If you follow a road map, the trip from Celina to Oxford is easy: Just 71 miles south on U.S. Route 127 and then seven miles west on Ohio Route 73.

But Cody Reichard’s journey was far more difficult and a lot, lot longer.

From his Mercer County hometown, he went to Lansing, Mich., then Indianapolis and finally Fairbanks, Alaska. Along the way, there were six-, 10- and 16-hour bus rides to places like Kearney, Neb., Sioux Falls, S.D., Topeka, Kan., and Soldotna, Alaska.

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