navigate

What if you wanted to walk from one end of the US to the other?
I know people have done it. How do they do it? So far my experience of going from point a to b is a challenge of navigation. I see no pedestrian signs next to a button for a crosswalk, sidewalks to nowhere that spill on to a major road without a shoulder, state property, private property, trespassing signs, tangles of highway under and overpasses curving without a shoulder, bus stops planted on a curb next to another no pedestrian sign, embankments peppered with cockleburs and guard rail. Contradictions. Expectations. Confusion.

My challenge is looking at the maps and trying to understand what road is actually walkable.
Almost none of them are. With the exception of a few marked trails here, this space is not meant for people on their feet. I've spent days hugging the edge of the road with my eyes focused on whether an oncoming car is getting too close. It is me and the roadkill. Me and the squashed bugs that hit the windshield. Me and discarded cigarettes, food, underwear and condoms. Grasshoppers jump away from my feet. Everything on this road happens fast.