Woman walks from California to Maryland to raise money for 9
her surname step by step — trekking across the country since the beginning of march. why is she doing this? 47 michelle mackonochie has the story. “i’m going about 12 hours a day.” track 1 from the moment the sun comes up – jan walker is on the move. walker started her 27-hundred mile journey in oceanside california on march 1st — and only has a few miles left until her final destination – ocean city maryland. and it’s all for a good cause. walker works for he 9/11 national memorial trail alliance – which is dedicated to raising money to create a trail to connect all three crash sites from the september 11th attacks. when it’s completed, the trail will be about 13-hundred miles long — and will connect the pentagon memorial, the flight 93 memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania, and the national september 11 memorial in new york city. walker says when she was able to put a few things on hold – she knew she had to take the opportunity. “i just kind of wanted to see if i could do it and i’m not getting any younger so the time is now.” track 2 when it’s time to sleep — walker says she usually finds a hotel or bed and breakfast — but if that’s not an option — she’ll set up the tent or hammock that she carries — and camps out. a typical day – getting up in the morning – getting her gear sorted – and taping her feet to prevent blisters. walker then has some breakfast and is on her way. some of the scariest moments of her journey so far? “the petrifying moments have all been vehicles.” “you have to be on guard all the time – mentally it’s extremely tiring and when you’re tired mentally you’re tired physically.” track 3 but jan says for the most part — “everyone has been really good and really helpful and i’ve had nothing but great experiences with that.” track 4 there’s a lot to see across the u-s — and walker says among the most memorable stretches — was crossing the i-55 bridge in memphis over the mississippi. “another highlight was actually getting to go through tennessee my home state and walk right to my front door and my parents front door that was great.” track 5 walker says throughout her trip – she’s had really high highs – and really low lows – but the key is to keep your mind busy. “basically i’ve solved all the problems in the world and wrote about 400 books and those kind of things just to keep my mind because if your mind starts sinking down then you get so tired you can’t even move along.” “and how good is it going to feel when you finally get to ocean city – oh my gosh it is going to feel wonderful.” “to finish her 7 month long journey across the us jan says on saturday she’ll start here at the 9/11 firefighter memorial and then make her way over to the pier but jan says her trip won’t be officially over until she dips her feet into the atlantic ocean – in ocean city michelle mackonochie 47 abc.” walker says on saturday her journey will end but she hopes to complete another journey — the national memorial trail itself — when it’s finished — right now it’s about 70 percent complete. if you’d like to donate to the alliance — we have the link to do so on our website – that’s 47 abc dot com. federal investigators say a new
