23 EAST

Years before the recent downturn in our nation’s economy, I talked to others about the ethics of corporate America—about financial mismanagement and greed. Having observed our growing problems well before the nation began to crumble in the fall of 2008, I wanted to do something. Specifically, I wanted to know how other Americans felt about our country. Was I the only one who believed this country needed reform? From Maryland to California, and from Minnesota to Florida, did others feel the same way I felt about our nation’s problems? Did others even think about our nation’s problems?

I believed very strongly that everyday Americans needed to have a dialogue—not the politicians in Washington, DC, but the citizens of America. But I was just a guy from Indiana.

So in 2004, while still very actively maintaining my professional life, I decided to walk across our country, literally, to try to bring attention to my concerns and ideas. I was using this project as an outlet to release the frustration I felt with the role-model establishments in the country. Business, education, politics, and religion were, and are, all in need of an overhaul of morals.

I was bothered watching corporate America behave unethically and destroy innocent people’s lives with financial mishandling and greed. I was aggravated watching as students of our most prestigious centers for higher learning used their education to deceive and rob because they had been taught to beat the system more than they had been taught to make it better. I was tired of the false pretenses of so many politicians who espoused propaganda and deception rather than simply representing the people. And I was deeply disturbed to hear the ramifications of religious institutions that betrayed their followers.

Why, you may ask, did I choose to walk across America? Some people swim the English Channel or climb Mount Everest. What do those people answer when asked the same question? To prove they could do it? Perhaps. However, I did not walk across America for an individual accomplishment. My whole purpose was to inspire those who crossed my path and shook my hand, as well as those who watched from a distance.

Like an athlete down on the field, flapping his extended arms upward to encourage the spectators to rise and become participants in the game by making some noise, I walked down the center of the country with extended arms, encouraging us all to get up out of our spectators’ chairs and become participants in molding our country.

When they would say, “That’s a long way to go” or “That’s a high mountain to climb” or “What you are bringing on yourself is awfully hard,” I would say, “Indeed, but it can be done. I’m doing it.” And then I could reflect with them on how all the objections they presented were symbolic of the obstacles facing America today as the nation works to recover and maintain her morality.

There was no monetary gain for me associated with the endeavor. However, the old adage was true: if I could affect and motivate even one person to action, my long journey would be worth it.

With a desire to walk through the center of the United States, I looked first at US Route 50, a major east-west route of our highway system, stretching just over three thousand miles, from Londontowne, Maryland, on the Atlantic Ocean to San Francisco, California. It runs right through the middle of the nation and is close to my hometown of Columbus. Since it runs east to west, I figured Highway 50 was a good place to start.

Although I stayed on Highway 50 for the most part, and it served as my guiding route, I also tried to stay headed directly west as much as possible. However, conditions sometimes forced me to be flexible. To catch a county road that ran parallel to Highway 50, I once walked south for half a day. On that particular stretch of 50, what little berm, or shoulder, existed was thick with weeds above my knees. With so many trucks on the road, I could not make it.

In the beginning, the weather was still warm. Wearing khaki shorts, I walked at a rate of about three miles per hour. I started out in New Balance 991s; then I switched to the 993s when that style was introduced. Over the course of my journey, I went through five pairs of running shoes. On my feet for twenty-five miles a day, I found that I could get about five hundred miles out of each pair. I kept every pair as a souvenir, and I still have them in a box today.

Though Carole and I did not know what the hell we were doing, our routine evolved as we went along. She drove ahead in our car and met up with me at our designated stopping points. We did not prearrange for each night’s stay. Because I never knew how far I would get, we kept in contact by cell phone. I might tell her to drive six miles ahead and wait for me; then it would be two hours before I made it. If there was a restaurant or a bar nearby, we stopped. At night, we found somewhere to stay.

—– More in book.