What do you hope people will gain from your experience and your message?

My goals are to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening and serve as an inspiration (as strange as that sounds to me) to others that face tragedy in their lives.

As a parent, our job is to guide our children.  We often worry about relatively small things like grades, cleaning your room, etc.  In my opinion, the two most important things to talk to your children about are drugs and alcohol.  The decisions your children make about these two things trump everything else.

I have heard story after story from parents whose kids were great students and wonderful young adults, but made bad decisions regarding drugs and/or alcohol and  greatly damaged (if not destroyed) their lives.  Don’t think for a second that it’s “just alcohol.”  Most drugs are tried for the first time under the influence of alcohol.  Educate them about these two subjects as if their lives depended on it, because it does.

I have watched many interviews with war veterans that talk about how they can’t forgive themselves for what happened.  Find a way to make something very good come from what happened and it will set you on the path to forgiveness.  Do it, before it destroys your life.

Our lives are often defined by how we respond to adversity.  If an old hillbilly like me can manage to walk from Arizona to Montana with his son’s ashes in his backpack, imagine what you can do!

When I returned from my journey I told friends and family that I was going to put together a binder with photographs from the walk and my journal.  To my surprise, this didn't sit well with some of them.  I was told that I had to write a book, because "this is a story that must be told."  Initially, I didn't want to write this book as I had just completed an exhausting 1,400-mile journey and my interest level in committing to another big project was rather small.  But time has a way of healing a person's body and soul, so I wrote the book "Kevin's Last Walk, A Father's Final Journey With his Son.”  My story and—for better or worse—my words.  

I have a newfound respect for writers.  I think it was more work to write the book than it was to walk 1,400 miles!

To learn more about Barry Adkins and NotMYKid, visit www.kevinslastwalk.com.