Jenkins first married at age 19, but by the time he graduated from college in 1973, he and his wife had separated.
[1] Jenkins began his walk across America in Alfred, New York in October 1973.
He was accompanied by his dog, Cooper, a half Alaskan malamute that died in an accident with a water truck at The Farm in Tennessee.
Upon reaching the end of his southward trek in New Orleans, Louisiana, Jenkins found a new companion, Barbara Jo Pennell, who became his second wife and accompanied him on his walk west.
[3] In 2012, Jenkins returned home from a 2-year drive across America in a 1957 Chevy station wagon.