The Gator Nation is represented all across the country, but this summer, one UF student set out to prove it.
In 13 weeks, Kyle Johnson, a UF electrical engineering senior, visited 29 states with the Gator flag in tow.
“I got the idea when I saw the picture of these people climbing a giant mountain,” the 22-year-old said. “Whenever they climbed the mountain, they pulled out a Gator flag, and I thought ‘Oh, this is pretty cool.’”
During the summer, Johnson worked as an intern for the engineering company CH2M HILL in Denver, Colorado. Some of his duties included working out-of-state with substations in New York, Colorado and remote oil fields in northern Alaska.
When he had time off from work, Johnson would spend it traveling, often stopping to snap photos with his flag.
“Whenever the company sent me to different places across America, I took it with me, and I showed it off all over,” he said.
Some of the places he visited with the flag include Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. Johnson said he visited Key West and Barrow, Alaska, because he wanted to take the flag to the southernmost point and the northernmost point in the U.S.
Dan Nix, CH2M HILL principal engineer, was Johnson’s internship mentor and supervisor over the summer. Nix worked closely with Johnson on his projects in Colorado and kept track of his out-of-state travels.
“I thought he got bit by the travel bug pretty badly,” Nix said. “He really used this as a good base to see a lot of places.”
Johnson did not always travel alone. His longtime friend Jake Hemingway, 22, accompanied him on some of his trips in the southwestern U.S. Hemingway said their trek to Mount Evans in Colorado was a difficult task.
“We were coming down Mount Evans, and it was more or less iced over and more or less a 1,500- to 2,000-foot drop,” the University of South Florida civil engineering senior said.
Johnson does not plan on stopping his travels anytime soon. After graduation, he plans to take his flag to San Francisco and Israel.
“Without the education I got at UF, I would not be able to travel the way that I do,” he said. “I love The Gator Nation. It’s been a part of my entire life.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 9/22/2014 under the headline "Student waves Gator flag across US"]
UF electrical engineering senior Kyle Johnson, 22, holds up a Gator flag on Mount McKinley.
