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Aug 23, 2007

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." --G.K. Chesterton

Walking Across America

32 years ago Peter Jenkins began his first epic journey across the country. He started that trip as a disenchanted young man, so upset by war, politics, and the troubled state of race relations that he was ready to abandon America. An older friend urged him to give the country a closer look. So he began walking in October 1973, starting in Alfred, 300 miles northwest of Manhattan, accompanied by his dog, named Cooper. He finished his journey more than five years later, in January 1979 in Florence, Oregon, a much-changed man and something of a nationally recognized adventurer. As he walked, camped, and took odd jobs to earn money for the next leg, Mr. Jenkins lived briefly with some of the people he met and benefited from countless acts of generosity.