Walking Across the Country

Posted by Jerry Lopper Sep 18, 2007

While some of us complain about having to walk 50 yards across a shopping mall parking lot, others voluntarily set off on 2,000 to 3,000 mile hikes across the USA. It's surprising how many people do this and the variety of reasons.

An Associated Press article of 9/16/07 indicates that former pro football player George Martin plans to walk from the George Washington Bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge. Martin is doing this to raise $10M for the heroic people who faced danger, but did their jobs in response to the tragedy of 9/11 and now face serious health issues.

Reading about Martin's quest caused me to reflect on an article I wrote about Phil Goddard and his cross country walk to raise money for cancer research in honor of his deceased wife. A quick search for cross country walkers turned up several more attempting that feat over the last year or so.

They include:

• Walkers for Peace, two teens walking from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to promote Peace.
• Steve Vaught, a man walking from California to New York to lose weight. Starting at a hefty 410 pounds, Vaught arrived in New York 110 pounds lighter.
• Crosswalk America, a group of ministers walking from Phoenix, Arizona to Washington, D.C. to strengthen their Christian movement.
• A 75 year old, retired engineer walking from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. to call attention to environmental issues. Remarkably, he traversed the U.S. twenty years earlier, too.

Some of us give $10 to a cause and pat ourselves on the back. These folks gave the better part of a year of their lives.