FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — A man from Tennessee's bucket list item includes a trip through our state.
Behind his mission to cross off this multi-state trip is overcoming adversity and understanding how precious and short life can be.
David Bass is used to unfamiliar places on his step-by-step journey to crossing an item off the list.
"I'm getting older," Bass said. "I'm 61 years old and so I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do it."
His journey hasn't necessarily always been a walk in the park.
"I think my goal ultimately is to reach Canada," he said.
It has been a long time coming. He started this 13 years ago.
"I started in Gulf Shores, Ala.," he said. "I put my toe in the Gulf of Mexico and started heading north and I'm from down that way, so it was kind of starting where I grew up."
He remembers mapping out the process in the living room of his father's house. Sadly, his father has passed away.
"The first leg I ended it at his grave," he said. "It was kind of a symbolic thing for me to go back and say hello to my dad."
Bass knows what his father would say about this goal.
"I think he would say two things," Bass said. "I think the setting your mind to it, he would be like, 'Wow that's really great.' As far as walking, he would go, 'Son, have you lost your mind?'"
Bass was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. His father died. He says his numbers as far as his treatment is good, but nothing has stopped him from trying to reach his goal.
"When I got cancer and then my dad got really sick and he died, and then on top of that, a tornado hit our home," Bass said. "And some of our neighbors lost their home and through all that together, I said I really want to kind of make it happen."
While he has traveled through Kentucky from Perryville to Lawrenceburg and Frankfort, he has noted the kindness and generosity of people in our state.
"I've had people buy my meals," Bass said. "I met a guy at what was a gas station that had a restaurant and he told me some really wonderful spiritual stories." I'm finding that people really are very much nicer than people realize."