Emma & Dan
Walk Across Massachusetts!
May 14 - 25, 2025
May 20, 2025
8:02 a.m.
Day 7 About to commence.
Sturbridge and points east.
We have 62 miles to Boston and have a couple of cool activities planned fore the weekend so stay tuned. Really cool stuff in Boston!!
Oh and sissy Claire Perritano will be out to crew for her sister.
Enjoy the news story below. It’s Emma at her happiest!!
May 19, 2025
5:42 p.m.
Day 6
Emma and Dan’s Walk Across Massachusetts for Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
We finally got back on Route 20 today and covered 13 miles to bring our total to 81 miles.
We are now just outside of Sturbridge which is our next overnight town starting Tuesday night.
We have just over 70 miles remaining which we hope to finish Saturday or Sunday in Boston.
Today’s miles were hilly but we enjoyed being on Route 20. Along the way we hooked up with Matt Price from WGGB of Springfield who came out to do a story on us. We will
share that story when it pops up online, Thanks Matt.
We also once again had a great sweet treat at Crazy Jake’s in Wilbraham. A huge thanks you to Gary and Nicole who lets us park Asylum Fitness while we walked today.
We are rounding into form and starting to sleep better and feel better too.
Patrick our crew person deserves a huge “Pat” on the back!
Once again please consider a donation to EHCA: Link below.
https://ehca.org/emmaanddan.html
May 18, 2025
4:56 p.m.
Day 5
Emma and Dan’s Walk Across Massachusetts for Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
We met up with our new crew/guest walker today, Patrick O’Driscoll the Women’s Soccer Coach at Behrend and an Emma and Dan walking stalwart. Patrick led us through 14 more miles. We had to stay off of Route 20 because of narrow shoulders but spent the day cruising around Springfield and Northampton.
Northampton is a wonderful town with an eclectic feel and a ton of energy.
We are now almost halfway across the state and will move into what is considered central Mass. we think tomorrow. We hope to walk on Route 20 east of Ludlow tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for following our walk and please consider donating to Erie Homes!!!
Donation link below.
https://ehca.org/emmaanddan.html
May 17, 2025
7:05 p.m.
Day 4
Emma and Dan’s Walk Across Massachusetts for Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
What a great western Mass. kind of day. We covered a whopping 16 miles bringing our total to around 50 miles. We welcome a new crew member in for the next three days starting Sunday. You’ll neet him tomorow.
We started the day in Springfield at:
https://www.msn.com/.../all-hands-on-deck.../ar-AA1EVWiQ...
We spent the next two hours covering eight miles around the city.
We then drove back to Westfield to do the 5k. It’s advertised as the world’s fastest 5k and it didn’t disappoint. Thanks to Kevin Matys who organized the run and comped us with for two free entrees. The run had over a thousand participants.
We bumped into another Hoyt runner named Angel who you will see in the pictures. They are a lot faster than us for sure.
We then checked into our new hotel in Chicopee,Mass. and drove the miles we are supposed to be walking
Sunday and determined they are not safe for us. We will cover our miles not on route 20 east but in and around Springfield. While we have in the past walked some risky miles with narrow shoulders the route tomorrow is too risky for us. We substitute when we have to.
All in all a very enjoyable day. Emma is sure to sleep well tonight.
Another call to please consider donating.See link below.
https://ehca.org/emmaanddan.html
May 15, 2025
6:51 p.m.
Day 3 We made it to Westfield!!!
Another great day on the road with Emma. We covered 13.5 miles and met some cool folks along the way.
Our day started with help from Kristina at the hotel with Emma’s pony (you figure after 26 years I could do it myself).
We covered some steamy miles with help from our friend Tom again. Tom departed and in comes our next crew member. We will introduce you to him Sunday.
We spoke with some students from Westfield Christian Academy and also had the opportunity to spend some time in town with some folks who knew the Hoyts, Rick and Dick.
