West Texas has seen its fair share of cross-country travelers, especially in the towns along Highway 90. In fact, here at Marfa Public Radio, we’ve interviewed people on bicycle, in go-carts and in vans. But there was something different about a recent voyager.
Marfa Resident Mike Green called in the news tip late on a Thursday afternoon. Our News Director, Tom Michael, dismissed it. He'd seen this walking man already, once near Fort Stockton and once in Alpine. But then Green told us something about the walker that made him a particularly interesting interview candidate - he had taken a vow of silence for the duration of his trip.
The challenge? How to interview someone - for radio - who wouldn't speak. We typed up some questions for him to answer with a pen and clipboard, and set off in my van. After an hour of driving around, I dropped Tom off. In a town of one-and-a-half square miles, we couldn't find a man - on foot - pushing a golf cart. And of course, that's when I found him. Bearded and alone, walking along Golf Course Road.
The walker turned out to be Greg Hindy, a 22 year old photographer. He'd started walking in New Hampshire, and was en route to California. The walk was his art project - an experiment in performance, and an exercise in meditation. What were we expecting? We had a brief exchange and said our goodbyes. I drove back to the station to file this report, and Greg walked silently away. All the way to California.
You can follow Hindy's travels across the country here.
--Sally Beauvais
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