1,600 miles of humanity: A man’s journey to a happy reunion

One local man is reunited with his son after walking 1,600 miles to see him.

The common phrase; “to walk a mile in their shoes” means to gain the perspective of another individual, but to walk 1,600 miles may give you the perspective of the country.

This is what one man discovered after traveling a long distance by foot just to see his son again.

“I just found myself in a situation where I could be 1,600 miles away from him, and I just decided to start walking,” said Jeremy Triplett, of Idaho Falls.

For personal reasons, he moved to Indiana. He found himself stuck in a corner in life and decided there was nothing more important than for a father to be with his son.

Without a solid travel plan in mind, he spontaneously started walking back to Idaho Falls.

“Well, the first guy to show me some kindness gave me a soda and a bag of chips. It was my first day of walking, and I was at 30 miles of walking, so I was worn out. That kinda put an idea in my head right then and there. This one person showed me an act of kindness, and I wanted to meet more people like that. I wouldn’t be able to meet those people if I took a bus or if I took a plane,” Triplett said.

What he anticipated to be a 50- to 60-day journey took Triplett 20 days. Eliminating more than half of his expected arrival time was all thanks to the kind-hearted individuals he met along the way.

“I wanted to make sure that every day that someone who showed me kindness, whether they offered to give me a ride or offered something that they could,” Triplet said. “I would feature them on Facebook because there is too much negativity in the world. I just wanted to showcase the good stuff. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to make day to day, so I wanted to make sure that the end of each night that my message was these people are kind.”

Finding the humanity in the country was not the purpose of his journey but a bonus.

He hopes to pass down a lesson he learned to his son, that no matter what hardships we face in life, powering through the struggle will make the outcome all that more worth it.

“Important about his walk is taking the negative circumstances with a positive mindset,” Triplett said. “You can apply that in every aspect of your life, so that’s important to me to teach him that because he is going to have hardships, depression, struggles, and sadness. So if he has a positive attitude about it, no matter what it is, that’s bringing him down that he can overcome it.”​​​​​​​

Triplett is reunited with his son and is currently residing in Idaho Falls with a friend.

He is now working three jobs and is saving up for his own place so that he and his son have a place to stay.

He hopes to inspire others with his journey and plans to one day write a book called “1,600 Miles of Humanity.“