This is their hometown. Please click on the link to learn more about them. It will be a well invested few minutes. They are the reason we have our buggy.
https://youtu.be/qvtpGCqU2Tg?si=RR646R5_-UHaBF3s
We also had a visit from Doug with the Springfield Republican newspaper and also Masslive. He took a bunch of pictures of Emma. Thanks Doug.
We have a very exciting day ahead of us tomorrow if the weather holds.
Stay tuned for more from us here in Massachusetts.
Please do consider a donation to Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
Do it tonight!!! Link below.
https://ehca.org/emmaanddan.html
May 15, 2025
7:53 p.m.
Day 2
Emma and Dan’s Walk Across Massachusetts
We had two guest walkers one whom is an Emma regular and travels all over the place to walk with us. That is Tom Rooney from NY.
The other guest walker today was Peter Haley who I had the good fortune of assisting on his soccer staff at Springfield College from 1987-89. They are both lifelong friends and we are appreciative of their company today. Both were also groomsman for Jane Brady’s lucky day many years ago.
The miles rolled by today as we shared great conversation and stories from our time coaching together among other things. We covered over 14 miles in a little more than four hours.
Speaking of Springfield, we are two days away from our first big city and are looking forward to an urban experience and revisiting SC and the area I spent two years in.
We will hopefully cover another fourteen miles tomorrow and then spend the day on Saturday walking throughout Springfield.
We may make a stop at the hoops hall of fame if time allows. Emma loves to shoot the hoops!!
Playlist Today:
Little River Band (coming to Erie soon)
Joe Jackson
Styx
Doobie Brothers and many more !
Please consider supporting Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
Donation link below:
https://ehca.org/emmaanddan.html
May 14, 2025
8:44 p.m.
Day 1
Travel day and some unexpected bonus miles!
After a six hour car ride we arrived at the NY/Mass border around 2pm and proceeded to walk almost ten western Mass/Berkshire Mountains miles. These were unexpected miles that put us ahead of schedule. We just felt like walking today!
We “officially” begin tomorrow and have two arrivals who will spend the day with us. We will introduce you all to our friends in tomorrow’s post.
Upon finishing our miles we drove our route for tomorrow’s walk. While the first three miles are sidewalks, the next bunch of route 20 mikes have tight shoulders that will force us to divert our route.
Safety first of course.
We still will cover all 150 Massachusetts miles be assured!!
Over the years of completing these walks we have learned not to fret about staying on our route. Meaning if we have to navigate away from our expected route to stay safe we will. We do though stay true to the mileage.
Today’s playlist.
The Bee-gees (for grammy)
Taylor Swift (for Emma)
Styx
Led Zeppelin
REM
Please consider a donation to Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA)
Miami to Key West, Florida!
November 13 - 24, 2024
December 3, 2024
9:12 a.m.
Emma and Dan’s Walk to Key West for Marc Key West
Nine days of walking.
109 miles.
40 hours of driving.
Incredible joy and fun!!
We made it back to Erie, Pa. just in time for 50 inches of snow. We went from sunny and warm to cold and snowy.
We appreciate all of the support, followers, and friendship we received along the way. It was a great experience which already has us looking forward to our next walk.
Thanks to:
Grassy Flats Resort & Beach Club
for their generous donations of housing.
Jane Brady and Tom Rooney for crewing us!
All of the people we met
“on the road.”
Thanks to all of you that made a donation to Marc!
And a final thanks to Becki and all
of the Marc peeps for allowing us to walk for you guys!
I hope we can stay in touch!
Stay tuned here for our next adventure which is in the planning stages now. We are considering two states that begin with the letter M for our next walk in June!
Also one last plug to donate and support Marc!
See link below.
https://marckeywest.harnessgiving.org/donate/...
November 22, 2024
6:26 a.m.
Emma and Dan’s Walk to Key West
108 miles behind us!
