Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range coaching podcast.
I'm Ranger, Certified Holistic Success Coach, and in this podcast, I'm breaking down the
journey that entrepreneurs face as they start their organization, find solutions to the
roadblocks in their way, and create an impact that lasts.
So if you're an entrepreneur, non-profit leader, or purpose-driven community member that wants
to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person behind the mission,
then this podcast is for you.
I know you're just as eager to get started as I am, so let's jump right in.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everyone, and welcome to a special edition
of the Within Range coaching podcast.
I've been wanting to do one of these for a while now, but I haven't really had the chance
and haven't really lined up schedules with any friends in order to do it, but finally
made it happen.
And today, we are going to be doing a little bit of a walk update.
I think I'm about 36, 37 days in.
Let me double check.
Yeah, today is day 38, actually, of the walk.
And I'm joined today by one of my very good friends from college, Mr. Steven Konsefid.
Steven and I met while we were working at the Avian facility in Davis.
So we like birds, we like chickens, and just kind of got to know each other, ended up joining
the same fraternity, and have been friends, brothers, and besties ever since.
So I'm excited to chat with Steven.
Thanks for hanging out with me.
Oh my gosh, thank you for having me.
I'm so excited.
I'm so nervous and so many emotions, but I'm glad to be here.
Hell yeah, I love to hear it.
But yeah, no, just going to kind of have Steven.
It's kind of like a weird flip that I've interviewed what, like 10, 12 people for the podcast so
far and now I'm kind of being interviewed.
So this is Steven's start of slowly hijacking my podcast for next week.
Then Steven Konsefid.
I mean.
Then range Konsefid.
Awesome.
But yeah, no, it's so.
Steven across the United States.
You're just badly photoshopping yourself onto photos from different states.
I love it.
But yeah, no, so I know Steven has some questions from some friends, listeners, I don't know,
random people on the internet, so I'll just kind of let him take it away.
All right.
So first I think we're all curious where exactly in the world are you right now?
Where in the world is Ranger?
It's like where's Waldo?
But I am currently in Tupelo, Mississippi.
It is the birthplace of Elvis, which I thought was pretty cool.
I'm here for a couple of rest days.
I walked into town yesterday.
Yesterday was actually pretty rough.
I got dropped off a little bit later than I would have liked to my starting point, which
whatever my host family, they had to drop off their kids.
It was fine.
It is what it is, right?
But since I started a little bit later, I didn't get into town until after sunset.
So I was having a walk in town in the dark with barely any sidewalks.
I didn't get checked in until like 815, 830 ish at night.
So that was pretty rough.
And today and tomorrow are zero days.
So at least I get a little bit of a rest before jumping back into it.
What does that mean?
Zero days?
Zero days means zero miles walked.
Okay.
It's just my fancy way of saying a rest day.
So I feel cooler than I actually am.
Well, about it.
You said that this is the birthplace of Elvis is is below.
That's where you said you're at, right?
Yes.
Is it just like Elvis is vomited all over the city or what?
Dude, I have no idea.
So I'm actually kind of on the outskirts of town.
I think I'm just inside Tupelo limits.
I'm at some Marriott property, I think town place, Fairfield, a fairfield in Tupelo.
And it looks like we're kind of, let's see.
I know that there is like, or there are museums and this and that, but I'm trying to see if
it can show me.
Oh, yeah, I'm like, I'm like six miles away from his actual birthplace, from the actual
town.
It's like I'm just inside city limits, but pretty far from it.
So, but I thought that the hotel would have more Elvis memorabilia, but I didn't see anything
that said that I'm sure in downtown area.
If I make my way down there tomorrow would have more of it, but over here, there's not
a whole lot.
Yeah, hopefully you'll be able to experience some of the the press sling phenomena that
shook the world.
Yeah.
Well, that's a hard thing too about a lot of the walk is that I mean, there's a zoo in
town, there's a battlefield, there are museums, there's a sonic drive in.
So there's just like a lot of things that are all throughout the town that I'm passing
through that I'm not actually able to even really do a lot in our experience, you know,
it's kind of hard to get around because even that what Elvis's birthplace that would take
me what two at least two hours to walk over there and then to walk back and yeah, even
for recreational, you're choosing to walk.
It depends.
The hard thing with like, you know, ubering like that's always an option.
It just gets very expensive very fast.
When I was in Columbia, I ubered around a little bit.
I got ubered to in front, why that's where my first main incident with my my cart happened
where I had to get ubered from just outside of town to the bike shop.
Then I walked the wrong way.
So then I had to get ubered from wherever I was to my hotel room.
And then from there to groceries back to the thing back to the new station.
So I spent like almost 150, 200 bucks in Ubers that weekend.
Oh, yeah.
So it just gets very pricey, very in just runs through the budget, you know, which my
budget that I had when I started, it's been kind of thrown out the window for multiple
reasons.
But yeah, so to your long story short, if I can walk somewhere, I will if it's, you know,
under an hour for the most part.
But it's also just like days that I the zero days.
It's also rest actually getting some rest.
Route planning takes up a lot of time.
Writing posts takes a lot of time.
So it's not like, oh, zero day, I don't have anything to worry about.
There's almost more to think about on a rest day than a normal day.
Yeah.
So you just said that if it's within an hour, you're okay to walk there as your perspective
on I guess just walking in general changed because for me, if I was like, oh, it's just
an hour away, we're going to walk.
I would have been by I'm going to take my Uber and I will see you guys there.
Yeah.
So I don't know.
I had this conversation with one of my other buddies, Bryant, one day, but all I've really
solidified since starting the walk is that I really don't like walking places.
Like, I don't.
It's not something I don't inherently enjoy the act of walking.
I mean, even earlier, there was a, there's a, what is it?
A Chipotle.
That's about 45 minutes away walking wise.
And I just got it like delivered.
