I'm following intuition. Intuition is a funny phenomenon - one which seems to whisper messages to us throughout our lifetimes. However, many of us, wrapped up in our busy "daily lives" are not hearing it. We also may confuse impulse and intuition. (Test the difference by asking if whatever choice your making is more likely to be helpful or harmful to you in the long run.) True intuition will guide you toward performing noble acts - even if you don't fully understand what you're doing at the time - or why.

At the end of November 2008, I booked a flight to Veracruz, Mexico, where I planned to begin several months of winter-time Latin America travel with a two-week volunteer commitment. Upon booking the flight, I immediately began to hear and feel a strong, loud intuitive message of what I would be doing upon returning home: Walking Across America, taking countless steps across the country to promote and inspire steps of positive change in others - as much as humanly possible.

Is there a link on this site to donate $ to you?

No.

If you find yourself inspired to react in any way, I encourage you to first take strong steps forward into positive changes in your personal life.

I gladly accept shelter and food/provisions along the way. Offers of shelter, food, and occasionally supplies have all been enormously helpful to me. I have a hard time imagining how I would have made it this far without all the wonderfully hospitable people who have appeared to help me with food, shelter, and basic supplies along the way.

I've been handed cash from time to time by well-meaning people I've met along the way, but I' ve never once asked for it. While it should be clearly understood that this Walk is not by any means a fundraising event, it is also true that any cash handed to me is spent wisely and ends up helping me on the road, and I'm thankful to all who have helped me.

What are you taking with you?

Backpack: Arc'Teryx Arakkis 50L - best pack available on the market.

Jacket: Columbia Sportswear Titanium jacket (basic, no hood)

Rain gear: very light weight, durable Red Ledge rain jacket and pants.

Pants: Single pair of outdoor pants: convertible, not waterproof, made by North Face.

Shirts: 2 short sleeve synthetic shirts; 1 long sleeve.

Shoes and socks:

Saucony running shoes, very porous and breathable, not at all waterproof.
Montrail hiking shoes, water resistant, except for the top of the shoe, which I often fashion a cover for on rainy days.
2 pairs of thick cushion Wigwam hiking socks
2 pairs of sock liners

Sleeping bag: thin Marmot summer sleeping bag.

Gloves: windproof Seirus gloves, which are labeled as waterproof, but on rainy enough days, water still gets in through the seams.

Thermals

Tent: Black Diamond tri-pod bivy tent.

Tarp

Sleeping pad: Therma-Rest foldable (not full body; reaches head to knees).

Stuff sack pillow, which I use to store my clothes.

Wool shawl.

Where do you sleep?

Wherever I'm given shelter along the way. Just descending the West Coast, I' ve been given shelter nearly 90% of the time, frequently via contacts made on the Couchsurfing website. I am usually so fortunate to be invited indoors by nice people. Sometimes I am given more offers of shelter than I can accept. Other times I am given no such offers, and have to find a place to camp. Usually, the more populated an area, the greater my chances of being offered shelter.

What do you eat?

Vegetarian food that is either generously given to me, or that I acquire on my own.

Hosts who generously offer me shelter often offer me dinner and/or breakfast as well-there are so many wonderful people in the world!

I mix up a protein-rich, green superfood shake every morning (donated to me), which gives me a great initial boost for the day. Sometimes I make a similar shake in the evening.

High quality energy bars are a common day time treat for me. I' m given top-notch bars by a materials sponsor. Other good quality bars I occasionally purchase.

The most common staples I eat on the road are pears, bananas, and carrots. I buy organic as often as I can. I eat trail mixes when they' re available, and I only eat whole, raw trail mixes. Some pre-packaged trail mixes are filled with junk ingredients, and I avoid those like the plague.

I rigorously avoid junk food.

Why 20k per day instead of 20 miles?

I first began this Walk with the intention of walking 120 miles per week (six 20-mile days). After listening to the wise advice of Skip Potts, who told me in Eugene to not get caught up with dates and deadlines, to take my time experiencing and inspiring across America, I ultimately decided to take his advice. Of course, it took arriving to the Bay Area to actually make this decision official, but it' s easily one of the best decisions I' ve made so far during the Walk.

