Cross-country trip nets nearly $100,000 for Marklund

Just 1.7 more miles to go.

When he crosses the Golden Gate Bridge and sets foot in the Presidio in San Francisco this afternoon, Jim Armbruster will fulfill a personal ambition while raising money for a cause he holds dear.

Armbruster set out May 6 on a 2,360-mile walk from here to California, a trip he dreamed up 20 years ago as something to do by the time he was 60. Two years ago, he realized it was time to put up or shut up about making the trip and began planning. And a year ago, he made Marklund part of his dream.

Armbruster is vice president of the board of directors for Marklund, which provides residential care and other services to infants, children and adults with severe and profound developmental disabilities. His 24-year-old son, Nathan, has lived at Marklund's Bloomingdale campus for 19 years, after a drowning accident caused injuries that made him a quadriplegic with minimal brain function. Nathan has a feeding tube, a device in his trachea to help him breathe and requires 24-hour care.

As of Wednesday, Armbruster raised $93,134.69 for the nonprofit agency, which also has a campus in the Mill Creek subdivision near Geneva. Thousands of that came from people he met along the way who wondered why a middle-aged guy was walking along the road. At lunch Wednesday, he told his waitress about his walk and gave her a souvenir rubber wristband; she gave him $5.

"There's a story like that every day," Armbruster said,

Armbruster is one of the owners of Atmi Precast Inc., a company that makes concrete building panels. He and the company paid for the trip.

"Every single dime we raise goes to the kids," he emphasized in a phone interview Wednesday.

Most of the time, he walked alone, except for one week when Marklund's chief executive officer accompanied him. But he did have company the rest of the day, as people took turns serving as the driver of the RV he stayed in throughout the trip. They would park the RV in one place for several days and use a Jeep to ferry Armbruster to his starting point and from his ending point each day.

Armbruster walked about 20 miles each weekday and 12 to 15 miles on Saturdays, taking Sundays off. He wore through three pairs of shoes.

He trained for eight months beforehand with weights and cardiovascular equipment, so his endurance was not an issue. But, "the first three to four weeks, my feet were a bloody mess with blisters until I got calluses," he said.

He lost 20 pounds on the trip, although he's been eating more food than ever ("throw a big load of fries on," he told a waitress at the end of his lunch order Wednesday) -- something he has enjoyed, as anyone reading his online journal at www.californiaorbustformarklundskids.org would see.

Armbruster stuck to smaller highways: U.S. Route 34 to U.S. Route 36, 36 across Missouri and Kansas, back to 34 through Nebraska and Colorado to U.S. 40, 40 through Utah to U.S. 50, 50 into California, then back roads to and through the Napa region.

He was not bored.

"At 3.5 miles per hour, there is something interesting everywhere," he said. Toward the end of each segment, if he was dragging physically, the music on his iPod helped pep him up.

He had a little excitement when he was walking through Rabbit Ears Pass in the mountains in northern Colorado. Nature called, and he stepped off into a grove of aspen trees. While taking care of business, he heard rustling. Looking up, he found himself almost face to face with a black bear.

Truckers and police officers were nice; almost everyone waved, and lots offered help, he said. At least once a day a motorist would stop to ask him if he was all right or needed a ride.

His wife, Lynn, and their three other children flew out to California to cross the bridge with him today. Lynn and Jim will now take two weeks to come back home in the RV. He hasn't seen her in eight weeks, as she stayed home to take care of the business and family.

"Between her business, kids, knitting, friends and travel, I'm not sure she knew I was gone until August," he joked.

To make a donation to Armbruster's cause, visit his Web site or www.marklund.org.