Ten years ago, Joe Hurley passed through Northeast Pennsylvania while in the midst of a full-blown walkabout.
A decade later, he’s coming back to revisit the miles of asphalt he once covered.
Mr. Hurley of New Milford, Connecticut, will be in the area beginning later this week to give a series of presentations promoting his book, “Ten Million Steps on Route 6: A fresh look at America & Americans from Cape Cod to California.”
Now in its second edition, the book recounts Mr. Hurley’s 2004 cross-country walk along Route 6, the longest continuous highway in the United States, and features pictures by Mr. Hurley’s travel companion, photographer Travis Lindhorst.
The walk began in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and concluded in Long Beach, California, where Route 6 itself ended until California officials cut it by a few hundred miles during the 1960s. (Its current end point is Bishop, Calif.)
“It took nine months to do (the walk). It was a tight schedule. ... If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have even tried it,” Mr. Hurley said during a recent phone conversation.
Library talks
For his current tour, Mr. Hurley is giving a series of library presentations in which he loans attendees copies of the book, then takes them on a virtual road trip. He’ll appear at the Carbondale Public Library Saturday at 2 p.m., Tunkhannock Public Library Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 p.m., Library Express at the Mall at Steamtown Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 6:30 p.m., and Towanda Public Library Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6:30 p.m.
Mr. Hurley’s adventures began when he was still a reporter at The News-Times in Danbury, Connecticut. He was looking at a map of Connecticut one day when he realized he and others from the eastern part of the state knew precious little about the western side.
“And I thought that was sad. Because it’s not that big of a state,” Mr. Hurley said.
After realizing Route 6 crossed the state, he convinced his editors to let him walk it and write about his experiences. It turned out to be the most popular series the paper ran that year, he said.
After finishing the walk, he discovered Route 6 actually runs through the nation from the east to west coasts.
“I was shocked,” he said. “It was just this tiny little road.”
Mr. Hurley embarked on his cross-country walkathon with Mr. Lindhorst, who traveled by car. Mr. Hurley covered up to 20 miles per day, five days a week. Mr. Lindhorst would drop him off in the morning and pick him up in the evening.
Likes NEPA
Mr. Hurley found plenty to like during his trek through NEPA, from the rolling hills to the Susquehanna River. And the people he encountered here were as friendly as the ones he later encountered in the Midwest, with several motorists stopping their cars to see if he needed help or a lift.
“I think that friendliness has more to do with the size of the community,” Mr. Hurley said.
He made time to visit several popular tourist sites that ended up in the book, including the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour and Steamtown National Historic Site.
Already, Mr. Hurley has conducted programs in Wellsboro and Wyalusing, and in the process is becoming reacquainted with the region’s charms.
“I had kind of forgotten how pretty it is,” he said. “I thought, ‘Damn, they have better leaves here than we (in New England) do.’ You guys have prettier reds.”
Of all the places Mr. Hurley visited on his walk, the haunting beauty of Death Valley, California, probably made the biggest impression.
“When we came back, Death Valley kind of stayed with me,” he said. “Just the quietness, the solitude of it. So quiet it’s like you’re going to float off the face of the earth.”
He also particularly enjoyed Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, and Minden, Nebraska’s Pioneer Village, home to a vast treasure trove of vintage Americana.
Through its artifacts, Pioneer Village shows how American life has evolved since the country’s founding. And, as it happened, it was Mr. Hurley’s intent upon setting off on his walk to see if America had changed much since his youth.
By the end of his journey, he concluded that life had become more fast-paced in the big population centers, yet not so much in the small towns of the Midwest and NEPA.
“In Pennsylvania and the Midwest, life is pretty much like it was in the 1950s,” Mr. Hurley said. “There are parts of this country that don’t seem to have changed much over the last half century.”
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com,
@jmcauliffeTT on Twitter
If you go
Who: Author Joe Hurley
What: Presentation on his book, “Ten Million Steps on Route 6: A fresh look at America & Americans from Cape Cod to California”
Where and When: Carbondale Public Library, Saturday, 2 p.m.; Tunkhannock Public Library, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 6:30 p.m.; Library Express at the Mall at Steamtown, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 6:30 p.m.; and Towanda Public Library Thursday, Nov. 6, 6:30 p.m.
Details: The book features photographs by Travis Lindhorst and was published by Arkett Publishing. It can be purchased for $29.95 at route6walk.com.
