Edie Littlefield Sundby is walking to call attention to a time before paved roads and bridges. On Feb. 5, 2023, she laced up her Loma’s to begin her trek across Calcasieu Parish. Starting point was the old Hwy. 90 burned out bridge between Texas and Louisiana.

Sunby is in the process of walking the length of the 2,817-mile Old Spanish Trail, which is celebrating its Centennial this year.

But her walking journey actually began seven years ago.

“In 2015, I was told by doctors I had three months to live,” she said.

After a stage 4 gallbladder cancer diagnosis, 79 rounds of chemo, four major surgeries and losing her right lung, she began a 1,600-mile walk along the old, unmapped mission trail. That was in 2015.

“Death opened my heart to life and I want to live it,” Sundby said.

She did and lived to tell about the experience, a story of what people do when faced with the potential end of life, how they spend their time remaining and the will to truly live.

Now she’s on the road again, to experience more of the same and to call attention to the upcoming Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration. In Calcasieu Parish, some might refer to this region’s portion of the Old Spanish Trail (OST) as Hwy. 90 or Old Highway 90.

“I started in San Antonio,” Sunby said. “That’s about The Trail’s middle, where the OST Committee is located.”

OST100 is an association organized to locate, revitalize and preserve the roadway, businesses and historic sites of the original 1920s Old Spanish Trail. Centennial events will culminate with a motorcade grand finale. March 23-25, New Orleans will host its OST100 event.

Building the Old Spanish Trail was a big deal. Automobiles had just been introduced. About 8,000 people owned one.  By 1915, total automobiles reached 2,491,000, according to “America’s Highways, 1776-1976: A History of the Federal Aid Program.” Today, 290.8 million cars are on the road, according to the Zippia website.

Drivers of some of those cars along what’s left of the Old Spanish Trail may have spotted Sunby.

“I walk 10 to 12 miles per day and while I’m walking I think about life back then, a time when walking was still a popular way to go. She thinks walking can make the walker more appreciative and aware of their surroundings, what is going on in their bodies, their minds and their spirits.

OST100 Association members promote the route as being a more pleasant drive than taking Interstate 10.

The Old Spanish Trail began as a movement to connect six centers of historical interest: St. Augustine, New Orleans, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson and San Diego, the location of  Spanish Missions established from 1769 to 1833. Referred to as the Southern Route 66, the OST was one of the most prominent and persistent American auto trails.

The association put out pamphlets periodically to promote sites along the way.

“So far I have walked from San Antonio west to the Pecos River, 270 miles, and across all of East Texas, 300 miles, through Houston suburbs to Beaumont and now I’m on my way to E-way,” she said. That was her pronunciation of Iowa, Louisiana before she learned that online pronunciations aren’t always accurate.

No shoulder along several miles of road in Calcasieu and Jeff Davis Parish made walking difficult.

“The Spanish Trail from Van Horn, Texas to St. Augustine follows Old Highway 90 and I call it a ghost highway because it keeps disappearing, and no shoulders in most of Louisiana,” she said.

No shoulders meant 80 mph traffic often had Sundby slogging onward in wet ditches.

Sundby lists other challenges.

“Dogs are scarier than wild feral pigs, alligators and coyotes and mountain lions , but not as scary as drug-addicted, high or drunk men and women,” she said.

As Sunby made it through Calcasieu Parish, and with 13 more Louisiana parishes to go, she shared some details about the Old Spanish Trail.

“It was built in a way to allow appreciation and preservation of nature, shrubs, wildflowers and trees” she said, as she walked through an area and tried to imagine how much it has changed since the early 1920s.

Charlotte Kahl, co-founder of OST100 provided links to historical archives, courtesy of the Louis J. Blume Library and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Memorabilia contained names of local men who served as Association Counselors in 1921, L.W. Calvert, Lake Charles and J.N. Wetherill, Vinton.

In a letter from OST Managing Director Harral Ayres to Judge Coke R. Stevenson, Junction, Texas, OST Vice President for West Texas in 1925, Ayres writes, “Considerable sections need at once permanent drainage structures and some special construction. The federal standard construction, 30 mi. Balmorhea cost $4,000 per mile and is the best gravel road I have ever seen in either Texas or Louisiana.

Sundby does not  have an ETA for arriving in San Diego, the place she calls home.

“This is a slow walk, and I want to slow life down and savor it. I hope this 2,817-mile Old Spanish Trail Walk lasts as long as I do.”