Like an extra 15 bucks because, you know, the delivery fee, the increase in price or
whatever.
But I got food for today and for tomorrow just because I got massive burritos.
But again, the hard thing there is that it just takes up time that I could have been
using writing posts or getting ready for coaching calls or X, Y and Z.
So it's, I guess the answer to your question on that also kind of depends on what it's
for, but to answer the question of, has it changed my perspective of walking?
If I had the option, if I had access to a car easily in wherever I am, I would 100%
just be driving around everywhere.
Even when I was with Julie a while ago, it was like, what, there was something like half
a mile away and I'm like, yeah, no, let's just drive.
I'm like, I don't want to walk that far right now.
Cause it just takes forever.
So for someone who doesn't, or I guess doesn't enjoy walking, how do you, what is your get
ready with me like in the morning when you're like, okay, it's time to get up.
Let me go do this again.
Yeah.
Do this thing that I don't necessarily enjoy and pull myself out of bed and go do the work.
So I mean, it depends on what kind of situation I'm in for sleeping.
If I am, so I mean, like Friday, I'm going to be taking off from the hotel room and going
to a campground.
So it all does start the night before.
So I'm going to make sure all of my equipment's packed properly, that everything is ready
to go.
I lay out clothes for myself.
Typically I kind of just wear what I sleep in to for walking.
I originally had some like purse, like normal clothes is what I was calling them.
Like, I mean, pretty frankly, like normal socks, normal underwear, normal shorts, normal
clothes, like shirts, but it just took up too much room and space.
And I don't know, I thought wearing it would make me feel like I was normal, but I also
realized I'm just not normal.
So don't pretend.
So I kind of just put on the clothes I'm going to wear for walking the next day of the night
before, after I shower.
And I lay out my food for the morning.
So usually oatmeal and peanut butter, really just trying to reduce the amount of time I
have to spend doing anything in the morning.
I've tried doing things in the morning without prepping the night before and I just forget
things or it takes too long or it just doesn't work for whatever reason, right?
So Friday I'm going to go downstairs.
I'm going to eat breakfast in the hotel lobby.
If I didn't have the hotel food, I would just warm up some water with the little, I don't
know, mini stove camping set that I have.
And take that and just kind of start scooting.
I try to start as close to sunrise as possible.
I think sunrise has been about 630 ish to seven.
So I try to be out the door no later than seven, seven, 15 ish.
And I think Friday is going to be a 30 something mile day.
I think 31 or 32 miles, which sucks.
But again, what is your average day?
My average mileage per day right now with rest days.
Let me see if I can get you an actual.
My buddy Brett made me the super fancy spreadsheet that I've been using.
So my average without zero days right now is 24 miles a day.
That's a lot.
Yeah.
Let me see.
So you're walking 24, 25 miles a day, maybe more.
Yeah.
How are your feet handling this?
So in the last 10 days, I've done 239 miles.
So that's about 24 on average.
And the last four or five days were about 30 miles a day.
So that ish herded.
My feet are doing better.
The first couple of weeks, I mean, we have the group chat with the boys that I was kind
of like showing you guys what was happening.
So there's two other guys that did the walk a couple of years ago, Andrew Kivit and Mark
Dudek.
And I was kind of asking them questions because I was like, Hey guys, like my feet are wrecked.
And I mean, just to kind of be real, like for the, I don't know, it was kind of like
blisters on blisters.
Like on one toe, I had one on the top, bottom and side of my toe, the heels, like just,
it was like blister city.
And it sucked.
It hurt.
My mother-in-law sent me some like blister band-aids and I tried those out, did not help
at all.
What happened was just by walking so much, the band-aids would get ripped off or move
or shift.
It was kind of just like you're screwed until your feet get used to it.
And that's kind of what the guys were saying, Mark and Andrew, they called it, Oh, your
walkers feet.
You'll get your walkers feet eventually.
And they're like the first two or three weeks are going to suck.
I said, AKA hooves.
Yeah.
When you get your hooves, I'm like, Oh my God.
So yeah, that was like a weird period because it's like, do I pop them?
Do I leave them alone?
Like traditionally you leave them alone.
But at that point it just felt like there was a lot of pressure building on certain
toes.
Like it's just, yeah, but I ended up getting some mole skin and the, it kind of goes on
like the back, like the one that I have, it kind of goes on the back of the heel.
And that helped a lot just with the rubbing and the friction.
So using that, I have pretty thick socks.
Like I think they're, I want to say cotton.
I get a confused in my head because it's between cotton or wool and one of them you're really
not supposed to use.
And I know for sure I have the right one.
I just have both in my head so much that like I just had the correct one in my head when
I was buying them and that's about it.
Now it's just trying to make sure I don't overwork my legs and feet.
The last couple of days I started getting a little bit of pain in my shins, my left
shin, which also doesn't help because I had some pain in it for a little bit.
And then I bumped it on something.
So then I was, okay, is this shin splints or is this just bruised now?
Cause I'm an idiot boy.
And that was just because I walked in the woods for a second and I hit it on a stump.
Right.
So, yeah.
So the feet are feeling a lot better now, but now it's just like the actual muscles from
overwork.
I'm trying to avoid killing my legs.
When you are experiencing all 1000 of your blisters and maybe you got lucked wrong that
night or whatever it is, you wake up in the morning and you're just not feeling 110%.
What do you tell yourself or what do you do to motivate yourself to take that next step?
Yeah.
So it's, it's something that I've been really, I guess have been kind of building in myself
because I did so kind of back up a little bit.
I think it was 2021 or 2022.
I did something called 75 hard, which is like that mental toughness program.
75 days.
There's like, what is it?
Two workouts, a gallon of water, stick to a diet, progress photo and something else I'm
forgetting.
And what that really taught me was what discipline really was, right?
Cause for the program, like there's no options.