For Marc Key West
We had a fantastic final day of walking, strolling eight miles around Key West.
We officially ended at mile marker 00 and did our traditional high five that signifies our journey's end. We continued down the road to the Southern Most Point marker and then onto meet the folks at MARC House.
We were greeted with smiles and high fives by staff and clients. We were very appreciative of the the lunch they had prepared and also the tour we received.
The Marc folks do great work in the Keys community and live full, productive lives. They are supported by a wonderful and committed staff.
Emma and I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed spending time there.
We will do a full wrap up including many thank yous next week.
Until then please do consider supporting the folks at MARC!
November 20, 2024
6:31 p.m.
Emma and Dan’s Walk to Key West
for
Day 8
We flew through our miles this morning with zero stops or conversations with locals as we didn’t bump into anyone.
We then road the seven miles into KW and spent some time on Duval St. and had a blast.
We met #eimgracemusic who sang a song for Emma.
We did keep the celebration to a minimum as we officially finish tomorrow.
If anyone one is interested we plan on making the Southernmost Point of the Usa marker otherwise by 11am.
We have had a fantastic walk and while we had to divert at the start from our original plan, we will have completed 108 miles from Key Largo to Key West.
Emma took numerous naps today as the pictures will show. She bounced back to have a great day.
A little trivia question in one of the pictures below, check it out. First to answer will get a Keys t shirt.
Please consider supporting Marc. Link below, days are running out to donate.
https://marckeywest.harnessgiving.org/donate/...
November 13, 2024
6:02 p.m.
Day 1 Finally the KEYS!!
We made it!!
Twelve miles and a lot of adjustments.
We picked up our crew
(Tom Rooney) at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and headed south.
We hoped to start in Homestead but the road wasn’t walkable. Always safety first, we picked up at mile marker 108 in Key Largo and headed south walking close to twelve miles.
As with all of our walks we are disappointed when we have to change plans and do less miles but we will hopefully cover the 108 miles to KW… weather permitting.
Along the way today we met numerous locals and listened to great music including of course Jimmy Buffett.
The Keys are spectacular and we are going to bed excited about tomorrow’s walk. More and better pics tomorrow!
Remember we are walking for Marc Key West. Please consider a donation. Link below.
November 12, 2024
6:34 p.m.
We made it!!!
A very long, arduous, and fun road trip to Miami is completed! Now the fun begins. We unofficially started our walk today, I say unofficially because our crew arrives tomorrow. The first crew member is long time friend Tom Rooney. Tom flies in from NY tomorrow and we begin “officially” in Homestead hopefully by 1pm.
As many of you have followed our walks over the past decade you know that we truly enjoy what we do. The behind the scenes work to make the “operation” to work requires a lot of support, finding of places to stay, ( some donated) finding the route and mileage, a long drive to get the starting line and of course hoping for good weather. With all of details in place we now get to finally walk!!! It truly is what we love. The work starts months in advance and we will be introducing you to all of the people that make our walks work over the next 11 days. Stay Tuned!
Today we rolled through Miami Beach on a very hot day. We met some awesome folks and got some decent miles in, 10 that we will count towards Key West!
Finally, please, please, please, consider a donation to Marc, link below, be sure to click on campaigns and look for Emma and Dan. To learn out more about here is the fb page Marc Key West.
You can follow along here or on our website.
It promises to be an epic walk, Key West here we come!
Consider a donation today.
We Crossed the Mackinac Bridge!
Michigan to conquer the Mighty Mac!! We had a wonderful weekend in Mackinaw City and topped it off with the five mile walk across the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge is open to walkers on Labor Day. The pictures tell the story.
Emma will have a big announcement this week along with a name change for this page to correspond with our next walk this November!! Stay tuned.
We Conquered Mount Washington!
What a fantastic day and experience for us!!!
We conquered the 7.6 mile Mount Washington Auto Road. One of our very best and challenging walking days in the 10 years we have been traveling the US doing this.
