Running with pencils

I spent Monday morning covering the Longest Walk 2, a group of walkers trekking across the US to Washington DC to celebrate the original walk's 30th anniversary, and to bring awareness to environmental concerns.

This was an interesting event to cover and it gave me some exercise. I parked my car and went along for part of the walk to interview people.

This was easier said than done -- they moved quickly. I often found myself about a mile away from the car -- which I feared I might need at the last minute. Plus I kept leaving that car half sinking in dirt on some odd part of the road side.

I developed a pattern: park, walk for a while, rush back to the car, drive up head, park and walk (or jog) along side them, and then repeat. The organizers kept their walkers together well. If there ever there was a gap due to stragglers, someone would yell "close the gap" and people would run to catch up. Good for the presentation and organization of walk. Bad for me. I caused some of the straggling.

No one wanted to get yelled at, and I didn't want my reporting to be blamed any gaps -- so I often found myself trying to report while running. Not easy. I've reported in a blizzard, on the back of a motorcycle and, last week, from a helicopter. But this was probably the hardest. You can't really see what you are doing and you are constantly moving around. While I still got a good story out of the whole thing, some of my notes were completely unusable.

Sometimes I stopped moving to get down a quote I thought I was important. Then I'd look up -- and they'd all be far ahead.

If anyone wants to keep an eye on these walkers as they move across the county or find out more about the event, visit www.longestwalk.org.