If you don't do it, you don't, you didn't, you didn't win the day.
Like there wasn't any, like kind of screwing around.
There wasn't, oh, well I drink, you know, all but one ounce of my water.
So like close enough, like that's not how it works, right?
And how that translates into the walk is I don't have an option.
Like I have to get where I'm planning on going that night.
A lot of the way that my sleeping arrangements are, are they're very like it's, I've been
lucky enough to have pretty solid luck being like, okay, I'm starting here.
This is where I'm going.
I have somewhere to sleep tonight.
Right?
Like it's however many miles away, I can't stop halfway through the day and go, oh, I'll
just post up here.
Like that's just not, that's just not an option, you know?
So I guess it's kind of giving myself that like no options mentality.
Like it doesn't matter how I'm feeling right now.
It doesn't matter to an extent.
Like I know when my body is at the point that it's like I need to rest or I need to do something
or something is wrong.
But for soreness or pain or this or that, like it doesn't really matter right now.
I got to get where I'm going.
So did you do this, I guess, the two part question.
Did you do the 75 hard in preparation for your walk?
And what else did you do to prepare yourself before leaving?
Yeah.
So that's kind of a weird question, not on your part, but it's kind of hard for me to
answer because I've been thinking of that.
I didn't do a whole lot to prepare for the walk, but I did a lot of things that set it
up just right for me to do the walk.
I mean, in college, what I hit my heaviest weight, which was about 300 pounds and I was
like, oh my God, I need to lose weight.
This isn't what I wanted to do.
This isn't what I wanted to be.
And that's when I started doing my midnight runs.
I don't know.
I think I've told you about it before where I would like sneak out of, you know, when
I sneak out of the AGR house at like two in the morning and go for a run.
And the AV facility.
And the AV facility, yeah.
But I would like sneak out because, I don't know, I was embarrassed for random people
to see me and like be out of breath and all gross and whatever.
So I did that.
I lost a good amount of weight there.
After graduating, I think after graduating, I kind of, well, I graduated right before
COVID hit.
So then I was hitting my own weird, like, what am I doing with my life?
Why am I feeling so lost or demotivated?
I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Worked in wine for a little bit.
That went kind of south.
And around that time is when I first discovered 75 Hard, Andy Frisella and First Form, which
all those things are connected, but basically are 75 Hard.
And it was just kind of like, oh, no one's coming to save you.
You're your own most important ally.
Like you, you have to put in the work to get the results that you want.
And I don't know, that just really resonated with me at the time.
I think I kind of needed that extra push, like get your shit together kind of.
So and I mean, at that point, I'd already heard of the walk and knew that that was something
that I wanted to do someday because I heard about the walk in 2018, but it wasn't something
that I was committed to at the time.
Right?
Like I didn't lose weight to do the walk.
I didn't start running and doing half marathons or 5Ks in 10Ks to prep for the walk.
I didn't do 75 Hard to prep for the walk, but I knew that all those things would at
some point let me have the ability to do things that I wanted to do.
If that makes sense.
Right.
I don't know what I want to do with this, but I know that not doing it isn't going to
help me do those things in the future.
So you heard about this walk about six years ago from Mike Posner.
Yeah.
To be honest, I don't really know who Mike Posner is.
So tell us a little bit about that, what about him inspired you?
What about him doing the walk inspired you?
What brought you to this journey?
Yeah.
So Mike Posner, he is the guy that did the song called Cooler Than Me.
He did I Took a Pill in a Beza.
And I've always been kind of, I always thought that I took a pill in a Beza was kind of funny.
Not like the funny ha ha, but like the funny, like interesting kind of a way, right?
Like the entire songs about how I don't know, like being famous isn't all cracked up to
be.
And he's kind of in the song.
You could tell he's a little bit depressed and this and that.
And who is it?
Seeb?
Is it Seeb?
Yeah, Seeb.
Seeb remixed it into this like crazy party anthem.
So it's like very different.
And I remember one time I was in my room, I think maybe it was between freshman and sophomore
year of college when I was back home with my parents.
And my dad had found the original version, which is very slow and sad and acoustic.
And he walked in, he's like, have you ever actually listened to this song?
I was like, no, why?
He's like, this, this dude's sad as hell.
I was like, oh, okay.
And that's when I kind of realized like, oh, wow, like that's interesting that again,
that dichotomy of he wrote this song that's a little bit sadder and like whatever.
And now it's like a party anthem, right?
So I got me kind of interested in it, flash forward a few years.
I was just following him on Instagram and I saw that he was doing a walk across America.
He started, I think 2018-ish.
And I was like, oh, well, that's cool.
Like that'd be something that's super neat and inspiring.
I'd love to do something like that.
And I remember having the thought of like, but he's a millionaire.
He has all this time.
He can do these things.
It's probably just a publicity stunt.
Like, you know, like here's all of my own beliefs and excuses for myself as to why I
can't do something similar to that or exactly like that.
And a few years go by and I don't really think much of it.
And then in 2020, more of his content came up for me and I started listening to some
podcast where he was in and I found out that the year before he did the walk, it was something
that he's wanted to do for years and years, but he was like, I'll do it next year.
It's I have birthdays that are coming up soon.
I have weddings or events, right?
So he kept making excuses for himself as to why he couldn't do it.
And the year before he did the walk, his father passed away of a form of cancer.
And he was talking about how he was so, I don't know, shook by that idea of, man, I put
my dream off for so long that now someone that's very important to me won't be able
to see me finish it, right?
So he did the walk.
He got through it.
And he got bit by a rattlesnake halfway through.
So yeah, he got bit.
And then he went back out and finished the walk later on.
And I think just that that level of commitment was something that I knew I was lacking.
And or I guess I wasn't sure if I was lacking it or if I didn't know I had it in me.
And I was like, man, that's crazy.
That's whatever.
