This is definitely an odd story of survival. You can never tell who's going to make it. I guess it's a story of resiliency, with a surprise happy ending. And the cherry on top: people clearly helped him along the way.

From A.P.:
RALEIGH, N.C. - Hugh Armstrong says he hitchhiked and walked 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) south from New Hampshire without knowing who he was. Then he heard his granddaughter's name in a McDonald's in Asheville and started to fill in a few blanks.

Armstrong, 72, had been missing for more than two weeks, when he disappeared after going for a walk while on vacation near a New Hampshire lake. The retired IBM employee stacked hay for a Pennsylvania farmer along the way, hitched a ride to Virginia and made his way to his home state of North Carolina.

Armstrong hadn't been able to remember his name since he fell into a ravine while walking near New Hampshire's Stinson Lake on July 25, but he knew his age and thought he might know someone in Asheville. That's where he found himself in a McDonald's trying to sort things out.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/worl...7702/story.html