Well, 1400-miles of walking is finally done! It seemed as if it took a year to complete, and now that it is over i’m kind of sad…all the planning, all the walking, all the talking is now over. At least for now. We have a lot of talking and planning still in the near future, but the walking is done. I have even contemplated about getting a Segway so I won’t have to walk again!! However, that wouldn’t be fun the first couple of accidents I would have while going up or down stairs. Yet it still sounds very appealing.

I get asked the question a lot “what was the most memorable thing from the walk!” and ” what is the craziest thing that happened or that you saw?!” Honestly, the most memorable would be finishing. To say that “I did it!” …thats even a mind boggling thing for me to believe; it hasn’t sunk in that I completed and walked 1,400 miles in less than 2 months. The craziest thing that happened or that I saw…wow I don’t even know what that would be. We saw a lot of crazy things. If I had to pick, I would say that the generosity of all the people that we came across. A 6 year old girl had her mom find us on the high way while we were walking so she could give us her birthday money. How awesome and touching is that?!

There was not a day by, not even a second that went by, that my feet were not in pain! Even now! It has been just over two weeks and I have done very little walking/standing and I still have numb toes and pain in my feet. When I get up to walk every morning, the first couple minutes is painful and hard. Then I find myself questions…”what is it like for the women and children that do the walking daily?” We are all so blessed here in America to not have to walk almost 4 miles a day to get water, to not have to worry about “will this water kill me, will it kill my daughter, my son, my husband, my wife?” It is comforting to know that this is one less thing to worry about, but now that I know the true problem of what is going on in our world with this water crises, it is burdening. It’s heavy on my heart to help, to fight. Quitting my job to do this walk and completing it, I proved to myself that I can make a difference and even though this is the beginning, there is big things to come!!

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in our journey.

Allen Barker/CEO-Founder
IFwater/Lighting The Dark
“Doing my part to help fight the water crises in Haiti and throughout the world”

Today went pretty fast for the most part. We started at a good time this morning at 6:40 and had 18-miles done at 12:30pm. This morning wasn’t bad, compared to yesterday mornings temperature of 36 degrees!! We had some great looking mid-west fog as the sun started to peak over the trees and small hills. We saw some wild turkey and some deer as we headed to the outskirts of Clinton Missouri. It was a pretty peaceful morning. Hugh got scared of a little white dog, he ran up on us from behind. Out of my peripheral the dog looked like a rabid coyote! So that got my to kind of jump as well. Crazy dogs! Where are your leash laws Clinton! haha just kidding! the dog was really nice. Then not to much later I thought a fire-hydrant was a sitting dog in a cow pasture. So, then again, I can’t give Hugh to hard of a time for getting startled by a little white dog.

As we neared an end of our walking today I received a phone call from a lady from the Channel 6 News in Lawrence Kansas. They wanted to do a special on LTD and our Water Walk. So she wanted us to Skype as we were walking…we were not able to because our phones were almost dead. So that was a bummer. However, the news ran a really good story on us and our walk and will be doing a follow up with us when we complete the walk on Friday! So we are excited about that.

As this nears an end it is a bitter-sweet feeling. Mixed emotions of excitement for the accomplishment of finishing and a sad emotion for the fact that it is coming to an end.

Allen Barker/CEO-F0under

The past couple days have been unbelievable. We finally made it into Springfield Missouri a couple days ago. Making it this far is starting to all this sink in. Up until now it hasn’t sunk in that we have walked 1300 miles, but now that we are seeing familiar places/sites it’s changing that all.

Yesterday was cold! In the words of Hugh, “it was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY COLD!” For once on this walk I am going to give Hugh credit…It was cold and walking a high wind didn’t help at all. Today was the coldest day so far. It was a different day for sure, starting the day with a news interview with KY 3 News in Springfield, then walking by Hugh’s old college and walking with hoodies and stocking caps on. We finally got done walking at 5:05pm. Not as early as we wonted.

Today was an awesome day. We started our day by scraping ice of the windows of our support vehicle, which caused us to start our walking 20-minutes late. To top it off it was 38 degrees! This morning beat yesterdays low, however todays high was near the 70′s…only in the Mid-West. As we neared the end of our walk a very encouraging and touching thing happened. We met a little girl, not even 12 years old, who wanted to meet us as we were walking. So her and her mother caught up with us as we were walking. The little girl gave us each a Gatoraid and some crackers along with a $5 donation that was from her birthday money! Such a sweet girl and a touch gesture!
Special thanks to the Smith family and Craven family for opening your homes to us as we were on our way through Springfield Missouri!!

CHALLENGE: IF A CHILD AND GIVE HER BIRTHDAY MONEY TO HELP KIDS GET CLEAN WATER, WHAT CAN YOU DO????

ALLEN BARKER/CEO-Founder

As lunch time rolls around we eat at Dairy Queen in Cabool, MO. Than it is off again as the temperature climbs up to 70 degrees. Half way through our afternoon we get an unsuspected  surprise by some people who have been hunting for us. Jame and Mary Epley (my aunt and uncle) they gave us a cold bottles of coke and water. It was awesome to see them and being encouraged by their love and support.

We start walking again for the final 5 miles of our day. We finished at 5:03pm and then headed to diner at Club 60 where the owner gave us free diner and it was awesome. Now we are relaxing at Americans Best Value Inn.

