[at-l] LiteShoe, here's a neighbor!

[lorac4491 at linkamerica.net (Coosa)]

McKissick's trail hike a journey for love

By Michael Wagner
Staff writer
 
SOUTHERN PINES - Caroline McKissick was looking forward to the rock climbing trip that she and her fiance, Master Sgt. Kelly Hornbeck, had planned to take when he returned from Iraq.

Now McKissick is set to begin a different journey: a six-month trek from Georgia to Maine on the Appalachian Trail.

It is a trip she will make without Hornbeck. He died in January, several weeks before he was to return to Fort Carson, Colo., where he and McKissick lived.

"My daughter said we should do this for a cause. I said, 'That's a great idea. We'll do it for Kelly,'" McKissick said Wednesday morning as she packed the last piece of luggage into her truck. "I'd not have wanted to do this without him in my life."

Hornbeck's vehicle ran over a land mine in Samarra on Jan. 16. He died two days later. Hornbeck, who was with 3rd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group at Fort Carson, was 36.

McKissick plans to walk the entire 2,174-mile trail, finishing some time this fall.

Her trek will raise money for the Fisher House, an organization that houses families of injured servicemen at veterans hospitals around the country. 

She has already raised $30,000 in pledges.

A Web site is expected to be up soon to track her journey, and she hopes more contributions will come in as word of her walk spreads.


Piecing life together

Since Hornbeck's death, McKissick said she has been trying to piece her life back together. She moved back to Southern Pines, where she is from. She is trying to sell the house in Colorado. She's been riding her horses and painting, tending to her dogs, and working on her home - an old farm house in the rural horse country between Southern Pines and Vass.

She has had time to reflect, and she said she sees this hike as an opportunity to achieve a long-time goal.

Check the rest of the story at the url:
http://www.fayettevillenc.com/story.php?Template=region&Story=6234590

Coosa