An adventure of a lifetime was shared by a New Jersey man with his dog.
“We covered six continents, about 28,000 miles, over 38 different countries,”Inside Edition was told by Tom Turcich.
Turcich moved out of his home the day before his 26th Birthday, on April 2, 2015. He’s now 33 and just got back home.
“I’m the tenth person to walk around the world. Savannah’s the first dog,” Turcich said.
Turcich walked one year between New Jersey and Panama City. From Bogota in Columbia to Uruguay, he then walked the length of New Jersey. He took a boat from Bogota, Columbia to Antarctica and flew on to Denmark.
He soon settled into a routine.
“Each day is pretty simple. Wake up, probably have a granola bar with peanut butter, if we’re far from everything. Make a cup of coffee. Pack up the tent. Start walking,” Turcich said.
Savannah actually didn’t begin the trip with Turcich. After four months of the journey, at Austin, Texas, he realized that he was alone and adopted the pup at 3 months.
“With a puppy, she would grow up on the road and it would be the only life she knew, so she would be perfectly suited for it,” Turcich said.
They walked an average of 18-24 miles each day. Turcich says he’s gone through over 40 pairs of shoes.
There were some frightening moments, such as when he said he was shotgunned in Turkey. “It was plain-clothes military that I encountered up in the mountains. They thought I was a terrorist,” Turcich said.
Man and dog have finally taken a much-deserved break after all the years spent on the road.