![](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads6\/tumblr_o9oca0tvHY1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
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He\u2019s a trip monk! He’s a trip monk!
\nBen Hohenstatt: If you saw a man with a shaved head in orange robes in the Illinois Valley Thursday that wasn\u2019t an oddly dressed flagger.
\nA walking journey from New York to San Francisco took Bhaktimarga Swami \u201cThe Walking Monk\u201d, a Hare Krishna monk originally from Canada, through Ottawa, Peru and La Salle Friday.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been to Chicago, but I\u2019ve never been here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve met a lot of nice people\u2026There\u2019s a lot of sweet people\u2026People in the Midwest carry some good values\u201d
\nIn the past, he has crossed Canada four times and walked across Guyana, Ireland, Israel, the Fiji islands and Trinidad and featured in documentaries.
\nSwami said this walk was to promote physical and spiritual health as well as to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bhaktiredanta Swami Prabhupreda incorporating the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
\n\u201cThe walk is to encourage people to have a workout and a work-in,\u201d the 63-year-old monk said.
\nAround 11 a.m. Thursday, he stopped to eat mangoes and cherries in Pulaski Park in La Salle. Swami said his day\u2019s walk began in Ottawa around 5 a.m.
\nDespite covering dozens of miles a day in weather that is \u201calmost never perfect\u201d, encountering bears and schlepping through the Appalachians and downtown Gary, Ind., Swami said sometimes it can be tough to pause his journey.
\n\u201cIt gets to the point sometimes where it\u2019s hard to stop,\u201d he said.
\nSwami said he would follow U.S. 6 toward Peru before continuing west toward Davenport, Iowa, and he will be excited to continue westward and cross the Mississippi River.
\n\u201cI might swim it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see if I can swim it.\u201d
\nHe said he thinks he will be able to make it to the middle of Nebraska before other commitments will cause him to put his walk on hold before being resumed next year.
\n\u201cNext year, I\u2019m hoping to finish walking to San Francisco
\nSwami said during his cross-country trek he expects to wear out about four pairs of shoes and several robes, which become faded from sunlight.
\nWhile marathon walking, he said he encounters people, wildlife and all manner of weather and tries to engage with his surroundings.
\nHowever, the rhythm and repetition of walking also makes it easy to get lost in thought.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s an everyday experience,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are very much present, but you\u2019re also someplace else; it\u2019s a great time to dream. Your feet are on the ground, and you\u2019re head definitely isn\u2019t in the clouds.\u201d
\nSource: http:\/\/goo.gl\/JmeeJH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![](\"http:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/acb3955da1d208d09eac96342e61417f\/tumblr_o9oca0tvHY1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBen Hohenstatt: If you saw a man with a shaved head in orange robes in the Illinois Valley Thursday that wasn’t an oddly dressed flagger.
\nA walking journey from New York to San Francisco took Bhaktimarga Swami “The Walking Monk”, a Hare Krishna monk originally from Canada, through Ottawa, Peru and La Salle Friday.
\n“I’ve been to Chicago, but I’ve never been here,” he said. “We’ve met a lot of nice people…There’s a lot of sweet people…People in the Midwest carry some good values”
\nIn the past, he has crossed Canada four times and walked across Guyana, Ireland, Israel, the Fiji islands and Trinidad and featured in documentaries.
\nSwami said this walk was to promote physical and spiritual health as well as to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bhaktiredanta Swami Prabhupreda incorporating the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
\n“The walk is to encourage people to have a workout and a work-in,” the 63-year-old monk said.
\nAround 11 a.m. Thursday, he stopped to eat mangoes and cherries in Pulaski Park in La Salle. Swami said his day’s walk began in Ottawa around 5 a.m.
\nDespite covering dozens of miles a day in weather that is “almost never perfect”, encountering bears and schlepping through the Appalachians and downtown Gary, Ind., Swami said sometimes it can be tough to pause his journey.
\n“It gets to the point sometimes where it’s hard to stop,” he said.
\nSwami said he would follow U.S. 6 toward Peru before continuing west toward Davenport, Iowa, and he will be excited to continue westward and cross the Mississippi River.
\n“I might swim it,” he said. “We’ll see if I can swim it.”
\nHe said he thinks he will be able to make it to the middle of Nebraska before other commitments will cause him to put his walk on hold before being resumed next year.
\n“Next year, I’m hoping to finish walking to San Francisco
\nSwami said during his cross-country trek he expects to wear out about four pairs of shoes and several robes, which become faded from sunlight.
\nWhile marathon walking, he said he encounters people, wildlife and all manner of weather and tries to engage with his surroundings.
\nHowever, the rhythm and repetition of walking also makes it easy to get lost in thought.
\n“It’s an everyday experience,” he said. “You are very much present, but you’re also someplace else; it’s a great time to dream. Your feet are on the ground, and you’re head definitely isn’t in the clouds.”
\nSource: http:\/\/goo.gl\/JmeeJH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38683,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079\/revisions\/38683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}