When 560-pound Eric Hites was dropped off by his dad on the side of the road in Massachusetts with his $170 bike last month, nobody believed that he’d actually start pedaling across the entire country. But he had nothing to lose. 
 
 And he wanted his wife back. 
 
 At 40 years old and weighing more than a quarter-ton, Hites hit a wall in life. His estranged wife, already a widow, said she didn’t want to repeat the past. He couldn’t hold a job, in part because of his weight, and prospects in his hometown in Danville, Indiana, were scarce. Friends and loved ones were tired of his excuses, and so was he. 
 
 “I was just failing as a human being,” said Hites, a DJ, pizza maker, telemarketer. “You name it, I’ve done it.” 
 
 Today: Hites is 60 pounds lighter and 55 miles into the journey of his life. And a man who described himself as a miserable failure just a few months ago now finds himself in a story becoming bigger than, well, himself. 
 
 “Everyone seems connected to this story,” he said from a tent outside Bliss Congregational Church in Tiverton, a coastal town in Rhode Island where he’s been on a layover for more than a week. “Everyone is coming forward and wants to be a part of it.” 
 
 When he wobbled into town, his rims were warped from all the bumps in the road against his immense weight. His spirits were a bit dashed, his meager funds were dwindling and any sane soul would say he should probably call it quits. 
 
 “I get thinking a lot and parts of me scream ‘What are you doing? Go home you idiot. But I know I’m not going to do that.” 
 
 With not much cash left and a busted bike, he was thinking about rigging up a harness and pulling his trailer of 300 pounds of stuff like a horse, feet on the ground, heading forward. 
 
 From a post inside a Dunkin’ Donuts, Hites has been doing what he’s done since he first pushed off from the side of the road in Falmouth, MA, and that’s telling his story. A story of love for a woman, determination to shed not just weight, but the self-loathing and sadness that comes with it. 
 
 ‘Bigger than just me’ 
 
 It didn’t take long for word to spread, and on Friday, Hites will set off once again on a brand new bike donated by Newport Bicycle, supplies donated by the Tiverton Police Department, and a growing online community of thousands rooting for him and inspired by his story. 
 
 “I’m just trying to lose weight and build a new future for me and my family,” Hites said. “But now, it’s grown bigger than just me.” 
 
 Like many people who arrive at crossroads in life, Hites knew something had to change. And he was determined to finally follow through. After decades of falling short of expectations, it was time to prove everyone wrong — including himself. 
 
 A few months into the separation, he called his wife and said, “I’m going to change. I’m going to get my health back and give us a future.” 
 
 “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she replied. 
 
 She thought he was all talk, as usual, but he was driven in part by a song by The Proclaimers: “500 Miles.” 
 
 “I told her, ‘I don’t think I can walk 500 miles, but I’ll ride my bike that far just to prove my love for you,’” Hites said. “’While on the road I’ll find somewhere for us to move, out of our crappy town, to start our life over again.’” 
 
 He started hitting the gym to prepare. He picked what he thought was a sturdy bike. He rigged a trailer to haul 300 pounds of stuff. And on June 10, after a long ride from Indiana, he was alone on the side of the road, watching his dad drive away. 
 
 And he was ready to pedal across the United States. 
 
 Overcoming obstacles 
 
 The initial goings were a slog. It turns out he got a bike with the wrong type of suspension and less-than-ideal gearing, so much of his energy was wasted. He labored to make progress, sleeping on the side of bike paths, in a hostel and sometimes resorting to a hotel room if no kind stranger offered a place. He posted his progress on his blog and on Facebook, though not many people noticed at first. 
 
 He kept pushing ahead as best as he could. 
 
 It didn’t take long for his wife to take notice. After two weeks, she realized that he’d actually meant what he said. 
 
 “When she realized I was gone, that I had left and actually was doing what I said, she said it pretty much was the most romantic thing,” Hites said. 
 
