Why would you walk 215 miles from Providence to New York? Amy Russo finds out

When the going gets tough, the tough get walking.

That's what Jonathon Stalls did in 2010 when he made a 242-day trek across the United States shouldering a 95-pound backpack.

"I was really personally going through a lot of really hard things," said Stalls, who lives in Denver, Colorado. "I was coming out as gay. It was a hard journey. ... There were a lot of things that I was trying to work through. I had a really hard couple months where I was trying to survive."

At the time of our interview, Stalls had just wrapped up an 8-mile walk on his 215-mile journey from Providence to New York, passing through New London, Connecticut.

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The trip, which began on Aug. 26, took two weeks, officially concluding on Thursday.

I spoke to Stalls while he was on the road to his destination, curious about how he experienced being a pedestrian in Providence. It was only weeks ago that Elmwood resident and avid community gardener Ka Xiong was fatally struck by a car blocks from her home and the plot of earth she tended.

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Her death added to the tally of the more than 3,000 pedestrians and cyclists who've been hit by cars in the city within the last decade.

Stalls, who had only just marked his first visit to Providence, witnessed firsthand the risks of walking on Broadway, where he said he noticed fencing around a construction site that was crowding out a pedestrian, forcing him into the street.

"I saw an older gentleman who had a significant limp walking in the traffic, getting beeped at by the semi truck that was about to run him over … barely getting past it, and then finally getting on the overpass," Stalls said.

Those are the exact sorts of dangers Stalls routinely exposes on his TikTok channel, aptly named "Pedestrian Dignity." There, an audience of more than 110,000 followers has been keeping tabs on scenes from his journey.

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That includes a neon orange "sidewalk closed" sign next to a crumbling walkway in Stamford, Connecticut. Yet there is evidently no other route for a pedestrian to take.

Down the road, Stalls reads another sign.

"Cross here — cross where?" a baffled Stalls asks.

An arrow directs pedestrians into four lanes of traffic.

Further down in Stalls' feed is video of a busy road with a long crosswalk and a light. Stalls points out that it's a hassle for anyone with mobility issues.

But these aren't just issues pointed out in the social media posts of advocates who are looking for them. They're presented in pop culture, too. I am reminded of the "Grace and Frankie" episode where the two elderly protagonists played by Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin aggressively campaign for a longer walk signal in a town near San Diego. Simply put: It wasn't enough time for a relatively slow- moving walker to get across safely.

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Stalls has completed his walk as part of an effort to promote his new book, "Walk: Slow Down, Wake Up, and Connect at 1-3 Miles Per Hour." Publisher North Atlantic Books describes it as "a transformative collection of essays on the power of walking to connect with ourselves, each other, and nature itself."

But it was another book that inspired Stalls to become a professional pedestrian: "A Walk Across America," written by Peter Jenkins, who in the 1970s answered his feelings of disillusionment with a walk from New York to Louisiana.

Stalls found the book on a 20-cent sale rack during his college days in Denver.

"I grabbed it right away, canceled all my classes for the next two days, read it, cried, ripped pages out and threw the book in the air," Stalls recalled. "I was a mess for two days."

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Eventually, he realized that travel on foot was just what the doctor ordered.

"Walking is my main form of medicine."

Stalls launched his walk with an event at RiffRaff bookstore in partnership with local advocacy group the Providence Streets Coalition. To learn more about Stalls' work and his book, check out his website, intrinsicpaths.com, or his publisher's site. The book is available from Penguin Random House and other booksellers, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Don't forget to check your local bookstores, too.

Providence Journal staff writer Amy Russo, a transplanted New Yorker, is looking for new ways to experience her adopted state. If you have suggestions for this column, email her at amrusso@providencejournal.com.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Why do you walk from Providence to New York City? Jonathon Stalls did