We only have 8 and half day weather permitting. We are almost done…

Hugh Mason/VP

Today was our 43rd day of walking and our 1115th mile walked! It doesn’t seem real yet, I am still waiting for it all to sink in. Right now we are planning on finishing in 11.5 days, I’m hoping by then all of this will sink in. These past 43 days have gone by so quickly. All this has been such a great experience. We have been so blessed.

Our day was quick for the most part, we set a PR by finishing at 4:55pm. For the first 22 miles of the day we were out in the country, traveling gravel for parts of the way. We walked through Mammoth Springs Arkansas/Missouri, which has one of the largest natural springs in the nation. It is awesome. Being back in the Ozark’s and seeing all of this is beginning to feel a little like home. Dinner tonight was donated by an awesome restaurant, Country Cottage (good ole style home cookin’), delicious! Then to top it all off a homemade ice cream parlor in Mammoth Springs donated ice cream to us all! What a great day!

Tonight we are staying at an awesome hotel called Mammoth Springs Lodge Hotel. Such a huge blessing, the rooms are so comfortable and homey. We definitely recommend this hotel if you are passing through the area.

Allen Barker/CEO-Founder

The day was long. Yesterdays walking on gravel for the majority of the day just destroyed our feet, we woke up this morning in a lot of pain – bruising on the bottom of our feet. Hugh and I had one thing on our mind today, ‘to finish as fast as possible.’ By 10:00am we were already a mile behind schedule, it wasn’t looking good. Right then our driver, Mark, showed up and told us some amazing news. A Days Inn in Pocahontas Arkansas wanted to help us out as much as possible, so they gave us the biggest suite they had with a hot-tub in the room! Exactly what we needed  to hear! This gave us a boost! We finished a little later than we wanted, but we made up some good time from our slow start this morning.

John, the owner of Browns BBQ & Catfish was gracious enough and blessed us by donated the three of us rib dinners. The restaurant was unbelievable! The BBQ sauce which was homemade, was the best we’ve had all trip! We met a couple while we were eating that wanted to know about our walk. After talking with them for awhile they wanted to help us out. They own a business that deals with feet (orthotics). So they brought a couple pairs back for Hugh and I. God is so good! The divine appointments continue day-in and day-out. It is indescribable.

When we got to the Days Inn & Suites in Pocahontas, they were so happy to see us!  Beverley at the front desk was so excited that we had arrived. She was telling us how excited her and the owner were that we staying with them. She took pictures with us and made us feel so at home!

 If you are traveling through this area, please visit them and stay awhile. They were such a blessing!! Thanks Days Inn!!

42

Today is my wife’s birthday, so it was kind of a hard day for me, since I am not able to celebrate with her. So I was afraid to day would be a slow going day.

Last night was such a great relaxing night. Hugh and I had the chance to soak our legs in the hot tub, this made the world of difference for our legs today! To top it all off our feet felt amazing!! The new orthotic insoles made an incredible difference in our feet! Hugh and I were ready to knock our a 30-mile walk in record time today.

Not much happened today during our walk. We had a lot of people stop and ask us what we were doing, they had been seeing us off and on the past couple days and had to find out why we were walking. A lot of people said we were crazy haha! They all wanted our website though so they could donate to our cause, so that was encouraging.

Tonight we ate at a restaurant called Downhome Country Kitchen…wow!! It was like grandma’s home cookin’! We all got the chicken and dumplings, corn, creamed potatoes, fried okra, and cornbread. It is good to be nearing the mid-west!

- a side note. These small write-ups are never edited/proof read since they are written so late in the day. I go to bed directly after typing. So I apologize for the grammar  and spelling at times

Allen Barker/CEO-Founder

A little about today’s walking…it was LONG! We started a little later than normal (7am), which caused us to finish late (6pm). Arkansas so far has been different when it comes to roads. For three days in a row now the roads don’t match up with Google. We started the walk off with a dead-end road that went to someones crop field. So we had to walk an extra mile to get on the right path. To top it off we had to walk half the day in the country on gravel roads. So now our feet are in more pain than normal, but that’s ok, we will just have to rest more on Sunday

Today overall was a pretty good day. Aside from lots of wind and sun, not much action or anything crazy today. We did have a lot of dogs follow us again today. That is always fun. Some of these dogs will follow us for a good 1/4 to 1/3 mile and bark the entire time. We try to ignore them, but some just run up and force your hand over their head as if you were petting them. Funny dogs!

God is so faithful, we have been blessed throughout this journey. Restaurants and hotels have been more than gracious and helpful. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us and supported by donated rooms and food during our Water Walk. Thank you and God Bless!

- a side note. These small write-ups are never edited/proof read since they are written so late in the day. I go to bed directly after typing. So I apologize for the grammar  and spelling at times

Allen Barker/CEO-Found

Aside from road problems, today was a pretty normal day. We saw a lot of farms plowing and treating fields and a good amount of wildlife. As we were nearing an end to our day we made a new friend…a black lab puppy! He came up on the road and started following us. When we stopped to tell him to go home and to get off the street all he did was jump on us to be petted. So we thought it best to get the owner and tell them so he wouldn’t follow us. The owner said he wouldn’t go to far and he would just come back to the house. That didn’t happen. The dog followed us for a couple miles. He thought we were his new owners. We couldn’t get him to stop following us. Finally we called our driver Mark and had him pick up the dog to take him home. We are proud to say the dog is at home safe and sound!

Allen Barker/Founder-CEO

Allen Barker/CEO-Founder

Allen Barker-CEO/Founder