Jay Hamm already has plans to get back out onto the open road with his dogs.
Last month, the 52-year-old Jupiter man biked and drove across the country, raising awareness of pet therapy and stopping at assisted living homes with dogs K Poppy and Chibby Choo. This time, he's looking much closer to home and will administer pet therapy in communities near Lake Okeechobee around Christmas.
On his recent cross-country jaunt _ which began at the Jupiter Inlet on Nov. 1 and generally followed the Interstate 10 corridor before ending Nov. 22 in Huntington Beach, Calif. _ Hamm and his dogs visited 25 assisted living facilities in 22 days.
It was a point of pride for Hamm, who runs small non-profit Paws for Compassion. He visits Jupiter-area medical facilities with his dogs under that banner.
"That was really the big thing that we set out to do," he said.
One moment at an assisted living facility in Arizona was especially powerful, he said.
"There was a blind lady and they said 'oh there are some dogs here to visit' and she was pepped up," Hamm said. "And I put little K Poppy on the table and she started petting him."
There were other fun moments. Hamm paddled across the Colorado River between Arizona and California. He rode the bike while wearing a cow suit.
"I waved to almost everybody I passed," he said.
Of the 3,200 miles spanned to Huntington Beach, Hamm said he did about 950 on his Pedego electric-assisted bike, fitted with a sidecar for 6-year-old Chibby Choo and 1-year-old K Poppy.
Hamm, also the facilities director at First United Methodist Church Jupiter-Tequesta, estimated he raised at least $15,000 in support of the non-profit leading up to and during the trek.
That money helped him buy a small bus for Paws for Compassion, which will ferry his dogs between Jupiter and communities around Lake Okeechobee _ an area where he wants to spread pet therapy.
"Overall it was a blessing," Hamm said of his trip. "It was awesome. I couldn't expect it to go any better than it did."
