There's a book of the same name as your title by Peter Jenkins, which I've read...he's written a few sequels to it as well. He met his future wife in the 2nd(?) book. It's a fascinating autobiographical story of his trek, with nothing much more than a backpack a dog traveling from NY to CA by foot. It took him something like 2 or 3 years to do the trip stopping for maybe a month or two at different towns getting a temporary manual labor job to make enough money to continue his journey. He went through great trials and dangers along the way as well as moments of sheer joy. On a different note, I'd like to visit NYC one day.