MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Christmas miracles come in all shapes and sizes. For U.S. Army Staff Sgt. (Ret.) Van Booth, his Christmas miracle looked like Florence veterans advocate Shawn Laurie.
On Tuesday morning (Dec. 31), Laurie and Booth walked down Robert Grissom Parkway and into the parking lot of the Myrtle Beach Veterans Service Center.
Later Tuesday they would walk to Plyler Park in Myrtle Beach, then to the beach and the Atlantic Ocean to complete Booth’s journey.
Until then, though, Booth sat in a large room at the center and shared tales of his trek with fellow veterans who turned out en masse to welcome him to Myrtle Beach.
Booth, a Tennessee resident and 20-year Army veteran, left southern California in February on a quest to walk across the United States to highlight the issues faced by veterans.
Rather than backpacking the way with bad knees, Booth pushed a cart ahead of him across every mountain range the United States has to offer, across the deserts of the Southwest and the plains of the Midwest.
Across an Ohio River bridge of four-lane divided traffic and no real room to walk.
Twice on his journey his cart failed him.
The first time was on Labor Day in Missouri when a wheel broke, and it took four days to get a replacement to him.
The second time was Christmas Eve in front of a Chinese restaurant in Florence.
That got Shawn Laurie’s attention.
“I started getting people reaching out to me, saying there was a veteran stranded in Florence,” Laurie said. “They said the wheel on his cart had broken.
“On the way there, they started saying it was the veteran named Van Booth, the one walking across America. I really got excited.”
Booth, who spent time off the road in Georgia for Thanksgiving, entered South Carolina near Spartanburg and headed toward the beach from there.
A stop in Darlington got him laps around the track courtesy of the Track Too Tough to Tame.
In Florence, he hit a curb with his cart.
“I get to Florence and was almost through town. It snapped, just destroyed it,” Booth said.
“I called my girlfriend and I said, ‘Emily, I need a Christmas miracle. I can’t even pull it anymore,’” Booth said. “This tire has about 500 miles on it now, and what am I going to do?”
Booth said it looked as if he was going to have to backpack it the rest of the way to the beach.
“I called Emily, she puts the word out and oh, my gosh. Somebody calls somebody who calls somebody, and it went out all over social media, and this man shows up,” Booth said as he pointed to Laurie. “He lives in Florence. He shows up wearing a Christmas suit. He had this funky suit on.”
Laurie, who was on his way to a Christmas party at the time, collected Booth and his cart and saw to his needs.
“He shows up with his buddy and he says, ‘What do you need?’ I said, ‘I need somebody to store this cart’ and I need a backpack,’” Booth said.
“From Florence to Conway, I backpacked it, and it was wearing me down because I wasn’t used to it,” Booth said.
At 1 a.m. on Christmas morning, Booth got word that two new wheels were on their way. He directed them to Laurie.
The new wheels arrived Friday (Dec. 27).
“He grabbed my cart, slapped them on and brought my cart to me, and he’s been walking with me ever since,” Booth said.
“It’s like God puts us in the right place at the right time,” Laurie said.
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