While on his journey of self-discovery, he engaged himself in others' lives, lost his best friend, experienced a religious conversion, and courted a new wife, Barbara Jenkins (Pennell).

Thus, Jenkins decided that despite his dislike of his native land, he would meet its citizens by walking from his college town of Alfred to the Gulf of Mexico before continuing across the United States.

On occasion, he lived with these samaritans for considerable lengths of time; his stay with the African-American family in Murphy, NC, lasted several months.

His route takes him into the American South, a region reputed for racial and social prejudice; because he is an outsider, this makes him apprehensive.

[12] His travels on his personal odyssey added to the tension, whether nearly dying of influenza in an Appalachian Trail shelter,[13] being threatened by prejudiced lawmen or rednecks,[5] or menaced by wide trucks on a narrow bridge.

[17] Jenkins began writing A Walk Across America in Winter, 1976 while on a ranch in the Rocky Mountains; he completed the book in Ouray, Colorado in 1978.

[18] Published in 1979, A Walk Across America was into its sixth edition within a year, as it spent three months on the New York Times bestseller list.