wanted: an intrepid chase car driver!

If you've joined the group "Kevin's Walk" on Facebook, you've seen that I've plotted out the route to Salt Lake City. The route requires about 40 days of walking, but if we add in the anticipated breaks (I've given myself periodic breaks), the number is closer to 50 or so days.

The route takes me out of Walla Walla and back into Oregon, where I'll be following my old faithful, I-84, for a goodly part of the journey. Once I hit Salt Lake City, however, I'll be switching to I-80, which runs eastward across the country and gets me close to one of my major destinations: Chicago.

But my journey on I-80 takes me into the verge of the Rockies and leads me through southern Wyoming. This promises to be an arduous trek: there is-- as many, many readers have warned me-- literally nothing along the way. True: it's not nothing if you're a biologist or geologist or a dedicated photographer, but from the practical stance of the long-distance walker, "nothing" refers to the lack of towns at which a weary traveler might seek rest and the replenishment of his supplies.

It will be nearly impossible to survive this portion of the walk without some sort of help, either from passersby or from a committed chase car driver. I need to plot out the exact length of the I-80 jaunt, but any potential chase car driver should know that it's going to mean a long distance and a long time. A very rough plot on Google Earth shows the stretch to be more than 400 miles. If I average about 15 miles per day, we're talking about a time commitment of at least 27 days. The actual length of the trip will be closer to 430 miles, I think, so we're really looking at a minimum of 30 days-- a whole calendar month to cross the great expanse.

I keep getting comments from people about "why not bike the distance?", but I determined long ago that I didn't want to do this. One reason is admittedly ego-related: the fraternity of trans-America walkers is much smaller than that of trans-America bikers who are-- no offense-- a dime a dozen these days. Once you adjust your mind to the scale of long-distance travel, you quickly see that biking across the country is no big shakes. A second reason I haven't wanted to bike across the country is that I'd have to have a very good bike, and would need to be able to maintain it. A big guy like me will put a lot of strain on any bike, no matter how well-made it is. I'd be stopping for repairs two or three times per state. So No, thanks to all you good folks who've suggested biking. I know you've been thinking about my knees, but my knees are a lot better; I've been ready to walk for months.

So I'll be crossing Wyoming on foot, just as I've done to get to Walla Walla, WA, and just as I'll do to get from Walla Walla to Salt Lake City.

After Wyoming, things look substantially easier. Nebraska has its open spaces, but it's got more towns along the western portion of I-80 than Wyoming does along its western portion of I-80.

Think you can chase-car me through Wyoming? Know somebody who might be able to do such a thing? Give me a comment, send me an email, TALK TO ME!

ADDENDUM: I should mention that another major problem with walking through nothing is that I can't recharge my laptop or my BlackBerry by plugging cords into a buffalo's butt. A chase car driver would have to help me out with that issue, somehow.


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