And then not much longer later, I saw that a couple of guys that had just graduated from
college had done it.
Andrew Kivitt and Mark Dudeck, the guys I mentioned earlier.
And they're just normal dudes.
They graduated from college.
They were like, I want to do this thing.
They were also both inspired by Mike Posner to do the walk.
And they did it.
They finished it.
Mark did a podcast.
Andrew wrote a book about it.
And I was like, oh, snap.
There go all of my excuses.
And there's a quote by Mike Posner from one of his songs that, my reasons are excuses
for me not being who I know I am.
And I was like, oh, my God, that's exactly what I was doing.
Like I'm just making, coming up with these reasons that I can't do these things.
And as coach, beliefs and worldviews and excuses and whatever are something that we talk about
all the time with clients, with ourselves, with our peers.
I figured that if I was going to take a stand for other people and their dreams and what
they want to do, I should start with myself.
And August of 2022, I texted Julie, my fiance, and I was like, I want to do the walk.
Like, I'm committing to it.
And she was like, all right, what's the first step?
And ever since then, it's just been planning and prepping and getting into it.
So the TLDR version, Mike Posner did it.
I made up reasons why I couldn't do it, realized there were excuses and decided to finally
just jump in.
Well, that's awesome.
So you said that you and Julie sat down and started planning this trip, not trip, but
this journey.
And so what exactly did you plan?
Like you're out.
What take us through that process?
So planning for it sucked.
Planning for something like this, I feel like is, I don't know, it's like the ultimate
test, right?
Like there was, there really was no way to plan for it until you're in it.
I know there's a gentleman named Kenny Mintz and he did the walk and he's been helping
out.
And he, you know, he had a van following him.
He just slept in that every night.
He was able to coordinate most of his stops and rest days and this and that before the
walk.
And I had no idea how to do any of that.
So really for the walk, it was just me kind of being overwhelmed with it for the first
year.
Like it was more so the mindset of it.
Like, is this something I really want to do?
Why do I want to do it?
Like again, like a lot of it was like, I was a lot of saving, investing, like putting stuff
in retirement, making sure that I felt comfy there, getting licenses at work.
A lot of it was like the money side of it because I felt like for the money side of
it, that was a tangible thing, right?
Like I could see the savings go up.
I could see the retirement account go up.
I was getting experience working as a County Ag Inspector.
So I was able to, you know, see the months and years go by basically, but the actual
route planning and figuring out what gear I needed, that was the part that was the most
difficult.
I was trying to, for the route, I was like, okay, well, I'll just start with Mike Posner
started and I'll just do the route that he did.
And then I was like, no, like it doesn't make sense for me to copy what he did just for
the sake of copying it because then it's not really my, my journey, you know?
And then I did the same thing with Andrew and Mark and I was like, I don't really want
to do that route.
Like that's like, they did a very Southern route, like more Southern than I am.
And then eventually I was just like, I just need to pick a starting point and I'm going
to pick an ending point.
So I picked Pismo Beach as my endpoint because I have friends down there by San Luis Obispo.
It's pretty.
I figured it would be nice.
And then I picked Myrtle Beach mostly because I just needed a starting point, but I think
I had saw that another couple that walked across named the Golden Road, they ended their
walk in Myrtle Beach.
So I was like, okay, whatever, I'll just end there.
Like, doesn't really matter, I guess.
And then as far as packing gear went, that I just kind of noticed that most people that
did it without a support vehicle had a backpack and a cart.
So I just kind of started there and worked my way down.
And as far as route planning goes now, it's really just a week by week, month by month
kind of deal.
Like just trying to find places to, you know, pitch a tent or have an extra spare bedroom
to crash in or hotels.
So it's just really chunking down and being overwhelmed.
That answers the question.
Yeah, what's been the most, I guess, what did you really underestimate or you didn't
expect or plan for?
How hard it would be to find places to sleep.
Again, I've been very lucky and fortunate that, well, at the last 37 days, I've had
a general plan of what was going to happen and I had consent to be where I needed to
be.
And other walkers that have done it, they've recommended, you know, a part of it is stealth
camping.
And that means basically putting your tent somewhere where you're not really supposed
to be.
Like you don't have to.
Say that again.
Out of sight.
Yeah.
So it's kind of like, I think the official definition is like camping in a non-established
campground.
So I don't trust passing, right?
So like that's kind of, that's kind of what it is.
Allegedly.
Allegedly, allegedly trust passing.
And, you know, like it's, I don't know, I feel like it's one of those things where it's
like no harm, no foul.
Like if you're there at dusk and you're gone by dawn and you don't make a mess and you
don't burn the place down, who cares?
Right.
But it just makes me nervous.
Like I don't, I don't want to piss anyone off.
I don't want to make any bad blood.
Like this is not something you want to make enemies during.
And you know, being in the South, I feel like if I were to start just asking people, like
if I got desperate, like, hey, can I just put my tent like in the forest near your house?
I feel like somebody would say yes.
Right.
Yeah.
But that's also just a lot of extra stress and worry that I don't want to put on myself.
So that's why I've been so vocal on social media, asking for help, asking for locations.
And like what, 90% of people that offer things don't work out because they're, you know, 10
miles away from the route or they're, I don't know, super far South or super far North or
people just say no.
But at the end of the day, I just need one person to say yes for a day, you know, that's
kind of the mentality I go into that with.
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Have you experienced or witnessed that Southern hospitality that people always talk about
yet?
Yeah.
So it's interesting because I've had plenty of, like, when I'm asking about certain, like,
when I get help from someone, I'll be like, oh, like, kind of what's the vibe?
And it's such a funny mix of where in God's country, God fearing, gun-totin', everybody
has a gun on them to keep that in mind.
But also, like, if you need help, just ask.
You know, it's such a weird, it's such a weird, interesting space.
Like, it totally makes sense.