20 miles per day is doable, but it usually means that I have little time to spend with whomever may be hosting me, and also little time to spend with people I meet along the way. During the winter months, it often keeps me on the road after dark, which is when I least prefer to accumulate miles on the route.

20k per day is not only a more manageable pace for me, but as almost the entire rest of the planet utilizes the vastly easier, far more user-friendly metric system, the message is now one that isn't so specific just to Americans. We' re familiar with meters and liters as well, so I simply found that using a measurement the whole world understands is really a win-win.

Will you walk exactly 20k every day? Will there be days that you don't walk twenty kilometers?

I will frequently walk more than 20k in a given day. Other days, I may walk less. I will rarely walk exactly 20k in a given day. The reason for this is because I typically schedule my walks from one town to the next. A day' s walk may take me between towns that are 40k apart, and also may take me between towns which are only 10k apart. Check the news feed on the homepage for details of any given day' s walking destinations/distance.

Will you invite anyone to walk with you?

I invite EVERYONE to walk with me! Even if it's only from one street block to the next.

For anyone who wishes to walk more than a day' s walk with me, I'd love your companionship for however far. It must be understood though that I'll be needing to keep my pace - not faster, not slower. I won't tolerate any abuse of alcohol or drugs by anyone walking with me, and I can only guarantee my own personal provisions. Feel free to contact me with any questions, ideas, or concerns...

What is your exact route?

Down through California, across the southern U.S., up the SE and into Washington, DC. I don't have all the exact roads figured out just yet; I make these decisions as I approach new communities, have a proposed walking route ready on Google Maps, then speak with the locals regarding which route is best to subsequent destinations.

I've traveled this way by automobile across America, as well as through Brazil, Mexico, and Central America. It's an approach that, when available, I favor greatly. I know when and where I'll begin; I know exactly where I'm going; and I know when I'll be arriving there. I know which states I'll be walking through, but the exact roads to be walked will only be "carved in stone" once I've passed over them.

ANECDOTE:

Google Maps gave me the walking route of Highway 17 between Silicon Valley and Santa Cruz. All locals strongly advised me against doing this, warning me that there is frequently little if any shoulder room through the Santa Cruz Mountains on Hwy 17, that cars drive the many curves of the road dangerously fast, and that not even bicycles are ever seen there. They told me that due to an abundance of traffic accidents and fatalities, that Highway 17 is nicknamed "Blood Alley."

Will you actually be walking the entire way to Washington, DC?

YES.

When I'm invited to visit important places or speak at any nearby events that are away from my given route, I frequently accept rides to the off-the-route location, on the condition that I be returned to the exact spot I suspended my walk, so that I can resume the walk on foot. Also, whenever a host lives miles off the route, and is willing to pick me up and return me to where I left off, I accept such offers as well. In other cases, I may take a bus back and forth to any place on the route where I' ve left off (which many times I' ll end the day' s walk at a particular bus stop, making it easy to return and resume the Walk the following day.) I take the bus only if/when a host lives miles away from any given destination at the end of a busy day' s walk.

A potential exception to covering 100% of the route on foot may be a bridge or portion of road under construction which does not allow pedestrians to pass. I haven' t encountered this in the first thousand miles, and hope to never face it. Still, such impediments are impossible to predict at this point, and would only be a minimal distraction anyway.

Do you think your walk will end all cancers?

No more than I believe that wearing seatbelts will end all traffic fatalities.

The idea is to act preventatively. The idea is, as with the advent of seatbelts, to inspire more Americans to take steps to living a healthier lifestyle. My hope is to prevent future cases of cancer, and thereby prevent so many unnecessary cancer deaths.

It would be most wonderful to work with and inspire others to prevent thousands or even millions of unnecessary cancer deaths. However, even if this walk prevents only one such death, the effort will have been well worth it...

Was lifestyle responsible for your mother's death from cancer?

Sadly, I'll never know the answer to this question.

That said, I need to make the following point clear: I'm not taking these steps across thousands of miles of America in a futile attempt to bring her back. The goal is to inspire changes that will prevent other families from suffering similarly. I don't want them to have to go through what we went through.