 Along the way he’s met artists, shopkeepers, craftspeople, tourists, young children, old men and women. He’s fought rain, heat, met up with a personal trainer in Martha’s Vineyard and attended church services in places of worship dotting the route. One night, he nearly lost all his charging gear and his wife’s diamond ring, but a friendly police officer saved the day and found it after multiple trips. 
 
 It has been lonely and there were occasions, “I get thinking a lot and parts of me scream ‘What are you doing? Go home you idiot,’” he wrote on June 27. ”But I know I’m not going to do that, but it still makes me feel like I’m never going to make it home, or hit my goal, or that I will fail and be a laughing stock and lose what I hold so dear.” 
 
 When he rolled into Tiverton about a week ago, Hites was facing yet another crossroads. It looked like he had won his wife back, but his bike was broken and the Herculean effort ahead was no less daunting than when he began. He could have stopped. 
 
 Afterall, he did win his woman back. 
 
 Community steps up 
 
 Things, though, have taken on a life of their own. His posts on Facebook made the rounds and messages started to pour in. Even after Newport Bicycle offered to give him a bike with a suspension set up for his frame, offers and messages kept pouring in. Meanwhile, his dwindling GoFundMe account started to balloon in value, increasing from a few hundred to nearly $3,500. 
 
 “I’ve had offers for 60 bikes now,” he said. “Everybody came through.” 
 
 By Wednesday, his story was starting to get national attention. The Beach Body network of personal trainers is working to launch a national campaign to get people moving with Hites as he pedals his way across the nation. 
 
 “When she realized I was gone, that I had left and actually was doing what I said, she said it pretty much was the most romantic thing.” 
 
 And most profound for Hites are the messages he has been getting from people who find themselves exactly where he was a few months ago: stuck, alone and overweight. 
 
 “This trip has so many meanings for me and now it seems to have so many meanings for everyone else,” he said. “This is my job now. To make it the whole way.” 
 
 As his coach said, “This is your job until you’re done. You job is to talk to people and do all of these things.” 
 
 And even if he wanted to quit, he can’t now. For a man who set off to save his life, he now finds himself the driving force for others to save their own. 
 
 “Everyone is counting on me now,” Hites said. “I don’t have an exact route or a plan. I’m taking it day by day, sort of letting myself randomly choose which roads to go on.” 
 
 
 
 Whatever route Hites takes, he’s blazing a trail. This “Fat Guy” has found a path that leads to a better future, and not just for himself. ||||| TIVERTON, R.I. (July 23, 2015) — A 560-pound man from Danville is biking across the United States in hopes of losing weight and saving his marriage. 
 
 Eric Hites started his journey two weeks ago in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Thus far, he’s traveled 90 miles and he’s already lost 60 pounds, but a bent rim on his bicycle has kept him in Tiverton, Rhode Island since late last week 
 
 The Newport Daily News reports that Newport Bicycle is outfitting him with a new bike that can withstand his weight so he can continue his journey. 
 
 Hites, who currently wears size 70 pants and a 10X T-shirt, says he’s always been a big person. 
 
 “I hit 40 and I said, ‘I’ve got to change this,’” Hites told The Newport Daily News. 
 
 He hopes to lose hundreds of pounds, and he says he’ll be happier and healthier if he can get down to 300 pounds. 
 
 Hites has a website called Fat Guy Across America where people can follow his journey. ||||| PLACENTIA – A truism: Husbands mess things up. 
 
 Even the best things. Even the most romantic things, the nicest things. Even the things that make wives fall in love with the big lugs in the first place. 
 
 Bob Hoffmann, an operations manager at Ford in Long Beach, messed up last week so badly that he needed a team of people at the Goodwill Store in Placentia – and a serious amount of prayer – to bail him out. 
 
 In the aftermath of Valentine’s Day, Bob may be the most romantic, nicest and luckiest man in Southern California. When you hear his story, you may feel like slamming your palm into your forehead. And then you might want to congratulate him for showing such heart. 
 
 The whole thing started when Bob thought it would be a good idea to hide an envelope full of $8,000 in cash inside the pocket of an old orange shirt in the depths of his closet. 
 
