life on the road

Since I'm getting (re)organized, I thought I'd also make a new page for all the journals I kept while on my eight walking trips. These pilgrimage experiences, over eight years starting in 2000, were eye(and spirit)-opening and very influential in my understanding and following of Jesus.

There are seven earlier journals, with thoughts (and format) that are rather unpolished. But they give a good idea of my feelings and experience at the beginning. The first one is the easiest to read, probably. The second gives the most detailed description of day-to-day life on the road, though what it was to become was still being discovered. These are RTF files, which can be previewed and downloaded via the links below:

May-June 2000 (Appalachian Trail to the Abbey)

July-September 2000 (Abbey to Chicago, St. Louis, Florida)

October 2000-February 2001 (winter study notes)

On Pilgrimage (excerpt of my early "pilgrim" theologizing)

March-September 2001 (Florida to Denver and back)

October-December 2001 (to the Florida Keys)

April-July 2002 (return from Florida to Detroit, Chicago)

April-September 2003 (Chicago to New York City and back)

I didn't walk in the summer of 2004 (having just met Heather...). And in the following years, I was able to post journal entries from the road, in libraries along the way. Those entries begin here:

June-July 2005 (from Akron, OH, to Illinois)

June-July 2006 (in Virginia, with a partner)

July-October 2007 (Boston to Florida, with Heather)

These entries can also be found using these tags, which will display twenty entries at a time, but in the usual blog reverse-chronological order: 2005 pilgrimage, 2006 pilgrimage, 2007 pilgrimage