Gale Wilkison of Bridgeport, traveling across the U.S. with the moniker "Annie Amerika," celebrated Independence Day this year in our nation's capitol.
"I made it to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial today," she wrote on her Facebook page. "When I came around the corner and saw 'The Wall' I began sobbing, all my emotions came forward. I stopped at the American Flag and proudly said the Pledge of Allegiance with my hand over my heart. I entered the area of The Wall and cried some more. When I got to the middle I placed a photo of John and his buddy Colin (they enlisted together and always wanted to go to the wall together) at the base of the wall and laid an American flag across their photo, they finally made it to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial!"
John, Wilkison's husband and a Vietnam veteran, died in a November 2010 car accident. Since June 9, she has been following the dream they shared to travel the country replacing worn American flags for citizens in rural areas.
Last Friday, Wilkison awoke in Greenbelt, Md. She gave a flag to a veteran named Ron in a town called Berlin.
"It's a beautiful 77 degrees this morning with an expected high of 98 degrees, but I'm headed east toward the Atlantic Ocean!" she wrote. "Sunrise today was at 5:48. I'm in my 16 state and have traveled 2,846.2 miles."
Leaving a new flag each day for someone in need, Wilkison noted Monday, her 30th day on the road, that she has driven nearly 4,500 miles.
"Does mean I'm halfway done? Or halfway there? I prefer to have my cup half full," she wrote.
She ended Tuesday, before press time, in Atkinson, N.C.
Follow along with Annie online at www.facebook.com/AnnieAmerika2012, or www.annieamerika2012.blogspot.com.
This day in history, July 12
1543: England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.
1861: Special commissioner Albert Pike completed treaties with the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, giving the new Confederate States of America several allies in Indian Territory. Some members of the tribes also fought for the Confederacy.
1862: The U.S. Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.
1933: A minimum wage of 40 cents an hour was established in the U.S.
1954: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed a highway modernization program, with costs to be shared by federal and state governments.
1957: The U.S. surgeon general, Leroy E. Burney, reported that there was a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1984: Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale named U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate. Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.
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