Reservation for one

This morning I woke up at 5 (my time) and went down to the lobby to check the web. I ate some breakfast, relooked at the route for the day, and had some more breakfast. Once we were ready to leave this was the view from the hotel parking lot.

We got on route and started at 8 am sharp. The route we had chosen was 27 miles and lead to the turn around the northern part of Joshua Tree National Park. I felt good even though my right leg was still acting up. I was just walking along minding my business, when out of nowhere.....an Indian reservation check point. Carl, Eric and Steve drove up to the booth, as I walked in, to ask permission to enter. DENIED!?! Ok now what. Plan b. We went to the local library and researched the alternate route. Which turned out to be the original one I found last night. Easy enough right. WRONG!!! Here is the road I ended up on.....

What we knew about it was, it went east along route 10 and it may connect to some place we were going. The guys left me, to head to where we thought this may go, because the rental couldn't make it and I was off. About 200 yards in the road became paved and I was pretty proud that I knew this would work out. As I walked I could see a shimmer in the distance. No, couldn't be, not that soon. IT WAS!! The crew had found a way to get to me. It was good to share the longest, most boring road to date with them. We successfully made it to the side of the highway we wanted to be on and continued.

There weren't to many planned excursions on this trip, Winkie's, Salvation Mountain, and Giant Dinosaurs.

Yes guys and gals those are the same Dinos that are in Pee Wee's Big Adventure Check it out


So I walked a little bit more before my legs couldn't do it. I fell a little short of the goal I set for myself but.

Tomorrow we get our first look at Joshua Tree and we are all pretty excited for that.

Day 7 total: 21.3
Jesse Walks America total: 125.2
Poll total: 21.3

Salvation at last

Today was our day off, so I slept till 6:30. I woke early to talk to Kelly on Facebook. After a little while I went back to bed for about 45 minutes. The boys slept in till 8 or 8:30, I think.

We left the hotel heading to Niland, CA home to Salvation Mountain. When we pulled down Main St., Carl thought he recognized this building from Werner Herzog's "The Wild Blue Yonder".

Steve and Eric also believed it was the place so we stopped to check it out. Turns out they were right, it was the place. *bonus movie location

We soon came to the destination

We all hurried out of the car. Everyone carrying some kind of recording device. Here are the first few shots.

We started walking around the mountain and heard Leonard Knights voice coming from inside. He was giving a tour to a group so we tagged along.

This is the view that Emile Hersh and Kristen Stewart had, when they were inside with Leonard, in "Into The Wild".

Once outside Mr. Knight continued to talk to the group. He was also gracious enough to take a quick picture with yours truly.

After the other people scattered around we were able to speak with Leonard more one-on-one. He is a very passionate man that my words couldn't begin to do justice. Talking to him was amazing. We have everything recorded on every format possible. When I told him I was walking across the country raising money for cancer he actually reached in his pocket to give me a donation. This is a man who basically lives on donations from tourists and he wanted to give that money to my cause. If everyone in the world had a heart like Mr. Knight it would definitely be a better place.

After talking for a bit, the crowd had left and Leonard mentioned going to town for coffee. Not wanting to stand in the way of a coffee run, I gave him a "Jesse Walks America" shirt and we said our thanks and good-byes.

Today's trip was more then I could have imagined. It will be a long time before I forget my trip to Salvation Mountain if ever. Before we left I wrote in the guest book, " Thank you Mr. Knight for allowing us into your home. It has been an eye opening experience. God speed. - Jesse "

Day 6 total: 0 miles (a heart and head full of memories)
Jesse Walks America total: 103.9

Walk 100 miles and win a Slushie

Today started for me at 4:30 am here in California. I placed a call to JR and Sharon on a radio station back home, FUN 107. I talked to them for a few minutes giving them a quick update. Thanks guys. Talk to you again soon.

We got to route a little earlier today and I was walking by 7:45. Today I had the goal off 21 miles to reach 100 total. My shin felt okay but it was going to be a long day. As I walked, I started climbing and climbing. It felt like the whole day was spent walking up hill.

I told the team that I would be taking longer breaks today to try and save my shin. At around noon and 14 miles I found a nice little tree to take a nap under. When I woke up I knew I was going to reach my goal.

At the 18 mile mark I meet up with the team. I told them how my left shin was feeling like my right one and I was hoping there wasn't much more up. WRONG ! As I was walking on the right side of the road, preparing for a right turn up ahead, I was hit be something. It hit me in the backpack with enough force to knock me forward. What was it? Some "tough guys" driving by thought it would be funny to throw a Slushie at me. Once I spun around and realized what had hit me and spun around again the truck was in the distance. The flavor of Hater-aid was Grape.

Right after, I blogged quickly on Twitter about it and my new friend BJ, who is finishing his cross country walk, text me. He wanted me to know that "Bad experiences turn into good stories later." Also he hit 100 miles left in his walk within 15 minutes of me hitting 100 miles walked.

I continued UP hill and found the guys once again. After I shared my story, this was the view we had.

So I've walked 100 miles in 5 days and my shins feel it. With the day done, we headed to Palm Desert and saw this wind field that went on for miles.

Tomorrow we are taking the day off from walking so I can heal up a bit. We are going to drive down to Niland, CA to Salvation Mountain. I've wanted to go there and meet Leonard Knight since seeing Into The Wild. I'm really excited.