Our small crew of Emma, Tom Rooney, (friend from our NY days) and a very excited and focused Jane Brady pushed off at 3:15am. We were met right away with steep grades which only got steeper as we pushed our way in the dark. About 2.5 miles in we were greeted with a spectacular sunrise, see pictures. We also quickly figured out we were probably under crewed. Of the 10 athletes walking, Emma’s crew was the smallest. This was remedied thankfully around mile 5 by some Notheastern students who helped us through the final 2.5 miles. As word spread down the mountain of our small crew (the three of us)they left their athlete down hill and ran up and joined us, helping us push Emma to the summitt. Once they finished with our group they ran down the mountain to catch back up with their athlete. Thanks guys!!!
This walk was very difficult and hats off to Jane for pushing to the top!!!
Thanks to Adaptive Sports Partners for putting in a great event for the 10 athletes and their crews!!!!! The pictures are spectacular and are worth a good look. We started in the dark and finishing in the daylight. Five plus hours!
And finally please, please, please do consider a small….or large donation by using the link below!!
Stay tuned this week to hear about Emma’s next adventure coming labor day weekend!!
SUNRISE ASCENT ON MT. WASHINGTON
For more information or to donate:
CLICK HERE
Emma and Dan’s Presque Isle Challenge
FOLLOW ALONG FOR OUR DAILY UPDATES!
JUNE 1, 2024 - June 30, 2024
June 30, 2024 8:02 p.m.: A big thanks to everyone from Emma and I who walked with us, followed our story, shared our story, and donated to one of the six organizations. A huge thanks to all six organizations who all spent time walking with us and made a tremendous effort to make Emma and I feel special.
We look forward to our walks and both love each day we are able to get out there. A special thanks to Jane Brady who “encouraged us” to stay local this June.
Stay tuned Tuesday as this page will change to represent our next walk. We are very excited to head to New England for a really special and challenging experience on July 27th.
Finally, below are the links to donate to all six organizations.
Ease
https://bayfrontcenter.org/take-action/donate/
Voices For Independence
https://www.vficil.org/donate-30/
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Pennsylvania & Southern W Virginia
The Arc of Erie
Special Olympics Pennsylvania
Erie Homes for Children and Adults, Inc. (EHCA) MOVE
Grass Roots Garden 15k - Niagara Falls
May 18, 2024
This past Saturday, we competed in the Grass Roots 15k along the Niagara River onto Goat Island, and past Niagara Falls. Great weather and a happy Emma made this a fun day. Looking forward to our next outing. Next up: Buffalo Half Marathon on Sunday, May 26, 2024. Follow along for more updates!
A Great Weekend in NYC
May 5, 2024 at 9:37 p.m.
A great weekend in NYC as we traveled out to attempt the Great Saunter! A 32 mile one day walk around the great island of Manhattan. We ambled our way up the westside with the Hudson River on our left, under the George Washington Bridge, through Inwood Park, down through the streets of Harlem and finally down the eastside finishing in around eleven hours. We met tons of great people from all over the world and received great support from the wonderful people of Shorewalkers Inc. A special shoutout to Jane Brady who flew out Saturday morning and met us at the halfway point and covered 16 miles with us. Also hometown, Valhalla NY friend Tom Rooney who walked the first 16 with us.
And a final shoutout to our new friends Mary and Missy who befriended Emma and I and helped keep Emma company on Friday.
This is a very special event that Emma and I will certainly do again soon!!
https://shorewalkers.org/great-saunter/
Next up is our annual summer walk beginning June 1, 2024. (Emma and Dan's Presque Isle Challenge) see below.
STORIES FROM THE ROAD
We are getting ready for our first big Spring 2024 event. We will be walking in the Great Saunter in NYC on May 4th. Stay tuned here for pictures and updates. To learn more about this wonderful event use the link below.
https://shorewalkers.org/great-saunter/