Hiking Westward: Being the Story of Two Boys Whose Ambition Led Them to Face Privations and Hardships in Their Quest of a Home in the Great West

In 1920, two brothers abandon their dreams of baseball and flying to walk 2,000 miles toward a new life. Phil and Ted Porter are still boys when they watch their mother's health fail and their family's savings vanish. The West, with its free land and wild promise, becomes their answer. What begins as a boy's scramble for hope becomes a grinding test of endurance across plains, mountains, and hardships they were too young to fully understand. They face drought, exhaustion, loneliness, and the constant calculation of whether they have enough supplies to reach the territory before winter. The trail strips away their naivety but never their determination. This is a story about what children will carry for the people they love, and the impossible distances they'll travel to call somewhere home.