A man and his mules' remarkable 2,500-mile journey comes to an end in Texas
By Brandon Evans | Published Sunday, November 8, 2009
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. - Matthew 7:13-14
The rising sun shoots beams of whiskey-colored brilliance across the level landscape. A line of trees with crisp, faded leaves runs along a barbed-wire fence in the background.
A beige and brown dog, curled tight in a bed of prairie grass, peered around lazily at the mild commotion at the humble roadside camp alongside Farm Road 51, just south of Slidell last Tuesday morning.
A man with the bearded look of a pioneer squints his eyes in the bright Texas sun. He methodically suits up his trio of mules for another day on the asphalt-coated wagon trail. His hands move with calm and steady purpose, like someone who has performed it countless times.
His tarp-covered wagon and menagerie of slow moving animals (three mules and two dogs) stand in stark contrast to the blaring blur of intermittent traffic zooming over his tired shoulders.
"I've learned from this trip that with God's help you can go a long way with just a little," said Gregory Kuehmichel, a Texas author and traveler.
After 2,500 miles and 18 months on the road, his lengthy pilgrimage through the middle of America by the antiquated transport of mule and wagon nears its conclusion.
In June 2008, Kuehmichel left Weatherford with a mission to visit his mother at a small town in central Wisconsin. Along the way, he shared his Christian faith with countless characters who passed in and out of his slow-paced adventure. His plan was to spread God's word. His ancient form of transportation attracted attention and lent him more ears than one could get from an Iowa corn farmer.
"If I had rode in a car or on a motorcycle, nobody would have stopped and talked to me," he said. "But I've had people stop all the time. People come down from their houses to see me when I pass."
The journey has taken a toll on his 49-year-old body.
"I've aged a lot more than a year-and-a-half," he said.
At one point in his return trip a debilitating fever kept him off the trail for five days. But he equates the sickness as a kindness from God.
"I got too sick to travel, and I had to stay camped out for five days," Kuehmichel said. "The hold-up kept me from traveling through a storm that blew out all the windows of a courthouse in its path."
The charitable heart of America also opened up to Kuehmichel throughout his trek. At one point a back injury turned into good fortune.
When Kuehmichel began his journey, he had only two mules in tow. Along the path he acquired a third mule and two dogs. They have grown into loyal and obedient companions.
While leading his animals through Missouri, a nagging back injury threatened to cut his journey short. But a family he met there supplied him with a wagon to ease his travels.
"This wagon was originally made to be used in Hollywood movies," he said. "But it's been retrofitted with these tires."
Instead of spoked wooden wagon wheels, Kuehmichel's wagon sports rubber car tires complete with metallic hubcaps. And instead of an off-white cloth cover, a waterproof blue tarp coats the top of the worn, wooden frame.
Tested by elements, injuries, ailments and unsympathetic, speeding motorists, Kuehmichel and his animal friends successfully completed the trip. He made the entire trek along backroads and highways, cutting a slow trail through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin.
"As difficult as this trip seems by today's standards, it was a piece of cake compared to what our ancestors went through," he said. "I have a paved highway, I can stop at almost any house and get water, there aren't any Injuns or bad guys. I don't have to worry about wolves or bears."
He made many friends and had the opportunity to speak at many churches and with Bible groups.
While many in America's pioneer past used the covered wagon to discover new places, Kuehmichel discovered not only the generosity and pessimism of the human spirit, but he also came to better understand himself and what he sees as the methods of God's plan.
Now that his trip is almost complete, Kuehmichel does not intend to disappear into the setting sun. Although, he does express modest regret at this phase of his life coming to an end.
He now wants to open a nonprofit facility to work with autistic children. He plans to use animal therapy with the children.
He'll start out using the animals who journeyed across America with him. He said providence has pointed him in this new direction. While speaking at churches on his journey, he came in contact with several parents raising autistic children.
Kuehmichel chronicled his adventures and has published them as an online book. Read his story and his poetry at http://jubileetrump51.googlepages.com
