It would be tough to do on one day’s notice, but how about soliciting the help of the vast doper network? Let me crash on your couch, do a load of laundry, top up my food supply, and I’ll pay you back handsomely out of the five-million.
“Woof! Oh boy, we’re going for a walk! Woof, woof!”
It seems like people going west to east face an unfair advantage while starting out. People freeze to death overnight at tomorrow’s predicted low on the east coast. These people died when it was in the 40s and raining, tomorrow night is only supposed to be 29F and snowing/raining. No way one backpack’s worth of stuff is going to keep you warm enough for this.
So no, I would not be willing to do it tomorrow. Ask me again in May or June.
With no time limit? Probably.
Edit :
Then hell, can I leave in an hour? No job, no ties at all to sever.
Yes.
(If you want more, offer me the briefcase and I’ll tell you when I get there. Just make sure its there…)
I’d have to say no. I am dealing with chronic pain, and I have a 3 year old who would be devastated. The ten year old is old enough to be bought off however 
Now, I wonder if my husband would take the offer…probably not.
Your OP needs a lot more specificity to be meaningful.
Assuming you are hardy enough and bring a sleeping bag and one man tent the main issue is obviously food. Walking 6-8 hours per day with a pack is going to require a lot of calories. Assuming you can make 15 miles per day on foot, every day, you’re talking about 3000 miles or a 200 day walk.
Even if you load up your back pack with the maximum amount of hiking food it would only take you a few hundred miles at best to go through it. To get along by living off the land with no money and zero “help” of any kind means you’re going to hunting, dumpster diving or stealing to get food.
You’re going to look very scruffy in short order so being a smooth, food shoplifting criminal would be pretty tough as all retail eyes are going to be on you. Begging is out since that’s “help”, homeless person food kitchens are out since that’s help. A lot of dumpsters are padlocked the days so that’s a roll of the dice.
Given the constraints of the OP the only possible way I see to do without starving to death would be to head south (assuming you are starting now 03/02/13) and jump from one fishable lake and river, nature preserve and national/state national park to another heading cross country and making sure each is reachable with the amount of food you can preserve, prepare and carry. This would require some lightweight fishing gear and range of artificial baits, a packable rifle and a lot of ammunition and maybe some metal traps.
In the parks you would have to be woodcrafty enough to trap, skin and make jerky out of animals. The key would be to build up your fat reserves between walks. This would also assume a lot of luck in keeping out of sight of the natural resources police and the park rangers as fishing and hunting without a license and out of season is likely to irritate them and get you arrested. As soon as you take a meal in prison (ie help) you have violated the OP.
Even with luck on your side the chances are much better than even the vast majority of people attempting this will run out of food.
What’s this, “or help”? Are you expecting people to die on the way?
Yeah, sure, I would want to try it. If I can survive it, I think it passes a cost-benefit analysis.
The OP is basically saying you load up your pack and walk. You are not allowed to take cash, or assumedly work for cash, or sell valuables, or trade sex etc. for cash or credit, or accept help or charity of any kind. It’s you, your pack, and your wits. If you could make a like a hobo for room, board or money and work your way across the US the difficulty of the task would be onerous but readily achievable with time.
If you cannot take money or accept help your ability to get the level of food you need to sustain yourself will be very limited. Unless you are a super woodsman or an incredible shoplifter, or both you will run out of food very quickly.
Can I work for cash along the way?
Can I steal food? If I get caught and jailed, can I resume my journey afterwards from the spot where my journey was interrupted by the law?
Any time limit?
The OP is way vague on all that. If there is any way the OP allows you to make or acquire money the task is still a PITA, but doable by almost anyone in decent physical shape.
if I could take a .22 pistol with me along with a couple of bricks of ammo, I’d be set on the food front. too bad those concealed carry/interstate transport laws would get in the way of that.
Thanks for the rec, cougar! I’ll check it out!
Spot on, astro.
Peter Jenkins walked across America, stopping to work at various points along the way. He has continued to write books, and at least a few of the early ones after the two chronicling his walk across America involved further walking. So he’s not retired.
It’s been a few decades since I read A Walk Across America, but I don’t remember anything about a job offer from his dad. Could be wrong about that, though. Here’s his Wikipedia entry.
Then no freakin’ way. I could do a Peter Jenkins and walk across the country if I could stop and work for cash along the way, but if I’ve got to get all my food, other than what’s in my backpack when I head out the door tomorrow, by hunting, fishing, and petty theft, I’m not gonna make it.
Sure, I’d do it. But coast to coast in my country is a bit less than 25 miles. And the walk would end at my house anyway.