 “I didn’t think anybody would look in there,” Bob said. 
 
 What could possibly go wrong? 
 
 Harley romance 
 
 Bob, 65, and Linda, 68, met 15 years ago in a biker bar. They both rode Harleys. 
 
 “I told my friend, ‘See that man standing over there?’” Linda said. “I’m going to get to know him.” 
 
 He had a Springer Softail bike, the kind where the seat rides low. 
 
 “I love the sound of Harleys,” Linda said. “I love the feel of them.” 
 
 They got married on Sept. 30, 2011. They don’t have kids, but they do have a West Highland white terrier named Casper. 
 
 Just after their wedding, Bob got an incredibly romantic idea. When he retired from Ford, sometime in 2018, he was going to give Linda the vacation of her dreams. 
 
 “Italy,” Linda said. 
 
 “My plan was to save $10,000,” Bob said. “Then one day I was going to walk up to her and say, ‘We don’t have to wish anymore.’” 
 
 Secret account 
 
 Bob didn’t tell Linda about the Italy plan, which, in hindsight, might have been where this whole thing went wrong. 
 
 Secretly, Bob saved money for his wife’s dream trip, building up $8,000 in his account. 
 
 A couple of weeks ago, real life intervened. Bob got a call from a relative who had fallen on hard times. The relative, who had children, was about to get evicted from their apartment. They were desperate. 
 
 So Bob, the big-hearted guy that he is, decided to give away the money he had been saving for six years. 
 
 The orange shirt 
 
 Bob took the money out of the bank Feb. 6 and intended to present it to the relative later in the week. 
 
 But what do you do with $8,000 in cash from your secret account? You can’t just leave it lying around the house. 
 
 Bob put the money in an envelope, then stuffed the envelope in the pocket of an orange Van Heusen shirt that may once have been fashionable. He had outgrown it over the years. 
 
 The shirt was on the bottom rod of his closet, among the shirts he doesn’t wear anymore. 
 
 This is where the palm and forehead come into play. 
 
 Later that same night, Linda told Bob she was going to Goodwill in the morning to donate some old clothes. 
 
 Big-hearted Bob offered to help. He grabbed a bunch of shirts out of his closet and loaded them into Linda’s car. 
 
 Yes, one of them was the cash-laden orange Van Heusen. Linda dropped off the shirts at Goodwill the next day. 
 
 You don’t want to know 
 
 It took Bob two days to realize what he had done. 
 
 He was driving home from work Thursday evening with another $100 to add to the total he would give his relative. 
 
 Where did I put that envelope? 
 
 When he got home, he tried to remain calm when he asked his wife, “Did you happen to drop off those shirts at Goodwill?” 
 
 Of course she had. Wives are efficient. 
 
 That’s when Bob told her about the secret account, about how he had intended to surprise her, and about how he was going to give the money to someone who needed it more. 
 
 “What a nice thing to do,” Linda said. “It was money I didn’t even know about. He worked so hard to save that money.” 
 
 Linda had another thought. 
 
 “Do you want me to ask how much was in that envelope?” she asked her husband. 
 
 “No,” Bob said. 
 
 She muted the television. 
 
 “How much was in the envelope?” she asked. 
 
 When he told her she remembers saying “Oh, my God.” 
 
 The payoff 
 
 They raced to Goodwill, which, thankfully, was still open. They and a team of people searched though the store for about an hour. 
 
 They found other shirts that Bob had donated. 
 
 But not the orange one. 
 
 “Bob is an extremely strong human being,” Linda said. “I don’t want to hurt his male ego ... but he was crying. I haven’t seen him that distraught since his parents died.” 
 
 They drove home that night. 
 
 They prayed. 
 
 The phone rang at 7:30 a.m. Friday. 
 
 A woman named Caitlin Mulvihill had been searching through the warehouse when she saw a bin full of men’s dress shirts. One of them was orange. 
 
