But Americans on literary excursions into their country’s landscape and soul, such as Jack Kerouac, William Least Heat-Moon and John Steinbeck, have tended to choose a conveyance besides their feet. Paul Salopek, another American journalist, is ten years into a 24,000-mile walk around the globe. One recalls more readily such British walker-writers as Patrick Leigh Fermor, Bruce Chatwin, Robert Macfarlane or Rory Stewart. Mr King’s project-“giving in to the landscape”, he calls it-is not really an American thing. “Be not conformed to this world,” the teacher said, quoting Romans, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It was not the only moment Mr King was astonished to find his walk’s aim not just affirmed but elevated. The children rewarded him by singing hymns about death and the afterlife-“My weary feet will cease to roam/Someday I’m coming home”-and the teacher explained the tenets of the Mennonite faith. He watched the game, among pupils at the Farmersville Mennonite School, then, at the prompting of their teacher, told them about his journey. Walking through Amish country in Pennsylvania he heard a bat thwack a softball and spotted a girl in a dress and baseball mitt field the fly ball. Mr King planned his route carefully, arranging places to sleep and local mavens to consult.
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