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News
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By HILLARY BORRUD and ADRIENNE ZIEGLER
Staff Writers
Gary Long takes a quick break along the side of the highway in the Mojave's 117-degree heat. He sits for a moment and whittles the handle of a walking stick to aid him on his journey down Route 66 from Victorville to Barstow -- just one more town along the trail.
The 300-pound man from St. Louis is seven pairs of shoes and about 1,000 miles into his walk across America to lose weight and raise awareness of the health problems associated with obesity.
When Long, 52, started out Feb. 15, he weighed 380 pounds and had what he calls "all the fat man diseases." He had congestive heart failure, diabetes, high blood pressure and acid reflux disease. He had a heart attack when he was 46 years old.
On the first leg of his walk, Long went from St. Louis to New York City in 51/2 months. He started the second part of his trip in Claremont on Aug. 18.
He was inspired by a 410-pound California man, Steve Vaught, who was also walking across the country to lose weight.
"I used to fly airplanes, scuba dive and wear nice clothes," said Long, who spent 21 years in the Army and weighed 170 when he left at 39 years old. "Other guys used to be jealous of what I looked like."
After leaving the Army, Long kept gaining weight.
"I would live a diet all day long in front of people," he said. "Then when my wife would go to sleep, I would go eat like a horse."
Long wants to do more than improve his own health, however. He hopes to encourage other people to lose weight through his Web site, www.afatmansjour ney.com, and through interacting with people along the way.
"I have met only the nicest people up here," he said. "I've had some absolutely humbling experiences from people trying to help me."
What Long has lost around the waistline, he has gained in stories along the road.
"Some of them will make you laugh, and some of them will make you cry," he said. "Something has changed about me that I don't even really understand."
During his journey, Long has encountered a rattlesnake and a bear and has been covered in ticks and leeches, he said. One night on the first leg of his trip, he was in Ohio and had walked 20 miles that day. In the early evening, there was a flash flood, and he was soaked. He started to get cold, and hypothermia set in; the right side of his body went numb, and his legs started to give out.
Then, an older man and woman stopped their car and after talking to him handed him a key to their nearby cabin. If it weren't for the cabin, Long said, "I would have died that night."
Long hopes to finish the walk in four months and get down to less than 200 pounds. He will be traveling through the Barstow area on Thursday and Friday.
"It's saved my life," he said. "And if it's helped one other person lose weight, then it's worth every step. I just want people to know that you don't have to die on the couch next to an empty pizza box."
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