What if I wish to walk more than 20 minutes per day?

Please do!

I encourage everyone to walk 20 minutes per day because it is easy for most of us to do, and when you do so, it will benefit you greatly. If you find that walking 20 minutes per day is establishing positive momentum in your life, and you wish to go further and take more steps, then please do! You'll help yourself, and you'll help those around you. The more positive changes you wish to integrate into your daily life, the better off you'll be.

What if I'm already walking 20 minutes per day?

Then I'm happy that this is the case for you. If you find inspiration to take another step forward in life, I'd like to suggest a variety of ideas:

Perhaps you can invite a family member, friend, or acquaintance to walk with you?

Apply 20 to another portion of life - "20%". Perhaps you could do with 20% less junk food? Would it be possible to take the bus to work 20% of the time? Can you afford to make 20% of your grocery purchases organic? (There's also the other, more extreme end of this spectrum: only eating 20% as much junk food; only driving to work 20% of the time; only allowing 20% of your grocery purchases to not be organic.)

I'm a very busy person, where can I find time for 20 minutes per day?

Yes, most of us lead busy lives, and sparing a few minutes can be a hardship for some of us. That said, with a little fun creativity and ingenuity on your part, you should be able to find ways to successfully integrate twenty minutes of added walking to your busy day.

You can take walks during your lunch break. Enjoy the day downtown, rain or shine, while you strengthen yourself. Perhaps a co-worker would care to join you?

You can avoid the elevators/escalators at work, and instead opt for the stairs. Or if you work on the 34th floor, perhaps you can find a creative way to combine elevators and stairs. Is it possible to exit and FL 30 and walk up the remaining flights of stairs?

Make this a way to spend fun, quality time with the kids, family, friends, neighbors...

Park a ways away (end of the lot). Use your time walking into the store to think over what it is you're looking for - what you want. "Do I really need it?" Cut down on impulse buying! Establish a strong mentality before entering into any store - one strong enough so that you aren't easily swayed into making impulse purchases.

What if you don't like "health nuts"? what if you think they're snobs?

Well, admittedly, I don't care to spend much time with incorrigible snobs either.

I'm not asking you to be anyone you don't wish to be, nor to associate with anyone that has a negative impact on you.

Do this for yourself! Take steps forward and make changes for yourself!

Are you looking to condemn people for how they've been living?

Not at all. I'm not here trying to inspire negative feelings of guilt for any poor decisions they may feel they have made. It doesn't matter to me where exactly you are in life right now - I'm here to spread inspiration to anyone who could use it.

Drowning in negativity or feelings of guilt only pulls us down in life, and that's exactly the opposite of what I wish to inspire. What's important is that we find the power today to take positive, meaningful steps forward in our lives.

Does taking this walk place your career in jeopardy?

Interesting question.

I was moving up fast in Seattle. By the time I left, after two promotions in less than six months, I had two more offers of promotion presented to me - by two separate companies. But the golden voice of intuition was calling me strongly to take a different path. I was in serious need of personal change and progression. I couldn't just be making money for myself and for the billion-dollar corporations any longer. I felt a strong need to give back to humanity. The superiors I've answered to over the years have understood me well, and they've been very supportive of me. The way I see it: even if I only inspire positive change in one person's life, the great effort I'm making will have been more than worth it (my heart tells me so!).

What do you think about out there on the road? Do you ever get bored?

There are oh so many thoughts that cross my mind on the open road.

Having walked a great distance, I' ve thought about how the mostly rural miles I' ve walked looked before the automobile, and even before the horse and carriage. Having walked up and down many large hills, I' ve pondered the enormity of the projects of building many roads, Highway 1, for example, where a simple five-seconds-by-car portion has in some spots taken many thousands of hours of planning and hard labor to make possible. I' ve thought about how drastically our standard of living has changed with the automobile, and imagined how daily life must have been before its advent; I' ve also ruminated about how addicted we are to this fast-lane lifestyle. I' ve often thought about how privileged I feel to be experiencing the environment in a way that can barely be scratched through vehicular travel: I get to see, hear, smell, touch, and absorb every wild mile far more completely than I ever could in a car. Every day I' ve thought about the Peace Pilgrim, whom I was unaware of before planning this Walk, but whose relentless resolve inspires me every day, nearly thirty years after she died. I keep in mind how important positive thinking is - the Walk is nearly 90 percent mental, and negative thoughts would destroy my ability to optimistically continue on as I do. People I' ve met often pass through my mind, and I' m always enthusiastic about whomever I' m about to soon meet as well. I think family, friends, and dog. I ponder progress I' ve made, and focus on milestones I' ve yet to reach.