Day 5 total: 24.7
Jesse Walks America total: 103.9


why did the chicken cross the county?

THIS IS MY 43rd POST. HA!

Viva las split shift

Well I woke up with the blister and the shin still bugging me. We had a little meeting to decide if we were going to walk or take the day off. The decision: Walk till you can't walk.

We hit the route (Route 66) a little later, because of my indecisiveness. At 8:20 I was on my way east. I walked for about 8 miles before I had to call it quits. We ended at this cool little motel called the Wigwam Motel.

Once we got back to the hotel it was time to relax. I grabbed some ice for my shin, while Carl and Eric were working on "doc" stuff. Steve took the opportunity to go for, of all things....a walk. He did take some interesting pictures though and once I learn how to transfer and size them I'll be putting some up.

Around 1:30 I was ready to get back out there. We pulled up to the Wigwam Hotel and started at 2:20. We went through some "interesting" areas, let's just say the van was never out of my sight. But of course it was just us being overprotective. I ended at just after 4 with 6.2 more miles logged, so with an "ify" shin I covered 14.2 miles.

For all those in the New Bedford area, I will be calling FUN 107 at 7:30am your time. So if you're up. I'll try to give more heads up next time.

Also some time tomorrow I will hit my 100th mile walked and my friend BJ Hill will be hitting 100 miles left on his trek across the country. So at some time two cross-country walkers will be 100 miles from their respective coasts. I think it's cool. HAHA

Before I get to the totals I have a personal note. Today my girlfriend, Kelly, was supposed to leave for Las Vegas with friends. Unfortunately she got sick Saturday and was unable to go. Sorry baby, there will be other times xoxo. So if you all don't mind I'd like to bring a little Vegas to her. Griswold style.



Day 4 total: 14.7
Jesse Walks America: We have a slight problem with the number. When we hit the Wigwam there was a sign that said, "Santa Monica 77 miles". If that's true then the total is 83. We'll figure it out.

*tally from my dad at 9:44 pm E.S.T. is 79.2 so that is the total we are using. I have to walk 20.8 miles tomorrow to reach the 100 mile marker.

Sorry everyone.

I wrote a blog last night and it didn't save or upload. Not sure why, but I unfortunately don't have the time to rewrite it this morning. So tonight I'll write both day 3 and day 4 blogs.
Okay I'm off to the walk.

Rancho Cu-cu-cachoo. I am the walker.

Well, I felt good when I woke up this morning and we got rolling right on time. We decided that I was going to walk without the SWITCHBACK HYBRID today and just carry a small backpack. I thought I had a good pace going, but when I got the first stats from my dad I was a little disappointed. 3.4 miles per hour is slower than I needed to go to hit the goal of 35 miles on the day.

I continued down historic Route 66 and had a view of Mt. Baldy all day long.

My mom called into one of the local radio stations. They mentioned the "walk" and played her request, "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins. Soon after it aired, a truck drove by beeping and waving. That was the first person to beep at me without cursing and that felt good.

I walked through a couple of neat towns today:

San Dimas of "Bill & Ted's" fame. EXCELLENT !


Then there was, Rancho Cucamonga. Besides the cool name, our "aunt-in -law", Alison, lives there and she came out to meet us with her daughter, Leah. We spent a few minutes catching up and talking "shop". They brought me a California baseball cap and a Rancho t-shirt. It was really nice to see them and thanks for the stuff guys.

Alison also warned of us something called the Santa Ana winds. These are no joke people. The gust were up to 40 mph with a steady blowing of 10-25. I thought I was gonna blow over a couple times. Not very easy to walk in at all.

I didn't get the 35 miles in, but I did get a blister and shin-splints. So I guess it evened out. NO! Any way we ended the day around the same time as always and headed in. Tomorrows a new day.

Before I forget let me thank a few individuals for helping my get to where I am. Roberta, Nancy, Ted, and Uncle Frank.

Day 3 total: 22.6
Jesse Walks America total: 63.9ish (-26.1 for my projection) Chalk it up to learning my limits on the job I guess.

Mountains and all the single ladies

Today started out foggy both outside and in my head. Yesterday hit me hard, but with words of encouragement from family and friends, today was a new day.

We got out to the starting point around 7:30 and started organizing the Baby Jogger . I took the first step today at 8:00am right from where I left off yesterday. Today's walk lead us through Pasadena and man was it beautiful. The whole day of walking this was the view off to my left...

Those mountains and the sun shining made today feel easier then yesterday. Was it? Not really, but I walked 23.3 miles which is about 5 miles more then day 1 in the same amount of time. So tomorrow I'm going to try to top that.

Tonight on WPRI Channel 12, they ran our departure from T.F. Green, on Street Stories with Walt Buteau.

Thanks again Walt and John for helping get the word out about our cause.

From the "songs in my Ipod" file:
Before I left, the song, "Single Ladies" by Beyonce became a favorite of mine. Not so much the song alone, as the song with this video. And my version of the dance that cracks Kelly up. Watch this little girl's version. Mine will be much, much later.


People of California have seen me dancing while walking and it was probably to this song. Stop laughing Kelly.

2 days down. Bring on # 3, I'm ready.