And it's always just, I think, I don't know, the people that have told me, like, oh, everybody's
caring, like, just keep that in mind.
It's not a threat.
I think it's just something to kind of keep at the back of your head, right?
Because somebody told me that and I asked them, like, so when you say everybody's caring,
like, is that a threat?
Why do you say that?
And they're like, oh, no, no, no, like, it's just, just be respectful.
And I'm like, well, yeah, of course I'm going to be respectful.
Like, okay.
But I think it's just-
But also, it's good to know.
Because in California, you can see that.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's very different vibes of being from California to here.
Yeah.
Like, it's, again, it's good to know.
Like, it's just, it's like a friendly reminder and a warning kind of wrapped up in one, right?
But there hasn't been a single time that I felt threatened or worried or scared, like,
legitimately.
Like, I mean, when I've had the tent out at night, any little noise scares me.
So it's like, anything is like, oh my God, this is the end.
The, I don't know, the weird monsters, the windageun found me, the skin walkers, the
random, I don't know, whatever found me I'm done for.
And then I just go to bed and I wake up and it's fine, right?
But in terms of the Southern hospitality, yes, especially when I've been on the news
recently, I've noticed.
So I've had plenty of people pull over on the side of the highway.
Like just the other day, Sunday, I think like five or six people pulled over.
Somebody gave me cornbread from their family lunch that they went to.
Some have offered like money or water or snacks or cookies.
But just yesterday, it was like perfect timing.
I was like, thanks, universe.
I was on the phone with my dad and I was kind of, again, I got to the hotel really late.
So I was kind of spiraling that like, I'm running low on water.
I'm not that close to the hotel yet.
It's getting dark.
I don't want to get hit by a car.
I'm out of water or the water that I have left is warm.
It just, it just doesn't feel hydrating, right?
And then right when I was saying that a car put on their hazards, pulled up next to me
and a woman was like, do you want a water?
I was like, yes, please.
And she's like, I just left the gym and I had an extra one.
Like here you go.
And it was like ice cold.
It was perfect.
And I was like, oh, thank goodness.
We willed it into existence.
Willed it into existence.
Yeah.
And yeah.
So I guess like that's one of those things that it's like, it like, there's, and that's
one of the things I tell myself every day is like, there's good people.
There's people out there.
Like there's people that want to help.
If they don't do it on their own, at worst case, I just might have to ask, you know.
So definitely experience that, experience that every day.
It's nice.
Yeah.
So you mentioned two things.
One, the good people and all their weapons.
Good people and all their weapons.
What about the bad people, if you happen to encounter somebody sketchy and how are you
going to protect yourself?
What do you have?
What are you going to do?
Yeah.
So the way that I answer that is if people want to mess around, they're going to find
out.
I don't want to like give up.
I, there's an angry way I can say that.
I do have self protection.
I have self defense items.
I don't want to go into too much detail about what it is.
After the walk, I'll tell everybody everything I was caring for the most part.
But again, give away all the secrets.
Right.
I don't want to let them know what I have up my sleeve or waistband.
Right.
Take me down in 10 easy steps.
Here's how to finish off Ranger.
Here's where everything is located.
But no, I think that's the interesting thing, right?
Is a lot of it is just being very aware.
Like keeping your head on a swivel.
One of my rules for myself is don't be dumb.
Trust but verify.
Don't try not to walk in places at night.
Don't show your most valuable items on the cart when you're walking through somewhere
where there's people.
Don't, don't be dumb.
I think it's the biggest thing.
And a lot of it is also thinking about situations before they happen.
And one of those, like as an example, I noticed that it was going to rain one day.
And I was like, okay, if it starts raining, what am I going to do?
And I had this whole plan in my head.
I was like, I'm going to find a certain like tree placement where there's like smaller
trees with no limbs.
And I'm going to tie my, my tart right here and here.
And I'm going to sit down right here.
And I'm going to wait it out.
Right.
So as soon as the rain hit, I did exactly that.
And there was a perfect dry spot where I was sitting.
And the reason why I say that is I've thought about tons of situations.
What would I do if X, Y and Z happened?
If they have this, if I have that, where can I put things on my cart for self-defense that
make it easier to grab things?
Honestly, the thing I'm more worried about than people are the animals.
So it's like dogs mostly, there's a ton of dogs.
So it's like, okay, where can I put stuff on the cart that like, if a dog runs up on
me, I can put distance between us.
Cause I don't want to hurt anything.
But again, it's like, it's self-defense.
So how can I make it easiest for me to make sure I don't get hurt really?
So you walk in and walk in and walk in and then you get to your destination at the end
of the day and somebody's waiting for you sometimes, right?
What is, how do you set up, what is that service?
Who are these people?
Where do they come from?
So I mean, what I think, I think a third of the places that I've stayed at are like, you
know, hotels.
So that's kind of funny because I walk into these Marriott properties and I'm like, hello
ma'am and or sir, how are you doing today?
And I look all raggedy and they're like, someone grabbed the broom, the riffraff is back, the
riffraff is back.
And I walk in and I have my car and there's times where I walk in with the tart over it.
So I just look, I don't want to be too like, I don't know, non-PC, but I look homeless.
Like I look like I could be trouble, you know, and then I walk up and I pull my Julie works
for Marriott.
So since we have like the, we get like kind of like a discount.
So I pull out my discount form, my little Costco credit card and my ID and I'm like,
good morning ma'am, how are you doing today?
I'm Andrew.
I'd like to check in and they're like, do you have a reservation?
I'm like, yes ma'am, I'm silver elite.
I have status.
Let's go ahead.
Let's get it rolling.
So it's like kind of fun to get kind of thrown off and then they see the car and they read
the sign and they're like, oh, wait a second.
Like you're doing a thing.
What's, what are you doing?
Or like the other people.
So it's funny.
