Samaritans of the USA

A Message from The Founder of Wild Willpower, Distance Everheart:

      www.WildWillpower.org would not have been possible without the people who picked me up hitchhiking or gave me a place to stay, a meal , or a dollar or two along the way.  I began walking & hitchhiking the USA following September 11th, 2001 at age 21 to use less gas & write songs to protest what I thought was “an oil war” at the time.  I sought to learn to live among the wilderness in peace, & documented the journey through the songs that came to me on the guitar- many of which are still not recorded.  

      Below are just a handful of the hundreds of people who picked (me) up hitchhiking along the way.  This organization was built on this love & this is the spirit of what we intend to pay forward:

   Wild Willpower would have been possible without the kindness of good samaritans who gave their trust & time to help an often “dirty hippie” who was simply looking for & dreaming of a kinder world would have a place to simply be, & that others with differing ideals would also have their space to legally live among the wild as well.

2016-2017 – Still On the Road:

     Due to the fact that Native Americans were calling out for help from people around the world, it felt apparent to both me & my partner Kevin that we ought to just get our belongings together, have faith, & hitchhike to Standing Rock.  Some photos from the hitchhike:

Theresa Lynch Evans Picked Us Up Hitchhiking to Standing Rock “Just to Help Out”:

    Can’t believe we hitched w/ all this stuff, but we had just been robbed from our home so we just took what we had with us!! That’s why it took us so long but we finally made it. 

    Brief Interview w/ Some Folks who Picked Us Up Hitchhiking on the Way Here:

     We Arrived on September 20th.

Videos & Photos from August 7, 2002 when I first began hitchhiking to 2016:

   “Downtown Michael Brown”, helped Kevin Byrd & I in early 2014 get from point A to point B- just to help out:

   More videos will be posted to this page soon- here’s another:

   Here’s are just a few (an extremely small percent) of the people who picked me up hitchhiking along the way over the years.  These people are the heart of everything Wild Willpower stands for- our plan is to pay it forward.

(If I screwed up any of your names or you’d like to add contact information or a bit about yourself or a quote; [email protected] OR 415-798-7457)

Calvin Lee Walker:

Joyce Crew:

Jeff Taylor:

Chuck & Clair near Government Mountain, Arizona:

Juan O.:

Dan Miller (Northern California):

David Lemonhead Lobato (Moab, Utah):

Dallas of Sonoma Desert:

Distance & cool guy in Colorado:

A family from New Zealand:

Distance with Steve Miller & Joan Miller at their home in Moab, Utah:

Ernie Brown picked me & my friend Jason Baker in Northern California:

Christopher Rae, a really cool highway patrolman in California that gave me a lift further up the road while I was particularly dirty (it ain’t easy):

Hitching with my friend Rain Lou Aster (Chelsie Smith), Christopher Rey picked us up:

Austin Thomas:

Stuarte of Petaluma CA fixing Distance’s original set of Lightning Dancers:

Analisa Phoenix in Arizona:

Randy Bolt (Northern California):

Distance & Richard from Alturas, CA:

Steve:

A trucker named Daniel Nelson on way from San Jose to Lake Isabella (a lot of truckers picked me up):

Jacob:

More videos & photos coming as I dig them up!

Wish I had the names for these peeps:

    Its hard to stay organized on the road- I was robbed over 20 times so just did my best to keep it together.  People below include (in no particular order unfortunately) Don Waley, , Jackson, Joachim Preinesberger, Micah Janet & Wynn, Richard Smith of Nebraska, & Samuel Edgar.

Back to www.WildWillpower.org