Boredom hasn' t been a problem for me. The combination of training and personality style leads me to believe that even through the ultra-remote reaches of the desert Southwest, that I' ll be able to handle as much solitude as I' m about to experience - however much (or little) this ultimately may turn out to be.

You walked with more politicians at the beginning of the Walk, but not as many lately. Is there a reason why?

Yes. Earlier in the Walk, I aimed to strictly obey self-constructed timelines for my destinations. This worked well as far as scheduling meetings with politicians was concerned. However, I found that I far prefer to be more flexible with my decisions of walking from one community to the next. I enjoy the ability to alter my timelines by a day or two within any given week. This doesn' t work so well when it comes to walking with politicians, but it seems to make a much richer overall experience of the Walk.

Do you contact the media for every town you go through?

I haven' t been doing as much of this as I should be doing, but will be seeking to make more media contacts as the miles progress. Media coverage has been decent, and I like it best when I am able to spend as little time as possible finding and contacting them. Once a reporter makes contact with me, I like to make as much time available as possible for him/her. All of my experiences with reporters have been good, fun experiences-and it seems that the more time spent simply hanging out and chatting with any given reporter, the better they write the story.

How do you decide when to take your days off?

I often don' t plan my days off too far in advance. Factors that often effect whether or not I' ll take a day off include:

How sore my muscles may be
Whether a storm may be passing
If I have an unique invitation by a local host for a day off
I usually spend at least a couple of days in/around larger cities

What' s it like out there on the road?

Every day is a great new adventure, predictable in some ways, unpredictable in other ways.

It' s pretty predictable that at least some people are going to see the "WALKING ACROSS AMERICA" signs and stop to inquire. I cannot predict how many may stop, what they' ll be like, and how our conversations may evolve.

I start out the day with a target destination, a prediction of how long it will take me to arrive, an idea of the weather and terrain, info regarding how hospitable the road is, potential hazards etc. And I never can predict exactly what will transpire throughout the course of the day.

ANECDOTE:

Zan and I left Cambria and knew that I' d be walking along Highway 1 for a good twenty miles into Morro Bay. (Zan was the awesome Australian man walking with me at the time.) Despite the wet forecast, we didn' t know that the rain would last for about the first half of the walk. We couldn' t predict all the great views, curves, and hills that lay ahead of us. The fact that a man name Daniel would stop near Harmony to spontaneously interview us for his website with his fancy camera was unexpected. Daniel was amazed at the happy enthusiasm we showed despite just having walked through several days of what he described as "our worst storms here in ten years." He spontaneously asked if he could use his fancy camera to interview us for his website, and we agreed to it.

Upon reaching Cayucos, who knew that the restaurant chosen by Zan would end up giving us a free meal?

We didn' t know that we' d walk the beach for the last few miles into Morro Bay. And when we did walk the beach, we were led to believe that since high tide had passed, that we' d have an easy walk down five miles of coastline. Instead, however, we were hopping, skipping, and dodging waves for miles down the beach. Had I known this ahead of time, I probably would have said no to the opportunity to walk the beach. Once into it for a little while, however, we found it to be fun, and ignored every chance to return to the road all the way into Morro Bay.

Are people usually nice?

Having walked my first thousand miles, I haven' t had any single bad experience with people. So many people have been so wonderful to me. "The world is like a mirror. You smile at it, and it smiles at you," was once told to me by a sage senior lady. As the days continue to pass, I only continue to realize the value of her wisdom.

What questions do you get asked the most?

Are you really walking across America?
How far have you come?
When/Where did you start?
Why?

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question

Eugen Ionescu