CloserToHome—Walking From Brooklyn 2 Santa Barbara
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Hello!
On June 18th I set out from my old apartment in Red Hook, Brooklyn—the last place I felt truly at home—west for Santa Barbara, the place I hope to call home for a very long time.
Where
The walk will take eight to twelve months, cover more than 3,850 miles, and roughly follow this route (Part 1 and Part 2 , renders better on desktop than mobile). Here's a brief breakdown of it:
- [COMPLETED] June: Across the Brooklyn Bridge and along the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, then 100 miles west to link up with the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania
- [COMPLETED] June - July: The AT for 260 miles southwest, into Maryland, til it links up with the American Discovery Trail, the only trail which runs east to west across the entire country
- [COMPLETED] August - September: The ADT for 850 miles west to the Indiana border
- October: 116 miles of Indiana country roads to reach the home of my dear friends' Sarah and Alex (and their new baby Frankie!) in Indianapolis
- October - November: 300 miles of backroads across Indiana and southern Illinois to link back up with the ADT in St. Louis, Missouri
- November - December: Back on the ADT for 990 miles, bisecting Missouri and Kansas—with a pitstop in Kansas City to see birth and chosen family—then a bit of southern Colorado before heading south
- December - January: 268 miles walking away from the Rockies into New Mexican high desert, through Taos and into Santa Fe, mostly on empty two-lane roads
- January - March: 967 miles through reservations in New Mexico and Arizona, dropping down to Phoenix to avoid freezing at high altitudes, slinking between Joshua Tree and the Mojave, and approaching Santa Barbara from the pass between Los Padres and the Angeles National Forests
Why
This project began taking shape when I was a kid struggling mightily to feel at home in Kansas City. My New Yorker mother didn't mince words about feeling out of place in the Midwest, and my absent Yemeni father left me perennially wondering if I was supposed to be somewhere else. September 11th dialed that up, when suddenly my race—which I barely understood—became a scarlet letter to classmates I had formerly thought were friends.
Since college I've moved cities eight times. For six months here, or two years there, I'd find that feeling of being home, then I or my circumstances would change, and it would disappear. Throughout my 20s I thought I'd find belonging outside America, but eventually, I realized simply living in a different country didn't make me any less American.
Despite how ubiquitous our fears of displacement and suspicion of others are, I believe there are millions of clear-eyed Americans who still feel at home where they live for reasons both recognizable and benign (perhaps many of you reading this do). My plan is to find some of them. I'll get to know the country on foot while tracking down all sorts of people who feel at home right where they are, and are willing to explain why. These stories will form a book, called Closer to Home, that chronicles my own search for home and catalogues how Americans find it these days.
Follow along
I write short letters from the trail every five to ten days. To receive them, sign up on my website: www.christopherfiorello.com
For video updates, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @closertohomewalk.
Help me fund this trip
Now that I'm on the walk, I'm beginning to get a rough shape of how, where and when I spend money.
I walk in roughly eight day stretches, with roughly three day town pauses in between. During those pauses I restock my food supplies, wash my clothes and ideally my backpack, try frantically to catch up on life admin and writing, and buy or order needed gear. In town, I stay in hiker hostels, B&Bs, cheap hotels or in folks' guest rooms.
When I'm on the road I'll spend $100 in eight days if I'm living large. But on rest days I'll spend $300-500 cumulatively. The net result is about $1,100 - $1,600 a month in costs, not including subscriptions to essential things like map services and my satellite phone, flights during breaks, or the rent I'm having to pay to hold my place.
Organizer
Christopher Fiorello
Organizer
Santa Barbara, CA