Across the country
There are roughly 2,500 miles between Butler and Venice Beach, Calif., and Terry Karenbauer walked them all.
The Center Township man began his monthslong journey on March 25, with the knowledge that he would be on the road for months, with nothing but a backpack full of clothing, food and camping supplies.
His secret to completing the odyssey? Don’t look back.
“I knew what my ultimate goal was — getting to Venice Beach, California — but my single day goals were to get to the next town, or make it 8, 10, 12 miles to see what the next place would be,” Karenbauer said. “Anybody honestly could do it, you just have to have that mindset of once you start something, achieve that goal.”
Karenbauer had one other thing in mind that drove him to walk across the nation — the memory of his son, Chris Karenbauer, who died who died in 2021 at age 25 of what was determined to be a brain aneurysm. After Chris’ death, he started the Chris Karenbauer Project along with his other children, as a way to give back to Butler County community causes like women’s shelters and veterans organizations.
The cross-country walk, dubbed “Chris Crossing America,” was his way to raise awareness of brain aneurysms, and raise money for the project’s causes.
“What I’m trying to do along the way is not only raise money for the project but talk to other people along the way and kind of treat it like a documentary,” Karenbauer said before departing on his journey. “At the end of the day, what are we all here for? What can we do to help out other people?”
Karenbauer arrived in Venice, Calif., a beach town bordering on the Pacific Ocean, on Friday, July 18, where he met his three children, Marina Karenbauer, Alex Karenbauer and Chris’ twin brother, Spencer Karenbauer, for a little family time. He didn’t have to walk back home, thankfully — he booked a flight back to Pennsylvania after arriving in Venice.
Marina, who helped plan his cross-country journey, said seeing her dad arrive in California after months of walking gave her a feeling of relief more than anything else.
“Honestly I was just glad he made it there in one piece,” she said. “It was more of a moment of relief when he made it.”
After setting out on his journey in March — after months of building up stamina by walking laps at places like Alameda Park — Karenbauer covered around 25 miles per day. A few weeks into his trip, he was gifted a bicycle by a secret donor, an item he assumes actually came from a group of people he shared his story with at a restaurant in Ohio.
The bike let Karenbauer cover even more ground — but he adhered to a “2-5 rule.”
“I would walk 2 miles, bike 5, walk 2 miles, bike 5 — that way I wouldn’t tire out a certain part of my body, but still was able to keep on the move,” he explained.
On the road, Karenbauer would speak to as many people as possible. He said people often would ask him what he eats and drinks in a day, to which he responded by saying his backpack was full of food, and he would sometimes stop at diners to fuel up. He would spend nights camping, or staying in hotels or motels he found along the route.
And while it wasn’t one of his official goals, if Karenbauer came across a locale named “Butler,” he would go a little bit out of his way to check it out.
“If I wasn’t too far from a Butler town, I would kind of want to see what it was like. See how many Butler places I could find, which was pretty cool,” Karenbauer said.
The hardest part of the journey was making it through Kansas. The state challenged Karenbauer physically — he arrived there in May when there were a lot of storms — and mentally — having to wait out storms was discouraging because they delayed him.
Despite these challenges, Karenbauer said he made the most of every aspect of the trip, donating some of his supplies on the way when he no longer needed it.
“When I left Pennsylvania, it was snowing. I had my winter gear with me and that. Along the way as the weather changed, the seasons changed, some of that gear that I had, I would just leave it at places,” he said. “To me, it was just stuff. It all could be replaced.”
Karenbauer stayed motivated because of his son, Chris, but also because of lessons his own parents taught him. He remembered his father in moments of difficulty.
“He was always the one on our shoulder saying, ‘Man, get it done. You started it, do it,’” Karenbauer said. “Mom was always the inspirational one, have a good base faith.”
For every challenge and setback Karenbauer experienced, he had at least one good experience. One of the best parts of the journey was speaking to people passing by, he said.
“One of the biggest things I’ve taken out of the whole journey … no matter what side of the aisle you fall on, in what I’ve seen from just talking to people, 99.9% of people out there are good people,” Karenbauer said. “The whole experience was just so cool. I met so many people from all different walks of life.”
He was regularly in touch with his family members while away, namely, Marina, who, he said, was integral in helping him plan his route for the trip.
She remarked on how good the experience was for her dad, just from hearing him speak about it.
“My dad met a lot of people along the way and came up with these great connections,” she said. “It really goes to show that when someone has good intentions and they want to do something, it just works out in your favor.”
Now that Karenbauer is back in Butler County, he and Marina are working on Chris Karenbauer Project initiatives. Last year, the project provided meals for people in the area for Easter and Thanksgiving, and the Karenbauers plan to do the same this Thanksgiving.
Marina said her dad raised money on the journey by having a QR code displayed on his backpack, and people also could sponsor some of the miles he walked. She added that in addition to providing meals, the Chris Karenbauer Project will also donate money to local charities.
“Half would go to fund future projects for CKP, and half would be donated to Veterans Place, which is an organization that helps out homeless veterans in the Pittsburgh area,” Marina said.
The past few weeks have been busy for Karenbauer, who is catching up on four months’ worth of home life. He did get to take a sabbatical from his truck driving job, which was one of the reasons he was able to make the walk in the first place.
Despite being busy back at home, Karenbauer said he is already thinking about doing another cross-country journey, at the behest of the many people who asked if he would ever consider doing something like it a second time.
“I’ll take a little bit more time to enjoy some things,” he said. “By doing it again, I would go off the beaten path to check out more sites or towns or things like that.”
