“ He may be brown , but really , he ’s made of atomic number 79 , ” Steve Wescott say about LeeRoy Brown , his Alpine / Boer Capricorn and take the air companion . Steve and I utter on the phone a couple of weeks ago about his projectNeedle2Square , a 2,800 - mile cross - country journey on foot .
On May 2 , 2012 — the twentieth day of remembrance of Steve ’s father ’s death — Steve and LeeRoy hit the road to raise cognizance and fund forUzima Outreach and Intervention , Steve ’s best friend ’s ministry in Kenya for marrow - hook grownup and neglect and orphan children . The design was to walk 10 miles per day and be finish in a year . This is a reasonable calculation for an individual walk across the land , but add a charming Capricorn into the mix , and on the spur of the moment you regain it hard to take the air 10 invertebrate foot without someone stopping you for photos and a chat . “ Every 24-hour interval , all 24-hour interval , it ’s just a sea of television camera phones , ” Steve say . This has turned out to be great because he ’s had a fortune to utter with so many more people about his mission .
In 2012 , the pair made it from Seattle to just preceding Salt Lake City before coke hit and they had to take a break for the winter . In the spring of 2013 , they begin again where they pull up stakes off and made it to Kansas City , Mo. , by Thanksgiving . This yr , Steve and LeeRoy only made it as far as Saint Louis before getting sidelined by an wound due to a cad attack . They run into a lot of dogs , many of which are unsure about make a goat around or just apparently upset about it .
In this exceptional angry - domestic dog clash , neither Scott or LeeRoy were attacked by the dog , rather LeeRoy got tangled in his leash when the dog came after them and he tried to get away . Steve say it ’s difficult to find a veterinary surgeon who really understands how to treat the eq of a carrying out butt . This is just like a performance horse , in my mind , and after seeing a few doctor , the University of Missouri at Columbia were able to get LeeRoy on the repair and on the route again .
They lay off walking earlier this year in Effingham , Ill. , as a effect of back and hip topic Steve has develop from three years of being on the route . This is n’t the end for them , though .
Steve ’s Giant Education“Goats are so underrated , ” Steve says . “ I had no anterior experience with the fauna . I was a metropolis youngster . I ’d never camped , really , before this . ”
I asked about his training regime , and Steve told me , “ I eat a lot of Jimmy John ’s sandwiches , and I watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to inner circle . ” I laughed , and he said he was totally serious . He was examine to gain weightiness before the trip , thinking all of this walk would make him shed weight . Instead , the opposite is happen . “ I blame the goat , ” he enounce , because he has to go at LeeRoy ’s pace .
The preparation was mental as much as anything , and the mental portion of the trip really kicked in after he go through Seattle , Portland and Boise , where he had a lot of friends and a lot of living from people he know . After that , it was for the most part just him , the caprine animal and the road .
Steve catch a lot of flack from goat lovers about this stumble . Everyone want to offer their advice — and unfavorable judgment — about the means he feast and cared for LeeRoy . Knowing nothing about goats before taking off , Steve relied — and still relies — on LeeRoy to tell him what ’s encounter in his caprine animal public : “ I have learned to trust him , and even though his personality is subtle , I have intercourse him . ”
Now , LeeRoy knows how to tease in a machine and subtly move closer to his pack when it ’s time to load up and get moving .
From Green Pastures to the Red CarpetNext up for Steve and LeeRoy are a documentary and a reality idiot box show . Neither of these are thing Steve asked for , having expect this experience to last only one year . All the better , as the whole point behind Needle2Square , after all , is to spread the word about his supporter ’s ministry far and panoptic . This additional publicity will take them further than their six feet can go on their own .
