Unable to walk freely for two decades, Cody woman plans cross-country trek

Early in April, Cody resident Shawnee Moon plans to return to her childhood home state of New Jersey. She’ll go to the beach and dip her feet in the Atlantic Ocean. Then, as she puts it, she’ll “turn around and start walking.”

Beginning in Ocean City, N.J., the 50-year-old Moon plans to walk 3,400 miles from the Atlantic Coast to Ocean City, Wash., on the Pacific Coast. She’ll do the entire trek solo, pushing the gear and provisions she needs in a jogging stroller that she plans to specially modify for the excursion.

“I’m a New Jersey girl,” Moon said, explaining her starting point. “That’s where I grew up. It just seemed normal to start where I started. I decided to go to Ocean City, Wash., because I looked at a map and it seemed right. Plus, I’ve never been to Washington.”

Moon hopes to average 25 miles per day as she crosses America. Her route will take her from New Jersey to a sister’s house in eastern Pennsylvania. From there, she’ll cross into Ohio and eventually turn north into Michigan, where she’ll cross into that state’s Upper Peninsula via the famed Mackinaw Bridge. After that, she’ll pick up U.S. Highway 2 and let it guide her west until she nears her destination.

“Google actually gives you walking directions, so I told it to give me a route from Ocean City to Ocean City,” Moon said. “It provided me page after page after page of directions for every little road to turn down. It was quite a task for Google.”

Armed with that small booklet of directions, she hopes to arrive at her destination roughly six months after departing from New Jersey.

“People ask me why I’m doing it, and I tell them I’m doing it because I can,” Moon said. “I’m not raising money for anything. I’m not trying to raise awareness for anything. I’m just doing it because I can.”

And that’s the catch.

That Moon would be in a position to even contemplate walking across town, much less across the country, would have seemed a flight of fancy less than a year ago. Until April 2011, Moon had spent roughly two decades of her life unable to walk without assistance.

“I used to be an avid hiker,” Moon said. “I hiked all over the place when I lived in California. I did a bunch of trails out there.”

One day Moon realized she didn’t have the strength in her legs that she once had. A short while later, she found herself unable to walk without the aid of a cane. Not long after that, a set of forearm crutches had to be substituted for the cane. As the degeneration continued, she even contemplated the purchase of a wheelchair.

All the while, doctors were baffled at the possible cause.

“I had the surgery, but it wasn’t that. I had spinal taps, test after test, and nobody knows why it happened,” Moon recalled. “The best they could say was it’s something that looks and acts like MS, but it isn’t MS.”

Whatever “it” was, the condition kept Moon unable to walk without assistance for roughly 20 years. Then, last April, even more sudden than the onset of her condition, it disappeared just as abruptly.

“I just woke up one day and decided I felt pretty good; maybe I’ll try to get around today with just the cane,” Moon said. “There was just a couple days in between, and then I felt I didn’t need it. I hung the cane up one day, and I haven’t touched it since.”

Just like the nature of her condition baffled the medical community, its sudden disappearance also remains a mystery.

“The top neurologists from USC and UCLA examined me. They didn’t know what it was,” Moon said. “Nobody knows why it went away. I don’t know why it went away, and I really don’t care.”

“Before all of this, it was something I wanted to do after my son graduated from high school and the kids were out of the house,” Moon said. “My husband didn’t like the idea of something taking that long, and then my legs started going bad.

“Now I’m divorced. I just turned 50, and the world might be coming to an end, according to the doomsayers. It just seems to all be lining up for me.”

So Moon resurrected her dream of walking across America. She’ll make the trip solo because, as she puts it, nobody’s crazy enough to go along with her. She gets as much planning information as she can from the Internet, but she notes there’s a key distinction between herself and many of those she reads about who have walked cross-country.

Moon actually will depart Cody in mid-March. She’ll spend a couple weeks prior to her trip enjoying time with her family “just in case.” Then, she’ll fly across the country for her date with the Atlantic Ocean.

After that, she’ll just take things one step at a time, taking pictures and journaling her tales from the road in the hope she’ll one day be able to write a book about her adventure.

“Seeing America at three miles an hour sounds cool,” Moon said. “Most of the time, you’re in a vehicle doing 55. You don’t see things that way, and you don’t meet anyone. Hopefully, I’ll meet some interesting people along the way.”

In the meanwhile, Moon still is trying to round up some of the gear she expects to need for her trip.

“I need lightweight camping and hiking stuff,” Moon said. “Especially a down sleeping bag. If anyone has one of those they can spare, I’d love to talk to them.”