Phantom Blooper
07-14-14, 05:20 PM
<noscript> To print this article, open the file menu and choose Print. </noscript> <!-- GLOBAL REWRITE --> Veteran traverses country with team, wagon By Carlos E. Medina
Correspondent
Published: Monday, July 14, 2014 at 1:11 p.m.
<!--articlepicture101.pbo--> http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OS&Date=20140714&Category=ARTICLES&ArtNo=140719867&Ref=AR&imageVersion=Teaser&MaxW=250&border=0 Alan Youngblood/Star-Banner
Rodger Howell makes his way down U.S. 27 near Fellowship after leaving Waltz Awhile Saddlebreds in Ocala on Monday.
After Rodger Howell was told he had five weeks to live, he gave away everything he had and set off in a horse and wagon to visit his children and grandchildren one last time.
More than a year later, Howell continues to travel the country by wagon and credits his simplified lifestyle and the hundreds of generous people he has met along the way with keeping him alive, despite his heart and kidney disease.
“It has shown me that the majority of people in this world are good, caring people. It’s not what you’d think if you only went by what’s in the news. Of all the people I’ve met, only seven I’ve had no use for and five of them were cops,” said the former police chief of Erin, Tennessee.
Howell, 63, was in Marion County over the weekend, on his way to visit his brother who lives in Daytona Beach. It didn’t take long for him to find a horse country resident willing to open their doors to him. Only a few miles into the county along U.S. Highway 27, Howell encountered Joy Rodak.
“I was on my way out and was checking the mail when I saw him coming down the road. I thought his horses looked tired so I told him he was welcome to use the empty paddock to rest his horses,” said Rodak, who owns Waltz Awhile Saddlebreds.
After Howell told her a bit about his journey, she offered him a place to sleep for the weekend.
“From what he has told me, it really is a testament to the power of prayer,” Rodak said.
Howell agreed and said his faith has been strengthened by his travels.
“I wasn’t a very religious person before, but when you are staring at a horse’s rear end for hours every day, you have a lot of time to think about life and God,” said Howell, who doesn’t travel on Sundays.
“I go to church on Sundays,” he said.
Howell and his two horses, Sonny and Dancer, have covered nearly 2,800 miles through Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.
Along the way he and his team, which includes a border collie named Banjo, have survived floods, a blizzard and two tornadoes.
From Daytona Beach, he plans to travel up the east coast to Canada.
“I want to visit Niagara Falls,” he said, adding that he then hopes to head west. “I’m going to keep going until I die.”
Howell said his heart and kidney problems are related to his exposure to Agent Orange during his military deployment in Vietnam in the early 1970s. The powerful herbicide was used to clear foliage and trees. Howell said he and his fellow soldiers would go into the freshly killed fields to set up artillery batteries and other installations.
Correspondent
Published: Monday, July 14, 2014 at 1:11 p.m.
<!--articlepicture101.pbo--> http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OS&Date=20140714&Category=ARTICLES&ArtNo=140719867&Ref=AR&imageVersion=Teaser&MaxW=250&border=0 Alan Youngblood/Star-Banner
Rodger Howell makes his way down U.S. 27 near Fellowship after leaving Waltz Awhile Saddlebreds in Ocala on Monday.
After Rodger Howell was told he had five weeks to live, he gave away everything he had and set off in a horse and wagon to visit his children and grandchildren one last time.
More than a year later, Howell continues to travel the country by wagon and credits his simplified lifestyle and the hundreds of generous people he has met along the way with keeping him alive, despite his heart and kidney disease.
“It has shown me that the majority of people in this world are good, caring people. It’s not what you’d think if you only went by what’s in the news. Of all the people I’ve met, only seven I’ve had no use for and five of them were cops,” said the former police chief of Erin, Tennessee.
Howell, 63, was in Marion County over the weekend, on his way to visit his brother who lives in Daytona Beach. It didn’t take long for him to find a horse country resident willing to open their doors to him. Only a few miles into the county along U.S. Highway 27, Howell encountered Joy Rodak.
“I was on my way out and was checking the mail when I saw him coming down the road. I thought his horses looked tired so I told him he was welcome to use the empty paddock to rest his horses,” said Rodak, who owns Waltz Awhile Saddlebreds.
After Howell told her a bit about his journey, she offered him a place to sleep for the weekend.
“From what he has told me, it really is a testament to the power of prayer,” Rodak said.
Howell agreed and said his faith has been strengthened by his travels.
“I wasn’t a very religious person before, but when you are staring at a horse’s rear end for hours every day, you have a lot of time to think about life and God,” said Howell, who doesn’t travel on Sundays.
“I go to church on Sundays,” he said.
Howell and his two horses, Sonny and Dancer, have covered nearly 2,800 miles through Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.
Along the way he and his team, which includes a border collie named Banjo, have survived floods, a blizzard and two tornadoes.
From Daytona Beach, he plans to travel up the east coast to Canada.
“I want to visit Niagara Falls,” he said, adding that he then hopes to head west. “I’m going to keep going until I die.”
Howell said his heart and kidney problems are related to his exposure to Agent Orange during his military deployment in Vietnam in the early 1970s. The powerful herbicide was used to clear foliage and trees. Howell said he and his fellow soldiers would go into the freshly killed fields to set up artillery batteries and other installations.