James Robertson of Detroit walks a round trip of 21 miles every day to get to his job and back home

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James Robertson, of Detroit takes a brief nap while riding the bus 
along Woodward Ave. in Detroit on Thursday January 29, 2015 
to the Somerset Collection in Troy before beginning his daily 
walk to his job at Schain Mold & Engineering in Rochester Hills. 
(Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)

Think you've got a tough commute to work?

Think again.

A story by Detroit Free Press reporter Bill Laitner yesterday talked about what 56-year-old James Robertson of Detroit has to go through every day, just to get to his $10.55 an hour factory job 23 miles from his home.

Leaving home in Detroit at 8 a.m., James Robertson doesn't look like an endurance athlete.

Pudgy of form, shod in heavy work boots, Robertson trudges almost haltingly as he starts another workday.

But as he steps out into the cold, Robertson, 56, is steeled for an Olympic-sized commute. Getting to and from his factory job 23 miles away in Rochester Hills, he'll take a bus partway there and partway home. And he'll also walk an astounding 21 miles.

Five days a week. Monday through Friday.

It's the life Robertson has led for the last decade, ever since his 1988 Honda Accord quit on him.

Put another way, according to the Free Press, every year Robertson walks the equivalent of the distance from Detroit to Los Angeles – and back.

A follow-up story in today's paper says that fundraisers on social media have netted more than $44,000.

Sunday's story has also prompted a flood of offers that included one Chevy dealership pledging to give Robertson a 2014 Chevrolet Cruz or Sonic, and "more than a hundred others offered cash for a car, or their own cars, as well as bus tickets, bicycles and even daily chauffeur service for Robertson."

So the next time you feel like bitching about the 45 minutes you spend on I-95 each day, think about what James Robertson has had to put up with every day for the past ten years.