Today marks the start of Pops Across America, my 2,930-mile walk from my home in Fresno, California, to the State of Liberty. (I am known as “Pops” to my three remarkable grandchildren, and this project is aimed, in part, at making sure I am around to watch them grow and be there for them as they grow.). I’m not really sure how I came up with this idea, but I am excited to start.
I won’t physically be walking to the Statue of Liberty. I will be tracking my steps and plotting them on the route (see map). I don’t have any particular timetable to complete the journey. Google tells me if I walk an average of 3 miles per hour for 8 hours a day, this would take roughly 122 days of continuous walking. That isn’t going to happen. My calculations say that if I average 6 miles a day (I average about 5 now), I will reach the Statue of Liberty on my 70th birthday next fall. We will see.
The journey will take me through 12 states — California (where I live now), Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania (where I grew up), New Jersey and New York (my birth state).
The trip will be broken into 3 stages:
Stage 1: California to the Rockies (approximately 800 miles)
Stage 2: The Great Plains and Midwest (approximately 1,000 miles)
Stage 3: Eastbound to the Statue of Liberty (approximately 1,130 miles)
Along the way, I will be tracking my progress on this site as well as providing information on some of the places I will be “visiting” and offering reflections on some of the places I have actually visited.
Pops Across America 