A disabled homeless veteran on a coast to coast mission to make the nation aware of its burgeoning number of homeless veterans was himself aided around 3 a.m. Monday morning in Gonzales by two good Samaritans.

David Whittaker, 53, is traveling from Key West, Fla., the southernmost area of the U.S., to Blaine, Wash., the northernmost part. He suffers from a bad heart, so he travels at night, riding in a wheelchair on the shoulders of roads and highways in order to avoid the day’s blistering heat.

While on his way from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Whittaker had a series of flat tires in Gonzales.

“I picked up a nail near Wal-Mart and the night manager helped me fix it,” Whittaker said.

Then, heading north, just past the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office maintenance facility on Airline Highway, his wheelchair landed on another nail.

Stranded, Whittaker, ex-Marine and formerly successful California businessman, waited on the highway shoulder, hoping someone would stop and help him.

Several cars drove by, he said. One driver even slowed to a near stop, eyeing him through the windshield, then drove away. Three or four police cars stopped, but did not stop.

That’s when Whittaker said he stopped asking himself why he was getting the flats, and started praying.

About 20 minutes later a young man in a red pickup truck and a friend pulled up behind the wheelchair.

“He said something told him to stop and help,” Whittaker recalled. With nowhere to have the tire fixed at that time of the morning, the two men lifted the wheelchair up in their truck. They drove

Whittaker to the Gonzales Holiday Inn, where the young man pulled money out of his pocket and rented Whittaker a room in the inn at 4:19 a.m.

The next day, hotel Guest Services Manager Pam Tureaud comped Whittaker a second night and gave him the money the Good Samaritan had paid for the first night. He was also given meal coupons to Mike Anderson’s Restaurant.

“They said they did it because they believed in what I was doing,” Whittaker said.

The former businessman lost his custom framing business after incurring $800,000 in medical bills due to his heart condition when his health insurance was canceled, and later was forced into homelessness. He suffered a paralyzing stroke with loss of memory from which he has miraculously recovered. When the Veterans Administration finally agreed to take care of his medical bills, he spent eight months in a VA hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.

Now, although he has been acknowledged by a VA cardiologist to need a heart transplant because his heart only functions at 14 percent, Whittaker said he has been advised he is ineligible for the heart because he is homeless.

He wears a pacemaker and a defillibator.

“When I was told I was ineligible for a heart because I was homeless, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. That’s when he said he heard the voice of God tell him to do something to help other  homeless veterans.

“I just decided I wanted to do this so it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said.

While in Atlanta during his cross-country trek, Whittaker said he was mugged, robbed of $600, and woke up in a hospital.

He’s also had positive experiences he did not dream possible.

The $20,000 Porsche wheelchair was donated to him for the 6,000 mile journey. When his iPod was ruined by rain, a Best Buy Store gave him a new one, and he can be tracked in real time with a GPS tracking device given to him.  He says police escorts through towns are not uncommon when authorities knew he is on the way.

Folded in a 2 ft. by 2 ft. by 3 ft. box in the small trailer which he tows behind the wheelchair is one of the largest American flags in the country,  big  enough when unfurled to cover a basketball court.

It was donated by Doug McKibbens of Glenbrook Dodge in Ft. Wayne, Ind.

The flag is the second given by the Dodge dealer for the trip. The first was stolen during the mugging in Atlanta.

Whittaker checked out of the Gonzales Holiday Inn early Tuesday evening, headed to Baton Rouge on another leg of the ride to promote awareness of homeless veterans.

Pam Tureaud said Wednesday she can still see the crying in his face when the hotel gave him a meal and a place to stay. She says she expects him to e-mail her from time to time during the remainder of his journey.

To follow Whittaker’s journey, visit www.hhva.veterancottages.org for updates.