George Throop and his travel companion, Rusty, stop for a break on their way from Lometa to Lampasas last Tuesday. PHOTO BY DAVID LOWE On and on George Throop walks, over hills, deserts and prairies, often as far as 15- 20 miles in a day. Clad simply in jeans, a T-shirt, sandals and a reflective safety vest -- and with little more than sleeping gear and a day’s snacks -- he lives simply.

Throop has adopted a nomadic existence, but in his cross-country walk to inspire healthy habits, he believes he is living like a king.

Throop (pronounced “troop”) passed from Goldthwaite through Lometa to Lampasas last week before moving on to Austin. Along the way, as he has done each mile of his journey from his native Vancouver, Wash., Throop has tried to spread what he believes are the key elements of good health.

He encourages others to eat a balanced diet -- full of fruits and vegetables and with limited amounts of lean meat -- find ways to relieve stress and exercise as often as possible. Walking is an ideal activity, he believes, because it strengthens the body without stressing joints or muscles too much. Walking also works well, Throop said, for people who are just beginning an exercise regimen.

“It’s a great momentumestablishing form of exercise,” he said.

Throop has tested that belief while trekking almost 3,000 miles. He began his journey, which he calls his Walk of Inspiration Across America, Sept. 20, 2009, two days before his 34th birthday. He chose the date as a reminder of his mother, who died of cancer in 1985, two days before her 34th birthday.

Exercise, proper nutrition and stress management, Throop said, can help millions of Americans enjoy the long life his mother did not have. The World Health Organization, he said, estimates as much as one-third of the 1.6 million annual cancer diagnoses in the United States could have been prevented.

“Many experts estimate as many as 50 percent are preventable,” Throop said.

In his quest to promote health, Throop has taken many steps. Some -- like avoiding soft drinks for the last 10 years and adopting an essentially vegetarian diet -- are fairly ordinary. Other steps -- say, the last several million as his cross-country journey has progressed -- are part of an unorthodox approach.

Throop, who is single, left his position as manager of security for Safeco Plaza, the 50-story downtown Seattle high-rise building that is home to Safeco Insurance’s corporate headquarters, and put almost all his belongings in storage.

With no paychecks coming in -- but no mortgage or other major payments required either -- Throop has embraced the simplicity of his quest.

“You don’t need much to be happy,” he said. “I’m probably happier now on this walk than at any point in my adult life.”

Encouragement from friends has helped, and Throop appreciates that his family, although initially cautious and concerned about his safety, also has come to support his health trek.

“For them [envisioning] everyday, normal George getting into this big project just didn’t seem to make sense [initially],” he said.

After considering Throop’s commitment to his plan, however, several friends and family members joined him on the walk, showing solidarity by logging miles alongside him for a day or so at a time.

As he navigated down the Pacific coast and headed east toward his ultimate goal of Washington, D.C., supporters kept joining him. An Australian man traveled about 100 miles of California’s Big Sur coast with Throop, and another man joined him for about the same distance from Santa Barbara to Santa Monica, Calif. Throop even found a walking partner for the approximately 400- mile stretch from Santa Monica to Phoenix.

Because of his security background -- and scenes he remembers from the movie “Deliverance” -- Throop worried about his safety a bit in the early portion of his trip.

“When I first reached rural stretches of Oregon, some of the people reminded me of [characters in “Deliverance”] at first, so I was a little fearful,” he said.

Mostly, though, as he receives encouraging correspondence from many who have learned about his walk and as he has found hosts along his route, Throop has come to believe various news sources often overemphasize danger and crime.

“I’ve found in my experience that I’m not coming across that small minority of bad stories, and I’m encountering the 99.9 percent of good stories,” he said.

Among those sources of comfort are Lampasas County’s Craig and Maggy Jones, who welcomed Throop into their home between Lometa and Goldthwaite for about two weeks before he began walking to Lampasas and on to Austin.

The Joneses, members of First United Methodist Church in Goldthwaite, met Throop at a youth event held before a multicongregational gathering for the National Day of Prayer. Throop, who often talks to clergy to find places to stay when he reaches a new town, had met the Joneses’ pastor, who introduced the family to the Washington traveler.

Throop bonded quickly with the Joneses and their three children, who took their guest to youth baseball games and talked about common experiences they had had.

“I was really impressed with his message, because I have had cancer,” said Mrs. Jones, who has been in remission about seven years.

Mrs. Jones was diagnosed with cancer at age 33, the same age at which Throop’s mother faced her illness. Mrs. Jones, who has a nine-and-a-half-year-old son, also connected to Throop’s mention of his mother’s death when he was the same age.

The family and their lodger also discussed spiritual matters. Throop, who said he believes spirituality enhances a healthy life, mentioned his interest in meditation. The Joneses talked about their Christian faith and the importance of prayer in their lives.

“We focused on God a lot, and we tried to focus on Christ,” Mrs. Jones said.

While the area residents gave to Throop, Mrs. Jones believes they also received, as she said she was impressed by their guest’s focus on savoring life and enjoying simple pleasures like a stroll through a pasture.

Throop -- who generally finds lodging indoors but has camped under the stars in the desert and has slept in freeway culverts -- did not have to live too simply while passing time near Lampasas.

After bidding farewell to the Jones family, Throop stayed for a few days with Joe and Jacinta Williams, who live between Lampasas and Burnet. He planned to visit the courthouse square, the Campbell Park sculpture garden and a few of Lampasas’ natural springs before leaving the county to continue his walk.

Although he has left Lampasas, Throop still enjoys at least one strong connection to the area. Rusty, a mixed-breed rescued puppy given to him in Goldthwaite, now walks with Throop after taking a little time to get acclimated.

“He was given to me in Goldthwaite, but he finally caught up to me in Lometa,” Throop said with a grin.

Throop is considering taking time to reflect -- and avoid the heat for a while -- in the Austin area before beginning the passage east through Texas and into the South on his way to the nation’s capital.

Fans of Throop’s efforts have been monitoring his progress on Facebook and on enjoythewalk.org. The health advocate said he has enjoyed hearing from people who, inspired by the multi-state trek, have decided to begin exercising regularly.

He loves walking to inspire others.

“I’m just a normal, everyday person doing something that’s not ordinary,” Throop said.

Using basic gear to spread a simple message, Throop relishes the richness of experiences he believes he has shared with others.