 “I was very relieved,” Mulvihill said. “I saw that envelope sticking out of the pocket.” 
 
 Linda called Bob at work. 
 
 “Thank you, Jesus,” they said in unison on the phone. 
 
 “I can’t believe I actually got the money back,” Bob said. “The honesty and integrity of the people at Goodwill are amazing. Someone easily could have slipped that into their pocket.” 
 
 Linda went back to Goodwill and claimed the envelope. She offered a huge reward. But Goodwill wouldn’t take it. 
 
 She had to give them something. So they agreed she would pay $400 for a pizza party for the Goodwill staff. 
 
 When you have good intentions, sometimes karma works in your favor. 
 
 Last weekend, Bob found out his relative no longer needed the money. 
 
 So he put the money safely back into the bank. 
 
 He didn’t mess up that part. 
 
 Contact the writer: ksharon@scng.com ||||| By Ana Bottary 
 
 abottary@abc6.com 
 
 Ever since he can remember, 33-year-old Steven Assanti has struggled with his weight. Through the years, it's spiraled out of control. He now weighs 800 pounds. 
 
 "I have an addiction to food. I just love to eat. I progressively became worse and it became like an addiction and I realize it is an addiction and a disease," says Assanti. 
 
 
 
 Seeking help, he says he was enrolled in a weight loss program through Rhode Island Hospital for the past 80 days. He tells ABC6 he lost over 20 pounds. To reward himself for that small victory, he decided to have a "cheat meal," ordering a pizza from his favorite spot, Tommy's, in Cranston. 
 
 "I mean come on, almost everyone that diets has like a reward kind of thing," says Assanti. 
 
 That may be true, but when you're 800 pounds and in a weight loss program there are strict rules to follow, and ordering pizza is a violation of the plan. On Tuesday, he says he was asked to leave the hospital. 
 
 "Now they were suppose to keep me there until I got to 550 to get the gastric by pass and all of a sudden, they just let me go like that. It's shocking," he says. 
 
 On Wednesday night we spoke with Assanti on Skype from Kent County Hospital, where he is currently staying, though it's not long term. Assanti's father, Steven Veillette, tells us the only way he's able to get his son around is with the help of several people lifting him into the back of his SUV. He says getting into their home in Cranston is an all-day task. 
 
 
 
 "I know one of these days, if he doesn't get help...I don't like to say it but I know something bad is going to happen," says Veillette. 
 
 
 
 "I do want to lose weight, and it's a wake-up call now and i just need some help," adds Assanti. 
 
 Lifespan can't comment on Assanti's situation because of HIPAA regulations, but a spokeswoman says Rhode Island Hospital does not offer an inpatient weight loss program. 
 
 © WLNE-TV 2015 ||||| The new video evidence shows Mary Hunt hitting herself in the head after claims that her former fiancÃ©, Scott Mitchell, was abusive and gave her a black eye. 
 
 The "GMA" team of insiders analyze some of the biggest stories trending this morning. 
 
 Good Samaritans helped rescue 21 passengers and five crew members from a sinking fishing boat that crashed into rocks early Saturday morning off the coast of San Diego. 
 
 Megan Rapinoe joined San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in protest on Sunday night, kneeling in solidarity during the national anthem and saying being a "gay american," helped her empathize with the struggle for minority rights. 
 
 The president says the San Francisco 49ers quarterback "cares about some real, legitimate issues." 
 
 One man says he's "having a good time" despite the Anthem of the Seas ship swaying in the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Hillary Clinton, who has abstained from the common campaign practice of flying on the same aircraft as her traveling press corps, has landed a new ride, a large jet dubbed Hill Force One, and welcomed reporters on board. 
 
 At last year's Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, Greg Kenney Jr. didn't cross the finish line after suffering a brain injury. This year, with help from family and friends, the teen successfully finished the 5K version of the race. 
 
 After an adorable sheltie named Ollie became paralyzed, he was moments away from being put to sleep when a veterinary student found a tick lodged in his fur — leading to the diagnosis that ultimately saved him and a recovery his owner called "miraculous." 
 
