CENTRALIA – Since departing from Denver on Sept. 17, 2002, Texas-born long rider Gene Glasscock has ridden, on horseback, into 37 state capitals. Olympia was number 38, part of a journey that will eventually take him through each of the lower 48 state capitals.
After traveling east as far as Maine, and visiting capitals all along the way, Glasscock moved down the East Coast and across the South and Southwest before moving up the West Coast and taking a rest in Centralia.
Along the way, he has stayed with anyone willing to take in a senior citizen and his four horses.
“A lot of times, I don’t know where I’m going to be staying,” said Glasscock. “I think the Lord has been working overtime to see that I am taken care of.”
While in Centralia, Glasscock stayed with Larry Hewitt, a fellow horse owner who heard about the journey through a mutual friend and offered to provide the traveler with food and board.
Throughout the past 21/2 years, Glasscock has found shelter with individuals ranging from a state senator to a house full of “drug users.”
“I certainly didn’t enjoy staying with the drug users,” he said.
He has seen beautiful landscapes, historical landmarks and plenty of wildlife, but Glasscock says that the most interesting part of his journey has been the people.
“They are always fascinating,” he said. “Random people will ask me where I am going and what I am doing. When I tell them, they will just offer me a place to stay.”
Glasscock recalls how the different areas of America produce a different attitude toward wanderers.
For instance, he says that while it is a common misconception that people in New York are rude, he found them to be some of the most friendly and accepting people on his voyage.
In Houston, however, he says that people were very wary of his presence. “People are very cautious of outsiders there because of the history of outlawry,” he said. “It’s just so interesting.”
Glasscock says that his journey requires faith above all else – something that he seems to have an abundance of.
“I have had very little trouble with the weather,” he said. “When I was going through the Southwest, the real hot country, it was always cloudy. Hardly ever was there a blue sky. In areas where there is drought, it seemed like it would always rain the night before, so there would be puddles all along the side of the road for my horses. The Lord has certainly taken care of me.”
Despite his good fortune, Glasscock has still encountered a few health problems. Throughout his journey, he has had the flu on multiple occasions, pneumonia once, and a hernia that required surgery.
Not surprising considering he has taken his horses through 11 inches of snow in Missouri, 100 degree heat in the south, and several torrential downpours along the way.
Ironically, one of his horses, “George,” is named after the late George Beck – a Shelton logger turned long rider who became the first man to visit each of the lower 48 state capitals on horseback in 1915.
Like Beck, Glasscock was also employed in Washington. “I worked in Seattle on high-rises for over 20 years,” he said. “I helped with the IBM building and lots of other buildings that are still around today.”
However, while historians say that Beck was motivated by the possibility of fame and fortune, Glasscock rides for a more noble cause. He is trying to raise money and publicity for the Philip Scholarship Fund – a Pensacola Christian College program aimed at providing funding for Paraguayan students.
The well-traveled Glasscock was once an English and Bible teacher in Paraguay, the country he calls home, before he lost hearing in his right ear, making it difficult for him to hear his students.
He returned to the states, determined to continue helping the children.
“I fell in love with them (the children of Paraguay),” he said while resting with two of his horses at Dairy Dan’s in Chehalis. “And when you love something, you want to make things better for it.”
Glasscock says that one of the requirements for students receiving the scholarship is that they agree to return to Paraguay to use the skills they learn in America. He has no information as to how much money his journey has raised for the fund, which is exactly how he wants it.
“I don’t really want to know how I am doing because if I am doing well I don’t want to become proud,” said Glasscock with a smile. “And if I am doing poorly, I don’t want to be depressed.”
He plans to return to the country as well, but only after he finishes his current voyage, which is really his second long-distance journey.
During the 1980s, Glasscock received national fame when he became the first to travel from the Arctic Circle in Canada all the way to Ecuador in South America. He hopes to end his current journey in December, which is when he plans to ride into Columbus, Ohio.
Soon after completing what will then be a three-year and three-month voyage, Glasscock will follow through on his plans to return to Paraguay and start a farm that will be used as a resource for disadvantaged children.
“Life is not about ourselves. It is about others,” he said. “If you live for yourself, you haven’t lived at all.”
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