Day 25 – St. Louis to Weldon Spring, MO
Today was my first full day of walking in Missouri, bringing me through miles more of St. Louis sprawl before finally leading me across the Missouri River and onto the Katy Trail. I didn’t appreciate prior to departing how much of this trip, through these stages at least, would be defined by America’s great rivers, […]
Day 24 – St. Louis to… St. Louis
Cities are big, man. On paper, this is my shortest day of this walk, spanning just 8 miles from the St. Louis riverfront to University City, where Wash U is located. In reality, we’ll see what happens–I’ll be wandering a lot through Forest Park. It’s a lovely day for a stroll, though, and I’m excited […]
Day 23 – Waterloo, IL to St. Louis, Missouri
I saw the arch for a couple of hours before I finally made it there. As my walk returned to highway 3 after the rail town of Dupo, I ascended to an overpass and was immediately staring down downtown SLC. While it’s nice to get a glimpse of something so neat, it can also be […]
Day 22 – Red Bud to Waterloo, IL
The town of Waterloo is in mourning. From one side of town to the other, some three or four miles in all, half-masted flags and homages to Illinois State Patrol’s Nick Hopkins made the sense of loss palpable. “It’s really crazy,” a woman at Bootsie’s Coffee told me. “He was Waterloo born and raised, a […]
Day 21 – Chester to Red Bud, IL
Walking through this region, probably any region, can get monotonous. I understand the arguments for bicycles; they’d make it much easier to cruise through 10 miles of soybeans and corn unscathed, and on to the next interesting thing. There is something quite profound, I think, about the supremely slow-burn of a long-distance walk. For one, […]
Day 20 – Murphysboro to Chester, IL
I had two options for today, neither involving the ADT as a consequence of yesterday’s detour to Murphysboro. I could follow the highway, with pretty consistent traffic and good shoulder, all the way to Chester, some 31 miles, with no real towns along the way. Or, I could cobble together backroads and minor highways to […]
Day 19 – Giant City State Park to Murphysboro, IL
Yesterday’s leisurely afternoon in the Giant City lodge afforded me the opportunity to take a close look at the next few days and sort out some alternative plans. Originally, I had intended to complete the River-to-River Trail today, walking out to Grand Tower, but I scrapped that plan for a few reasons–the trail is just […]
Day 18 – Goreville to Giant City State Park, IL
It’s pretty much the lamest advice you can offer a person: go to bed and hopefully it’ll feel better in the morning. But here’s the thing: it’s true! Of all the things that long-distance walking has given me, it’s a healthy sense of admiration for my body’s ability to undo the damage I’ve done to […]
Days 15-17 – Shawneetown to Goreville, IL
The Wonder Bread truck driver is having a bad day. I’ve just walked into Goreville’s Dollar General on Thursday afternoon and Wonder dude is leaning over his hand truck, now freed of its glutinous burden, and working on unloading his own. “I mean, I’m not allowed to be on Facebook, but she’s friends with her […]
Day 14 – Wabash River to Shawneetown, IL
How do you photograph absence? As I walked around Shawneetown this afternoon, I found myself staring more at vacant lots and decrepit signs than I did most of what remains. I can–and did–snap pics of those, but what do those still images convey? A faded sign doesn’t just recall a shuttered restaurant; it evokes memories […]