had found the "talking teddy bear phone" so long ago and Joy asked if we should drive on to locate the Planet Walkers.  I acceded and they were about three miles further down the blacktop road.  I decided to walk with them from there.

It was only about four miles of walking before we found the van parked on a driveway to what appeared to be an abandoned house and little country church.  John Graham had found an ideal location for his satellite to broadcast Dr. Francis presentation to an audience of 700 at Missouri State University.  Jon Waterhouse and Dr. John sat in the van for the discussion and the rest of us sprawled on the hillside above the van.

In order to hear what was being said, I took a spot in the wet grass outside the door of the van.  The bright sun required that I position my cap over my face to shade my eyes.  I listened to John and Jon.  They told about their missions for the environment, Dr. John told about his years of silence and walking and the "epiphany" that allowed him to once again travel by internal combustion engine.  But of all that I heard the most profound thing was when Dr. Francis said, "The environment includes people and while we're taking care of the planet we need to take care of each other."  Wow!  I told John I thought that was the most profound thing he'd said in the entirety of his presentation and the answers to the questions the audience proposed.

So I walked a portion of Planet Walk '09 Day Two.  Of course I missed the wonderful steak barbecue dinner they enjoyed at the 4-H Piedmont Campground of Day One.  Day Two dinner was served by April's Country Kitchen in Newcomerstown where we were joined by the Snyder family minus daughter Allison who was exhausted by her track practice.   Dr. Francis kindly came to the end of table where Dave, Joy and J.P. were awaiting their food and shared conversation.  Not only did Joy transport me to my first day of walking, she arranged for all the walkers to use the showers in the family center of the Methodist Church her family attends and where she works these days.

For me Day Two of walking involved a grand total of about eight miles.  Day Three approximately twelve to its end near where I lived in l989.  Of course, both John F. and I have aged a bit, both of us sporting a few more grey hairs and shorter memories.  My shrinking brain cells resulted in a failure to remove my orthotics from my gardening shoes to my walking shoes.   Therefore, the walk without my inserts I had been using for the past fifteen years or so changed my gait to the point where on the following morning, after spending the night at a friend's home, my calf muscles screamed at me for even considering using them in an upright position!

John and I walked and talked and he told me how he now makes his living by "talking about walking and not talking."  Marlene Ross was my chauffeur to begin my walk on Day Three.  We arrived at the prescribed starting point on time; but, alas, my walking companions were late.   Marlene and I parked and waited and talked.  I took her picture while a vulture flew against the blue morning sky over her head.  I finally told her she could leave me and I'd start walking ahead to the cemetery near the old Peoli Church where the old baseball player Cy Young is buried.

I had barely reached the cemetery when the van appeared and the walkers headed my direction.  Cy Young's grave marker was only located when the first walkers appeared and walked right up to it.  Photos were taken, a blue robin egg I found had to be left behind and off we went.  Lucky I was with them as they took an alternate route and that is when John and I devoted most of our time to some philosophical discussion on the topic of empathy and the biodegradability of banana and orange peels.  We talked about the completion of the "reverse planet walk" across America and John said, "If I can't do it then I can only hope I've inspired some others to finish it".  After all, one hundred miles per year means the remaining two thousand miles will takeouch!...twenty years and John will bewell, you get the picture.  However, based on how much better he survived this year's walk than many of the younger walkers he'll likely be leading the pack even at that advanced age!

A man  stopped his car to talk - he'd seen the article about John in the local newspaper and then seen us walking past his home.  Another came from his chicken barns to chat.  An Amish horse trainer and his son felt the urge to commune a bit.  Still another, a retired preacher, Bennie (real name, Bernie, but his little brother pronounced it "Bennie", so Bennie if became for a lifetime), in bib overalls, kept us listening over the guard rail along "old route 21" south of Newcomerstown.  A U.S. Postal worker person pointed out the restaurant in Freeport and insisted on donating a twenty dollar bill to help with the cost of breakfast.  Bennie kept John at the guard rail as the rest of us walked on so he could retrieve three things from the house:  1.  a business card extolling the virtues of the religion he had preached.  2.  a picture of a younger Bennie and his wife, Marge.  3.  A twenty dollar bill. 

The Twilight Zone theme music played in my mind as I saw the picture and what Bennie had signed on the reverse side:  "Bennie and Marge".  You see, his real name being Bernie coupled with the fact that my first wife's name is Marge anddoo..dodoodo  (did the theme music actually sound like that?)

Sleep became a precious commodity for me.  I committed the major error of those who have trouble sleeping in new and strange beds and surroundings - I forgot to bring my personal pillow from home!  As a result, my sleep on night one at the 4-H Piedmont Campground using a throw pillow from a couch consisted of approximately one hour of REM time.  Night two on my air mattress using another couch pillow at my friend's home consisted of roughly six hours of shut-eye as they say in the wild west.  And night three in my tent on the air mattress which sloped ever so slightly downhill toward my feet resulted in another five or six hours of fitful on and off dozing.  I now suddenly had visions of heaven consisting of reclining in my own bed back in New Carlisle.

But people are what it's about, too.  As John said, "people are also a part of the environment we need to care about".  And the people made the Planet Walk a treasure to remember.  The Snyder family, the Ross's, the owners of CNG Auto, our hosts at the Piedmont Campground, the owners of April's Country Kitchen, Dick's Place and Baker's IGA foodstores (as well as the managers who accommodated us, Mark and Roger), Bob and Carol who hosted us and the Rotarians who joined us for dinner and all the people we met along the walk.  We remember the scenery, we remember the wildlife, we remember the horse dung we stepped over and around in Amish territorybut most of all, we remember the people.  At least, I do.

So I departed my companions on Sunday morning after a wonderful breakfast.  With entire beautiful day to travel the 150 miles home I determined to meander my way home taching at no more than 3000 rpm in my little '69 MGb.  My meandering took me through Granville, home of Dennison University.  Then along the blue highway in to Columbus with multiple stops for traffic lights and left turn signals.  I had meant to stop for a sidewalk caf cup of coffee in Granville.  But, alas, no parking spaces convenient to allowing me to keep an eye on my car.  So I proceeded to a sidewalk caf in Columbus whereupon I met Elizabeth and Kisha and a young man named Tom.  An hour or so of conversation and pontificating later I arrived at my friends Gary and Lynne and Jacob's home for a pancake and fruit salad breakfast.  Then blue highways home.  The trip required over eight hours and was peaceful all the way.

I look forward to the next year flying by now.  I wonder if I'll keep on walking? 

Bernie Palmatier, 2009