I've gotten a lot of help from veteran groups and pageant folks.
So again, I'm going to keep saying this for the rest of my life.
I am not a veteran.
I didn't serve in the army or the armed forces.
My name is just Ranger.
So Kenny is a veteran.
He was an actual Ranger in the army and he's been such a great help getting me, you know,
connected with people in different areas.
American Legion posts.
I stayed at one one night a little bit further up the road, a veteran of foreign wars groups
sponsored a hotel room for me a little bit above that.
Further than that, a veteran of foreign wars member.
Let me stay at his house for a few nights as I was passing through Atlanta further up
the road, a couple of American Legion guys either let me stay in their house for a few
days and they shuttled me back and forth during the weather and you know, from where
I start and end points and one of them sponsored a hotel room for a couple nights.
So they've been super helpful and super, I don't know, hospitable, hospitality, Southern
niceness, I don't know.
And then just recently I stayed with a pageant family for a few days.
So my mom and aunt and their kids all do pageants like little beauty pageants, right?
And I guess pageants are pretty big in the south.
So my aunt knew the lady that I stayed with the other day through pageants.
So she drove me around.
She let me stay at her house.
I like, I don't know, hung out with her kids.
Like, I know, I think the youngest was like four.
And she was just like, she had told the daughter, the girl that does the pageants that I was
coming over and she's like, I don't know who is that?
She's like, oh, there he's our friend.
And she just latched on to it.
Like as soon as I got there, she was like, hi, our friend.
And I'm like, hi.
She's like, this is my Elsa microphone.
I'm like, wow, very cool.
Like it was just, it was super sweet and I guess she cut the afternoon.
I'm like, is our friend going to come soon?
Is our friend home?
Is our friend going to be there?
Like when she picked her up from school and stuff.
So it was just kind of cute.
And I think, I think that's kind of what I'm trying to say is what that is.
People bring me into their homes and let me hang out and they just kind of treat me like
they've known me for a while.
Like they make me food.
They make me dinner.
They give me snacks.
Like I'm just kind of part like they're like, yeah, make yourself like when they say make
yourself feel at home, it's like it feels like it for a few days, you know?
Yeah.
Are you still using that couch, surfings, whatever service?
Those are absolutely useless.
I tried warm showers and couch surfing and I think the hard thing is, I mean, I'm not
going to give up on them entirely.
I'm going to look at them again more here pretty soon.
What I've noticed on those is it looked like a lot of people hadn't been on for a while.
Like they made the account and it kind of went like inactive.
And what I've kind of heard from a few people is like, oh yeah, you want to reach out to
people a few weeks before you need to be there.
And I'm like a few weeks.
I don't know where I'm going to be next week.
Like, I don't know.
So I've been focusing a lot more on like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera.
So I know that you've mentioned a few times that you were meeting somebody to be picked
up.
Those were friends or how did you get arranged with them through the internet?
Oh, to like get shuttled to places and moves around?
Yeah.
Those are just the, like, I don't know, just friends of friends or family friends or whatever,
like the veteran guys, the American Legion guys, those were friends of Kenny.
So Kenny was kind of just like, hey, make sure this guy survives your area.
Thanks.
And then they would pick me up.
One guy lived like 20 miles north of where I was going.
So what he would do is he would just, he drove and picked me up at night, took me back to
his house.
I stayed in his shed for a few nights.
It was kind of funny.
Really nice shed.
He's a great, great builder.
And shuttled me back where I started.
I walked another 20, 25 miles and that was still about 20 ish miles away from where
he was.
So it was like a perfect triangle, basically of the route I was on.
And yeah, shuttling is probably the most helpful thing that people can do for helping
me out because he was on those days, he would take the gear, my backpack and all the heavy
stuff from the cart.
So all I was pushing was tarps, emergency supplies, food and water.
And that makes it way easier to move around than everything else that I'm carrying.
Just it like to be on TV on the news.
It's funny.
It's interesting.
It's, it's cool.
Like it just feels, it's always felt very natural, even from the very beginning.
I think the news people do a very good job of not making it feel like you're on the news,
even in Myrtle Beach, like the gals just kind of set up a camera and they're like, just look
at me.
Don't worry about the camera.
Like it's just a conversation.
And that's what it was.
They would just ask questions and they're like, cool, we'll piece it together.
We'll make you look good.
Just be yourself.
When I was on live news in Columbia, was it Columbia?
I think it was Columbia.
That was the one that was like kind of spooky because I was like, oh, I am in a newsroom
surrounded by cameras and lights and this and that.
But again, I think they do a very good job of making it feel very natural and like it's
not, it's not more than what it is.
And I mean, even when it was live, I'm like, I'm just telling my story.
I know this better than anybody else.
So just just say what's going on.
You're basically a celebrity at this point.
I am.
I've been on the news a lot.
You're a TV personality influencer.
So how long, I forgot where you said you're at.
You're in.
Tupelo.
Oh, that's right.
And so how many more days will you be there in this state?
Where are you headed to next?
Yeah.
And I guess how much longer do you expect this journey to be?
Yeah.
So right now my estimated end date is August 24th.
It's going to, it goes up the more rest days I have, obviously.
Well, actually, let me look at the numbers right now.
Oh, good.
That's a Saturday.
So I can be there.
Whatever day it is, you're calling out and you're going to be there.
So with the rest days that I have put in right now, it bumped it up to the 28th.
But once I get to the hot states like Arizona, New Mexico, whatever, whatever, my plan is
to try to have people like you, Julie, my mom, Julie's mom, et cetera, kind of post up
along the route so that I can do 30 plus mile days as much as possible.
So I'm thinking that once I get into those hotter states, I'll be doing more miles because
it's kind of like a get started a little bit before dawn and go a little bit past dusk
and just crank it, which is going to suck.
But it's also like, would I rather do more miles during those hot days or be there for
more hot days?
