Couple Takes 27-Hour Road Trip To Help 79-Year-Old Man Reunite With His Son

Aug 14, 2020 by apost team

Everyone likes to go on a road trip now and again. In fact, for some people, a road trip gives them the opportunity to see the world, stay in different places, and meet new people. 

Tracy Eckhardt and Elton Hood recently took a road trip for a very unique reason. In July of this year, the couple drove for over 27 hours in order to help a 79-year-old man get to his son's house, and back home again.

Eckhardt and her fiancé Hood met Dennis Milentz by chance at a gas station in Illinois. Milentz was en route to visit his son Steven who he had not seen for 20 years, reports People. Milentz, who lives in Heber-Overgaard, Arizona, was making the journey to Steven's house in Fremont, Wisconsin.

He had been driving for a week but was struggling to follow the handwritten directions he had been given. He was lost and unfortunately, had managed to add a massive 200 extra miles to his trip.

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Eckhardt and Hood attempted to redraw a map for Milentz and even programmed the correct journey into his GPS, but within 15 minutes Milentz was lost again. This is when the couple decided they would escort Milentz all the way to his son's house. 

Eckhardt told People: "We had kind of already said that that could be anybody's parent or anybody's grandparent. There are so many people who have parents that will go do these things and they end up lost, or they meet somebody not so nice that takes advantage of them. And that just wasn't going to be an option for us to hear down the road that he was missing and know that at one point we had the opportunity to turn it around and get him there safely."

The pair documented the epic road trip on video and shared it on TikTok where it quickly went viral.

Milentz followed their car all the way to Madison, giving regular updates on the trip on TikTok using the hashtag #DrivingMrDennis. They all stopped in Iowa to have lunch together and got to know each other better, exchanging stories about their lives, and ultimately becoming unlikely friends.

You may think that is the end of the story, but that is not so. Eckhardt declared in a follow-up TikTok that due to unforeseen circumstances Milentz’s family were unable to travel back home with him. The couple again decided they couldn't leave him to make the trip on his own and made the decision to drive him back 27 hours to his house in Arizona.

Eckhardt stated, "[His family's] plan was to take him to Madison and write out instructions and hope for the best. And we had already discussed that him going on his own was not going to be an option for us because we would still feel bad. Like, we had started it with him and didn't see it through to the end. And neither of us were raised that way. And that's not how we raise our children."

"I mean, it was a great feeling getting Dennis home. But when you realize that maybe you've inspired 3 million people...how often in your life are you ever going to be able to do that?" said Eckhardt. We agree that it is a pretty incredible feat and one that was instantly paid forward as a Good Samaritan heard about their adventure and paid for plane tickets for them to get back home.

Eckhardt and Hood have been inspired by this situation and are now working on launching a nonprofit called Hoods for Good, so that they can continue helping people. Their first venture is selling T-shirts with the phrase "Driving Mr. Dennis." All profits from these sales will go to veterans and Alzheimer's organizations.

Did this story inspire you to help others? Let everyone know about this extreme act of kindness and tell us what it has inspired you to do.