some possible paths for the walk

Here's an animated look at what I hope the walk will be like, as well as what I fear the walk might be like:

You saw, in the above animation, a route labelled "possible, but circuitous." Taking that route during the winter might not be a bad thing, and traveling along the West Coast would allow me to hit more than a few Buddhist temples along with all the other houses of worship, but what worries me about a U-shaped path is that it promises to take a long time.

I'd rather not spend more than two years on this walk; in fact, I'd like to have it done before I turn 40, which will be on August 31, 2009. That gives me fifteen months to cross the US. As discussed long ago (see FAQ, Question 8), it's theoretically possible to cross the country in 150-200 days if I average 20 miles a day, travel every single day, and follow a route that's about 3000-4000 miles in length. But realistically speaking, I can expect the walk to last longer than a year. Is fifteen months also too short? When we include the possibility of injury, fatigue, discussions that last more than a single day, etc., the timetable for the walk begins to stretch like Einsteinian taffy. I hope that I can, in fact, make it back home before my 40th birthday, but life doesn't come with guarantees, now, does it?

Perhaps it's enough just to come home in one piece, eh?


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