It's kind of like a weird, would you rather, you know?
But anyway, that wasn't the question you asked.
The question you asked was how long am I in Tupelo for?
So I'm going to be in Tupelo until Friday.
So I have, I'm finishing up today as a rest day.
Tomorrow I have another rest day.
Friday I'm going to be walking towards Oxford and I have a camping spot lined up.
I'm still trying to find someone that would be willing to shuttle me from wherever I am
to Oxford and back.
But since it's a weekend, it kind of makes things a little bit difficult.
And you know, I don't really have actual contacts in Oxford just yet.
And then I'm going to get to Oxford the Saturday on Saturday, sleep somewhere, and then I have
a hotel room for a few nights in Oxford.
And then after that, I'm making my way towards Arkansas.
And I should be in Arkansas, I think by like next week.
So I think the 25th.
So I'm only going to be in Mississippi for about a week.
And then I'm trying to crank through Arkansas as fast as I can also.
There's just again, not a whole lot of stops and cities throughout the route that I'm taking.
Which makes me a little bit nervous.
But I think it's fine.
I think I'll be okay.
I'll be, I mean, I'll be fine, you know, I just got to make sure water is always like
the most stressful thing, obviously.
And then I'll be in Oklahoma and I have some family there.
So they're going to be able to help out.
And it's funny, like I get to Oklahoma and I was like, cool, that's like the halfway
point.
And then from the city that they live or the town they live in in Oklahoma is not even
halfway mile.
My house wise.
So I was like, oh my God.
I had that realization on my 31st day.
I was like, man, I'm already 31 days in.
This is fantastic.
And then I walked for a little bit and I just stopped and I was like, this is one month.
I've done a month of this.
I still have like four more months of this to go.
Like, oh my God.
If I thought it was fun, now you know, you can do it.
You've survived one month.
Yeah.
You can survive the.
Yeah, that was, that was the shift I had to make pretty quick because it was just like,
you know, it was, it's, it's great.
Like I'm enjoying the walk.
It's great.
It's fun, but it's so stressful.
It's like a constant fight or flight.
Like I'm always exhausted.
Again, I'm enjoying it.
I don't have any regrets.
I'm glad I can do it, but again, it's still like I'm spending more than I would have liked.
I'm away from friends and family, you know, like those things are still a factor, but
I think at the end of the day, it's like those are very worthwhile things to do this.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
How many tubes of rash cream have you gone through?
So I don't have any rash cream.
But I've been.
Is that one of your issues that's happening right now?
It was.
So it was kind of funny.
I wore tights one day for like a higher mileage and it was my first time wearing them because
I was like, oh, okay, like tight, like it'll protect me from the sun.
It'll prevent chafing.
It did not prevent chafing.
That hurt so bad.
It was like right in between my thighs, like upper thighs, like it felt raw and it burned.
It hurts so fricking bad.
And I texted one of the guys about it.
I think I texted Andrew and I was like, Hey, man, where did I go wrong?
And he's like, Oh, what were you wearing?
I'm like tights.
He's like, rookie mistake.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
He's like, Oh, like you want to give your legs a little bit more time to adjust.
You'll be fine.
Blah, blah, blah, like whatever.
But I ended up picking up this thing.
Like I think it's called before I say it out loud.
Let me make sure it's the right thing because it's.
And you're just like, what were you wearing?
And you're like, Andrew, please.
I'm spoken for.
Actually, I have a fiance.
Uh, who are you wearing?
Kakis.
It's this stuff called body glide.
A body glide.
Yeah.
So I started putting that on every day because skirt and the honor of being transparent.
It's like the, like your thighs and honestly, like the cheeks, you know, like they get a
little chaff too.
And it's, it's kind of gross, but it's like, like there's a lot of friction at the cheeks
and at the thighs and like that's where I have to put it every day.
Otherwise it just hurts.
So now I'm able to wear tights without exploding.
But yeah, again, that kind of goes with like the walker's leg.
Wait, so did you just buy a different pair of tights?
I still have the same pairs of tights, but I think my legs adjusted and the body glide
has helped a lot because I think I have like a jar of Vaseline too that I was thinking
of using.
I think it might just throw it away because I think at this point it's just extra weight
and it's not helpful.
But I think the Vaseline would make it.
Not.
I don't think it would work very well.
I don't know.
I think it's like a different material.
I don't know.
I think I'm just going to stick with the body glide because that's what it's made for.
It also sounds really cool, so body glide.
Yeah, better than patrolling them jelly.
What is this?
It makes you dynamic, get those extra miles in, you know.
Yeah, exactly.
And we love some.
We love good marketing.
Right, right, right.
I have a question from a listener actually.
What is your bathroom situation like and how many holes have you dug to use?
Yeah, so again, that is a very real conversation.
So in terms of holes I've had to dig, it's only at three right now.
I'm not proud of that number, but it's better than I thought it would have to be.
It could be worse.
It could be so much worse.
So thankfully the plumbing that I have as a cisgendered male, I had to peddle a lot,
you know, number one, because I drink so much water during the day, right?
So I constantly kind of have to pull over into the bushes or the trees or whatever and go.
But thankfully for the other bodily function, there's a lot of like, you know, dollar generals,
gas stations, like it's fine.
I've been able, I've been lucky enough that I've only had to, I don't know, bear it up
a few times and those aren't fun.
But yeah, no, there's plenty of bathrooms along the route.
So it kind of just is what it is, you know.
When you get back in August, what are your plans going to be after that?
And are you going to miss walking?
Are you going to feel like you just got to keep on moving?
Like what's going to happen?
Yeah, so that's an interesting one.
I don't know.
I feel like post-walk depression is definitely something I've heard about from people.
Because, you know, you go from walking every day from fight or flight, all this attention
and media and people want to talk to you and this and that.
And then you kind of just go back to being a normal dude.
