We made a mistake. And the mistake was not telling a reporter our plans, our plans to spend alone time together driving to visit friends, which we considered our private time.
But we now realize a public project, such as this, is never private.
Yes, we drove a portion of the route while Linda was here. We didn’t mention it during an interview with the La Crosse newspaper, because we were addressing their questions and the meaning of the walk overall.
But it was a big deal to this reporter, that we were driving a portion of the route to visit friends in Dubuque. And now, it’s affecting everyone who read his two articles.
We openly say we drove. We did not intentionally hide it. It was reflected in the track portion of the website.
But we’ll tell the world now. Our mistake was naively underestimating the recourse. Our hope is our readers, followers and supporters still understand this is an honest and forthright endeavor.
Please know, interviews contain a lot of words. What words a reporter chooses to use from that is up to the reporter. We never lied at all (those of you who know us personally, this would not surprise you.) He called each of us after the first story, we explained, even apologized if we inadvertently put him in a spot. But then he wrote the second article.
We will continue this walk with integrity. We will say we drove a portion. But for all the steps taken, and all the money raised, this project will continue to support our disabled and wounded veterans, and it will be a joy to distribute the funds each and every one of you have entrusted to this project.
~Semper Fi~
