I edited some footage together in a 5 minute video. I’m using windows movie maker, so there is no voice over, or any editing done with the sound.

There is footage in it that I plan to use in the movie, so after the video gets about 100-200 views I’m going to pull it off the internet. If you are able to watch the video, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise you’ll have to wait for the whole thing to come out.

Enjoy!

update: I took the video off to save some footage for the final product. Hopefully anyone who wanted to see it did already. The only other way to see it is if you add me as a friend on youtube.

About a week after I started my walk from Philadelphia westward I got a call from my mom saying that my grandmother was in the hospital. Sleep medication that she had been taking wasn’t filtering out of her system fast enough, which put her in a coma. She awoke a few days later, but from then on, was unable to breathe on her own.

Weeks go by and her condition slowly gets better until last week in St Louis when my mom called and said that my grandmother would die any day. Knowing that the closest airport for many days walking was in St Louis, I decided to fly home to see her in the hospital. She passed away early on Tuesday morning.

I had said early on that the only reason why I would stop walking, besides serious injury, is because of a funeral, and after walking for 2 months straight I needed a short break. After seeing new stuff, new places, and new people every day it is weird to come back home where everything is so familiar. I am enjoying it, the weather is perfect everyday, sunny in the 70s, ideal for walking. Part of me can’t wait to get back out there.

I will be flying back to St Louis sometime next week, and I will continue walking from there. In the meantime, I am trying to cut a short video from some of the footage I have taken while on my walk. Check back for updates because I may make it exclusive to this site.

After two months, and 1,000 miles on foot, I am now across the Mississippi River, the main divide between the East and the West. I’m not yet halfway, but I should be there within 2 weeks.

I’m currently in St Louis, Missouri for the first time since I was born over 22 years ago. I am going to visit the arch and the hospital where my life began after a few days of rest at the home of friends of my parents. Illinois was more exciting when I first entered and had people to take care of me. My highlights include giving a talk to the entire 7th grade class at the junior high in Casey, Illinois. I went to the school expecting to talk to one class, but instead spoke to more than 60 kids. It was basically just a question and answer session, I got lots of interesting questions. My favorite being, “Are you Christian?”

Besides that experience the most fun I had in Illinois was checking pregnancy tests I found on the side of the road, all negative, and pooping in a corn field. I hadn’t eaten any corn but still found some in my stools.

Traveling will be more difficult now as I actually have to navigate some. Before getting into Missouri I had walked on route 40 since Ohio. I plan to walk on old route 66 when possible and then resort to other highways when 66 turns to interstate. More difficult days lay ahead, but luckily I shouldn’t experience as much extreme heat as the season changes to fall.

I have no way of checking stats for how many people are actually reading my entries, so if you are reading this, leave a comment, so that all my recent comments aren’t from porn sites, and boob enhancing pills.

It’s hard to say when I’ll have internet access again. See you in Oklahoma?