And that's something that I was very worried about because I knew that that is something
that I would 100% fall into.
So the way that I kind of designed the purpose of the walk really coincides with the purpose
and mission for my business.
So I guess for the walk, my mission is to highlight, learn from and work with people
in the U.S. that are making a difference in their communities.
And in terms of the coaching business, that one is we help social impact driven entrepreneurs
excel in their personal lives without compromising on their business's success.
Another mouthful.
But it's still very centered around the people that in the U.S. that are putting in the work
that are making a difference.
I don't know.
One of my big beliefs and mantras is that entrepreneurs make magic.
Where there was a problem, they find a solution.
Where there is a need, they have the supply.
So that's a big part of the walk.
So I say all that to say that when I get back from the walk, it's still to kind of continue
the mission of the walk.
I still plan on doing the podcast.
I still plan on highlighting folks, taking what I've learned and kind of divvying it
out to other people.
I think it's going to go a lot more from me highlighting folks to me more so working with
folks and powering folks and helping out entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders.
I mean, when I get back, Julie and I, we plan to move in together, finally get our own place.
I'll probably for sure have to get, if anything for sure, for sure, like a part-time job.
I think it'd be fun to work in like some little coffee shop or something.
I don't know.
But really just start really putting in the work on the coaching business.
Since I've kind of had to put it on standby for six, seven, eight months, I would want
to jump into that full time and really dive in and make it a thing.
How can people follow you and support you the best from afar?
Yeah.
So, still the best ways are going to be, I would just go to the website withinrangecoaching.com
forward slash walk dash across dash America.
That has all the links to everything.
I mean, you just go to the within range coaching.com website.
You'll be able to find the link that says Rangers walk across America.
In there, it has all my social medias, Facebook within range life coaching, Instagram within
range underscore coaching, TikTok within range underscore coaching.
I guess that's really it.
Just really follow along.
I'm a lot more active on Facebook and Instagram stories than anything.
And on Facebook, I do my daily update.
Instagram, I need to start figuring out what I need to, what I want to post there to build
it up too.
Yeah.
Go to the website, social media.
And obviously this podcast is where I'm going to be posting interviews with other people
and updates and this and that.
So, yeah, just a lot of social media.
Cool.
And remind us again, the three nonprofits that you're going to donate to at the end.
Yeah.
So, I'm grateful to work with an organization called the wander project who is collecting
all the funds.
And at the end of the walk, once I get to the Pacific Ocean, they're going to divvy
out all the money that we raise to future farmers of America, bigger than the trail and
the hospice promise foundation.
So it's going to go to FFA for vocational education for their project grants.
So that students all across the U S can apply for these grants to do their entrepreneurship,
placement, livestock projects, bigger than the trail is a group of trail runners and racers.
So anything down from a mile, 5K, 10K all the way up to ultra marathons, they raise
money so that they can provide free therapy to folks that need it.
And then the hospice promise foundation helps families going through hospice treatment with
non medical hospice bills.
So rent, utilities, groceries, transportation.
In the podcast I did with Rachel Arnold, she even said that they do final wishes, help
people decorate for holidays.
So what they're really great for is putting in extra work so that families that are at
end of life treatment for a loved one can really focus on that relationship rather than
worrying about if they have enough to eat that night.
So really the three nonprofits, the vocational education for youth, mental health treatment
for adults and end of life treatment, it's very much beginning, middle and end, which
again coincides with my business's mission to help people live a life worth remembering.
Well, that's really awesome.
And I know a lot of your friends in California are rooting for you and are really excited
for you and are supporting you any way we can.
If you have ranger's phone number and you want to give him a call, I've been calling
him the last couple of days and it's fun talking to him.
I got to hear him interact with a local supporter and I forgot, I think he gave you a coffee
or something, I can't remember what it was.
Or water, I can't remember what it was.
So that was really cool.
And yeah, is there anything else that you want to let people know about?
No, I'm sure that we'll do more episodes like this.
I'd like to do more often like this with you.
So just stay tuned and we'll talk more and I'm sure people will have more questions and
we'll get into different things as time goes on.
Sure.
Well, this was a lot of fun.
It was good seeing you.
It was good catching up with you.
I hope I did this justice and I hope the listeners enjoyed this conversation as well.
I'm sure they will.
I appreciate you hopping on for a little bit.
I know you got a bunch going on too.
So thanks brother.
I appreciate it.
Of course.
And thanks again, everyone, for listening to today's episode.
I am so excited that I got to hang out with Steven for a little bit.
Again, I mean, we've been friends for, I don't know, damn near 10 years now.
So we've got a lot of background, a lot of history and I'm glad that he is still here
supporting and helping out with the crazy adventures that I get myself into.
But yeah, as always, you can go ahead and check the show notes.
I have all my social media down below.
If you'd like to support our sponsor called Bullet Caffeine Company, please go ahead and
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Go ahead and support them by supporting them.
You support the podcast.
You support me as I make my journey across the country.
If you'd like to support me directly, please consider buying me a coffee.
All the funds that I get from buying me a coffee go straight towards the walk, whether
it's food, equipment, gear, coffee, really just the necessities is what I use that for
as I make my way across the United States.
And please follow me on social media.
Facebook is where I post the majority of my updates, my requests for places to stay and
more.
I'm not sure when I'm going to be posting this, but I should be through Mississippi here
pretty soon.
So if you're in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, that's where I'm going
to need the most support moving forward.
So if you're in any of those states, the hot states as I've been calling them, please
consider reaching out and helping a brother out.
But again, as always, please feel free to rate, subscribe to and review the podcast.
The more reviews that we get, the better the podcast does, the more it gets pushed in front
of people and again, the more ways that we can help more people help more people.
So as always, remember, have fun, stay safe and be yourself.
I'll catch you guys all next time.
Thanks.