 About a week after 10-year-old Ollie returned home to Portland, Oregon, from a camping trip, his owner Al — who asked that his last name not be used — noticed the usually active dog seemed increasingly lethargic and weak. Ollie's regular veterinarian conducted tests, including blood work and X-rays, but could not figure out what was wrong with the pup, according to the DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital. 
 
 Ollie eventually became almost completely paralyzed and was unable to eat. 
 
 On May 4, two weeks after the trip, Al and his family made the difficult decision to put Ollie to sleep, according to the hospital. 
 
 Veterinarian Climbs Into Crate to Comfort Scared, Abandoned Dog 
 
 5 Ways to Prevent Tick-Borne Diseases as Tick Season Begins 
 
 As Neena Golden, a visiting veterinary student, prepared Ollie for the procedure, she took a moment to comfort him — and while scratching behind his ears, she found a tick, the hospital said. 
 
 Dr. Adam Stone of DoveLewis diagnosed Ollie with tick paralysis, a rare condition he had never seen before but learned about in school. 
 
 The hospital said Ollie was wearing a tick collar during the trip when the tick likely latched on. 
 
 View gallery Vet Student Saves Sick Dog From Being Euthanized by Finding Tick (ABC News) 
 
 Doctors removed the tick, and the staff shaved Ollie to make sure he didn't have any more ticks on him. Then Stone sent Ollie home, telling Al that Ollie should show signs of improvement in a few days if indeed he was suffering from tick paralysis. 
 
 Ollie was moving again by that night. 
 
 Golden told ABC News that once she and other hospital staff members heard Ollie was recovering, "We all high-fived and hugged each other." 
 
 "That was just amazing in itself, that this dog recovered so quickly," she said. 
 
 Al said he credits the doctor and the student with saving Ollie's life. 
 
 "He was one minute away from euthanasia," Al told ABC News today. "The doctor walked in and remembered that he heard about this in school. He told me it was just one little thing, one slide, and they mentioned it and [that] it was rare, and that was it. He had never seen a case before in his career." 
 
 Al said Ollie has made a miraculous comeback. 
 
 "He's bright-eyed, active, chasing the squirrels around," Al said. "He has a spring in his step that he hasn't had in quite a while. 
 
 "Our neighbors, our friends and my daughter's youth group all told us after Ollie's miraculous recovery that they were all praying for him," Al said.
– Eric Hites recently hit 40 and decided it was time to make some serious lifestyle changes. Having reached 560 pounds thanks to soda and a whole lot of sitting around, the DJ says both his health and his marriage are at stake, reports the Newport Daily News. Unfortunately, after getting off to a good start in Falmouth, Mass., (Tiverton-Little Compton Patch reports his dad dropped him and his $170 bike "on the side of the road") and losing 60 pounds in those first two weeks, the Indiana man hit a bump in the road, reports Fox 59: He bent the rim of one of his wheels in Tiverton, RI. "I thought it would take four months, but [having started in June] I’m only in Rhode Island," he says. Fortunately the owner of nearby Newport Bicycle, who says it "seems like a really good cause," built him a new bike by fitting a frame with mountain bike wheels that should support his weight all the way to California; he'll reportedly hit the road again today. Having first made a name for himself when he published the cookbook Everybody Loves Ramen, a compilation of 50 recipes from his college days (he studied graphic design but never graduated), Hites hopes to publish again, this time about his journey. He's traveling with his gear in tow, and writes on his website Fat Guy Across America that first and foremost he's got "to prove things to my wife and love." Patch reports the two were estranged when he set off, and that his wife, who was widowed once before, didn't want to repeat the experience. She has reportedly told him his quest is "the most romantic thing." Hites says he doesn't know his exact weight now (he dresses in size 70 pants), but he may weigh himself on the big scale at the junkyard up the road before getting back on the saddle. He says he hopes to drop down to a chubby but healthier 300 pounds. (When it comes to marriage, this is apparently the best age to wed.)