Brett Bramble and John Azerolo pushed their carts down Pitchkettle Road in the light rain on Monday morning last week. Each cart had jugs of water, food, clothes, tents and a name: Azerolo called his Rick Shaw for obvious reasons, and Bramble named his Lieutenant Dan after Forrest Gump.

Bramble’s cart also had Domino, “the best thing in this cart,” a black Labrador mix that has walked with him since he rescued her from Fulton County Animal Shelter back in Bramble’s home city of Atlanta, Ga., he said.

He explained that rainy days walking aren’t nearly as bad as hot days, especially for his little girl, who’s got her own paw shoes in case the roads gets too toasty.

“I’ll put my hand on the road, and if it’s too hot for my hand, then it’s too hot for her feet,” Bramble said.

Monday was day 100 for Bramble’s East Coast Overdose Awareness Walk, a more than 2,100-mile journey from Key West, Fla. to Fort Kent, Maine. The two men and dog are walking through highways and backroads to educate people on the realities of drug addiction, preventing overdoses, supporting recovery and reducing the stigma surrounding addiction.

Bramble’s sister, Brittany, died from a heroin overdose in March 2014. He’s walked more than 1,300 miles as of Monday in the hopes of saving others from the pain of his loss.

“She’s not just somebody who died from heroin,” Bramble said. “She was an awesome person and an awesome mother. She was special, and she cared about people. I want people suffering from addiction to know that they can get better, that they can get the compassion and understanding they need.”

The trio had an unexpected hurdle when they arrived in Suffolk on Saturday. Lieutenant Dan’s front wheel broke off the frame that afternoon on Manning Road, about six miles into Virginia, Bramble said.

They got a recommendation to call Floyd Jones with Moonlight Welding, who opened up shop that Sunday especially for them, according to Bramble. When he learned about what they were doing, he fixed up both carts free of charge. Then he invited the two men to join him and his family for dinner at George’s Steak House.

“Suffolk was a very special place for us,” Bramble said.

That’s just one of the momentous encounters the men have had in the first 100 days of their trek.

“I’ve shook hands with truck drivers and mayors,” Azerolo said. “The only difference is the grip.”

Azerolo made it about 378 miles on a walk across the country back in 2014 before he had to stop due to medical issues. He had followed Bramble’s walk from Delaware to San Francisco in 2016 on social media and decided to get involved for this latest adventure.

On his cart is writing in memoriam to Melanie, the support driver and outreach coordinator and the first to join the team. She and her child died due to complications with her pregnancy shortly before the two men started the walk.

“We now honor her with every step that we take,” according to Melanie’s biography on brettbramblewalks.com.

Azerolo collects the names of the children that suffer the consequences of family who die from drug addiction.

“They didn’t have a voice in the matter, and I’m just trying to give them something of a voice,” he said.

The shame of addiction prevents too many people from seeking help. That also keeps their loved ones in the dark after they’re gone.

“Every day we walk, somebody sees our cart that says overdose awareness on the side of it, and they come and talk to us about how they’re affected by this crisis,” Bramble said. “It usually ends in tears on the side of the road, because there’s so much pain behind it, but people are afraid to talk in their own communities. It shouldn’t take two old hobos on the side of the road pushing strollers for them to talk about this.”

The men share resources like “GRASP: Grief Recovery After a Substance Passing,” a national group that’s committed to compassion and understanding for those that lose someone to drug addiction.

The money they raise supports Freedom to Grow Inc., a nonprofit that will allow people will troubled pasts to spend therapeutic time working on a farm in Georgia, where all the food they eat is grown and raised on the property.

Bramble, Azerolo and Domino left for Smithfield on Monday, but Azerolo had one more message to deliver before he left Suffolk.

“This all hinges on compassion, so I just want to tell the community to be kind to each other. Spread smiles not hate. This world is capable of much more love so spread that, and if nobody has told you today that they love you, I just did.”

Visit brettbramblewalks.com for more information on the East Coast Overdose Awareness Walk, or visit freedomtogrowretreat.org for more on the nonprofit.