Walking America Couple hits Helena, spreading good will, willingness to understand (2024)

A couple and their dog walk across 48 states with a goal to be proof that there is good everywhere, not just people's home states.

Torin, 31, and Paige Rouse, 24, with their dog Jak, have walked through 21 states out of the 48 they want to complete. The trip has taken over 4,500 walking miles and 565 days so far.

The journey started on May 16, 2022, and the couple has taken two breaks for 261 days total.

The Rouses call themselves the "Walking America Couple." Both are from Missouri, which is where the journey began.

Paige was 20 when she met Torin as his waitress. Three days went by during their talking phase when he asked her to "run away with me and a backpack."

She said she did not immediately say "No," because she was curious about adventuring.

"I was just taking odd jobs, trying to figure out what to do with myself, so I wasn't too tied down to anything," Paige said Friday during a stop at the Big Bull Bar and Grill in Winston.

The couple has been together about three years. After dating for about a year-and-a-half, they got married a year-and-a-half ago.

Torin worked in commercial roofing before he decided to live an alternative lifestyle. He saw multiple states during his time working corporate jobs, but he did not enjoy it.

"I swore it off because I was cynical, too introverted and not happy with the world," Torin said.

Initially, he started in a van traveling place to place without any home base other than a four-wheeled version. He did not feel the sense of adventure he hoped for with the van, but before canceling the idea, Paige joined him.

She said she understood what he meant by not getting the satisfaction out of driving in a van across the country, so they talked about walking.

After a short period of time they were off on a walk from Missouri to Denver.

Through long summer stretches of desolate land in Kansas they arrived in Denver where they realized how genuine and nice the community was, which sparked another thought.

"We felt like our eyes had been opened to something we didn't know was there before the small-town people were coming out and being very welcoming and helping us," Paige said. "They were people we never would have known or become friends with."

The thought was about walking all the states except Hawaii and Alaska. The couple broke down the trip into five segments, currently on segment three the two have seen states like Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and more.

They don't choose favorites because they feel that since they have found good people and kindness everywhere there is no reason.

Certain moments stick in their minds like in Wisconsin, where they stayed with Mennonites who were welcoming and made it a "hard goodbye," Paige said.

They shared similar values with the Mennonites, like leading with love and self regulation. More recently in Harlowton, they came across a person who was very sincere about listening to the couple's story and showed great interest.

At the Commercial Bar in Townsend a patron paid for their meals without uttering a word to the couple, leaving before they could thank them.

The Rouses have slept in over 350 strangers' homes and around 100 businesses, churches and other organizations during their trip.

Their journey is funded through donations from people who want to help and express sincere interest in what their message is, according to Torin.

Sponsorships were turned down by the couple because he said they want to prove that a business model can be built out of "good faith and trust.

"Most people want to be good, but we struggle with how to be good," Torin said.

In the beginning of the adventure they said they were not fully prepared or knew what to expect, so they created a system of how to get food and water when they went through over 100-mile walks with no food or civilization along the route.

They mailed food to themselves to local post offices in towns they knew they would pass through and have a 14-gallon water supply for those moments. They pull two wagons to carry their supplies.

Without a "follow car" or any rides after midway through the second segment they have trekked nearly half of the United States.

What the couple talks about with other people on their way is what makes them unique they said.

"We talk about it very colloquially, but we talk about different ways that you can retrain perspective not only to become a more resilient person like dealing with the uncertainty of walking across the country, but in your normal life," Torin said.

Their message is a message of "non-interference" with an understanding that if people want to fix the world they have to fix themselves first.

"Part of the problem is that everyone thinks they have the right answer without realizing how flawed our individual perspectives are," Torin said.

The couple is moving through Helena and onto their next state, Idaho and over to Washington where they will head down the west coast and over to Utah from California.