A Look Back By State

I visited fourteen states during my walk across the US. Here are some highlights from each one.

Washington: I got started, kept going, made it out eventually. Washington was fun because I was familiar with most of the places on the route.

Idaho: The first state I got through in a hurry. After three months in Washington, I walked through Idaho in two weeks.

Montana: Montana was a slog. Seven hundred miles, four months. Highlights included the Bob Marshall wilderness, where Lucas once hiked as a Boy Scout; visiting Lincoln, Montana, where Ted "Unabomber" Kaczyinski lived; and realizing how much of the United States, especially Montana, is empty spaces and really small towns, census-designated places, barely-populated places, and so on.

Wyoming: Colony, Wyoming, population zero as far as I could tell, but Jarrod bought me a t-shirt to commemorate it.

South Dakota: I walked through the area near Mount Rushmore, where Jackie and I spent a weekend on one of our first dates, way back in 1992, and I passed places that we visited back then.

Nebraska: There is a fast food chain called Runza that is only in Nebraska. I want to go to one. Also, I hit the halfway point of my walk near Wisner, Nebraska.

Iowa: I walked into Iowa by crossing the 3,000-foot Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge across the Missouri River. The rest went uneventfully.

Missouri: While I was walking virtually through Missouri, I was actually in Utah, where we took Arlo and visited five National Parks, all pretty spectacular. Utah is an amazing place.

Arkansas: I walked across the Saint Francis Sunken Lands, which were created by big earthquakes back in the 1880s. If all goes according to plan, we will visit the sunken lands this summer.

Tennessee: I only walked about 19 miles in Tennessee, the shortest distance I walked through any state. That included going right through downtown Memphis.

Mississippi: Near Tupelo, Mississippi, I crossed the Natchez Trace, a 440-mile trail from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. There is a parkway that runs along the Trace, and it is another place Jackie and I plan to visit.

Alabama: I passed through Selma, Alabama, and across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. That was cool.

Georgia: Georgia was quick, about two weeks through a corner of the state. The best thing about Georgia was that Florida came next, and Florida was the last state.

Florida: I took my only detour on my walk and went to Auburndale, Florida, my dad's birthplace and still home to some of his family. Also, in real life, I got hit by a van in a crosswalk, but I recovered, mostly, and I was able to keep going. And I made it to 7,000,000 steps.