Jimmy Wayne at the moment he crossed the finish line, August 1, 2010, on his 1,700 mile Meet Me Halfway campaign. Photo courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

When most people consider the connection between a boot and country music, they usually have a western cut in mind. But when Jimmy Wayne finished his 1,700-mile Meet Me Halfway walk on Sunday, the boot he wore came not from a leather manufacturer but from the doctor’s office.

Jimmy reached HomeBase Youth Services in Phoenix Sunday, concluding a walk he started exactly seven months earlier in Nashville with the specific goal of bringing awareness to the plight of teens who age out of the foster-care system and end up living on the streets. The journey lasted much longer than he expected, but with the finish line in sight, he picked up the pace last week, walking 20.5 miles in a single day.

Alas, walking down the side of a mountain just east of Phoenix, he apparently fractured his right ankle, heightening the storyline to an already dramatic effort. The foot swelled up while he was walking Friday, and he used trash bags to pack ice around the injury.

“My foot is so numb from the pain, I can’t feel the ice!” he tweeted.

Five miles from his destination, Jimmy stopped to visit a podiatrist and got the diagnosis: The ankle was fractured, and a walking boot would at least allow him to finish the journey, though it would be 6-8 weeks before he heals. The boot prevented him from crawling or from pogoing on one foot to the finale.

“I’m gonna make it if I have to hop!” Jimmy insisted in the doctor’s office on a video posted by Phoenix radio station KNIX.

The doc gave Jimmy some pain medication, and he was able to perform a celebratory show Saturday night at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill in Mesa. Another celebration awaited Jimmy at HomeBase.

The 1,700-mile journey is an accomplishment, and his insistence on walking the last few miles on a broken foot only demonstrates Jimmy’s passion for the subject of homeless teens. Along the way, his effort got him an opportunity to speak to legislators in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

The broken bone only underscored the difference between Jimmy, whose music career affords him a certain amount of attention, and the teens who struggle to put their lives together once they’re booted from the foster-care system.

“I can’t imagine what would happen to those guys,” Jimmy said, “had somethin’ like this happened to them without the resources to take care of it.”

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