CURE TOUR: Woman Crosses Country For Cancer
The “road trip” isn’t a new concept, but Tracy Delp’s idea for a cross country trip is turning some heads. She is riding from Washington to Delaware on horseback.
“As I get a little further east people are taking me more seriously. Because when I left Washington, it was like, are you crazy? Probably,” joked Tracy Delp, “I think there’s got to be that mix of crazy and you try to enjoy it too and then there are days you don`t know if you can keep going and then you meet someone who’s either a cancer survivor or they`ve lost someone to cancer.”
Tracy’s goal is to raise awareness for cancer and cancer research. She lost her mother to cancer in 2008.
“I think a lot of times when you hear you’ve got cancer someone you love has cancer, the rug gets yanked out from underneath you pretty fast,” said Delp.
Here in Iowa, Tracy’s tactics are doing the trick.
“I’ve heard of people riding a bike, or flying a plane, but never riding their horse for a cause like this. It kind of gets the creative juices flowing of what you might be able to do,” said Jennifer Daniel, from Quakerdale Wolfe Ranch, just east of Marshalltown.
Jennifer Daniel just found out about Tracy’s journey; 24 hours later she and dozens of volunteers opened up their business to Tracy and her cause.
As someone who works with horses on a daily basis, Daniel knows just how big of a feat traveling by horse can be.
“It’s huge. I can’t imagine,” said Daniel, “The longest trail ride I’ve ever been on myself probably was six hours. I could barely walk when I got done and the horse was exhausted and breathing hard and was little sore.”
But it was Tracy’s message that won her over, “You can feel her heart even before you shake her hand. You can sense that in her that this is a mission for her and a challenge and she`s rising to the occasion. And we wanted to help her do that.”
To find out more about Delp’s trip and how to help her cause visit the Coast 2 Coast Website.
For more on Quakerdale Wolfe Ranch and their mission, click here.
