BY ERROL CASTENS


Daily Journal


TUPELO - It's not unusual for two friends to join up every morning for a brisk walk through the neighborhood. Some even make the exercise a spiritual one, praying for each household and individual along the route.


For Lyn Hanush and Joni Balog, the route is northwest-to-southeast bisecting the United States. Wednesday, they came through Tupelo on their way from the Peace Arch Border Park in Blaine, Wash., to Key West, Fla.


Hanush, 62, of Paso Robles, Calif., said the dream began when she was 11.


"I wanted to ride a bicycle across the country. Over the years it has come and gone, but when 9/11 happened, that was when it really came together."


Both women are veteran hikers and mountain climbers.


The venture that began in May 2003 is in part to meet new friends and to invite God's blessing on them.


"Our goals are to pray not just for America in general but for each town," Hanush said. "We pray for those we wave to."


Balog, 66, of San Jose, Calif., said they leave a "memorial rock" at every town they enter.


"We write on it that we prayed for that town," she said. "And each one says, To God be the glory."





Close encounters


Different people have driven the van that they keep for errands and to transport to their motor home each night. Hanush's son, Russ, a self-employed theoretical physicist, is the current driver.


"Just north of here we were walking down (U.S. Hwy.) 45, and I took a little side trip and found (Miss. Hwy.) 145," he said. "It was a nicer, more intimate walk, and it got them going through the little towns so they could meet more people."


And meeting people is one of the focuses of the trip.


"We don't really meet people by saying Hi' and Bye,'" Lyn Hanush said. "We like to spend time with them, get to know them. There's a lot of really good people out there."


Some experiences have been a little unnerving. Once when the two women were without a driver, Balog parked their car at a propane dealership, then trotted off with her dog, Cassie, to catch up with Hanush.


"Someone phoned in to the police that an old woman with a dog had left a car by the propane tanks," she said. "They were scared I was a terrorist."


After one serious injury, several mechanical delays and two weeks off at Christmas to spend with their husbands and families, Hanush and Balog expect to finish their "Great American Journey" in August.





 

Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 4/2/2004 8:00:00 AM, section A , page 5