This page is being updated THROUGHOUT September 2019.

Stop by soon!

 

“Route6Walk“

Courtesy of BCTV/Jonathan Bourne Public Library

IT STARTED WITH A WALK ACROSS CONNECTICUT...

 

Joe Hurley is a retired newspaper reporter who spent most of his career at The News-Times in Danbury, Conn. where, among other things, he wrote the consumer-humor column called Shallow Pockets. He lives in New Milford, Conn. with his wife Pat. Same house, same wife, same out-of-control forsythia bushes for more than 30 years.

In 1999, Joe came to the startling realization that he knew almost nothing about the other side of the state, even though Connecticut is small enough to fit in the back pocket of Colorado or Nebraska. That year, photographer David Harple and Joe walked across Connecticut on Route 6 to give News-Times readers, and themselves, a better picture of their home state.

Later, Joe noticed that Route 6 stretched all the way to California – it was one of our few coast-to-coast highways and remains the longest continuous highway in the country. After retiring, Joe walked that 3,600-mile road while photographer Travis Lindhorst traveled along in the comfort of a car.

Their stories and pictures ran weekly in a dozen newspapers across the country. They eventually published a book about the adventure: “Ten Million Steps on Route 6: A Fresh Look at America and Americans From Cape Cod to California.”