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There’s a book I love, absolutely love. I highly recommend it to just about anyone who will listen. It’s called “The War of Art,” and it’s by Steven Pressfield.

The book is a very simple read, very quick, cover to cover in three hours, easy. And you never have to read it again, because the idea is so simple:

Whenever you try to do something worthwhile, the Resistance will do everything in its power to knock you off track. It will reason with you like a brilliant lawyer, or it will jam a gun in your face like a stick-up man. Whatever it takes to throw you off track and put you back where you used to be.

The Resistance comes from inside you. It will never die. It will never go away. It is stronger than you are. Do not try to fight it. You will lose, and you will waste valuable time and energy that would have been better used getting your work done. So learn how to welcome the Resistance into the room, and continue working while it sits across the table from you, staring at you.

On this walk, the Resistance is with me at all times. Most of the time it appears in smaller ways, like yesterday morning in Gokcek, when I woke up and the air was so fresh and the grass was so soft I wondered if I could avoid walking for the day.

A couple of times, however, the Resistance hit me so hard I thought the walk would be over. One of those times was when I hurt my foot a couple weeks ago. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the panic and black despair that washed over me on that day. But they were just the Resistance, come to distract me from the clear thinking I’d need to get myself back on track. I stepped aside from them and spent the next few days nursing my foot back to health and chanting to myself, “calm down, just work the program.”

The other times the Resistance has come on especially strong, well, those are just for me to know about, for now at least.

This morning the Resistance came in one of its more common forms, that in which I wake up worrying that A. I’m not walking far enough, and B. I’m spending too much money.

So I checked yet again, and for the 3-1/2 weeks I’ve been on the road, I’ve been covering 55 miles per week (my goal is 55-60 miles per week), and I’ve been spending $13 per day (my budget is $13 per day).

Even with the downtime to nurse my foot, and some unexpected hotel stays, I am hitting both of my targets: walk 55-60 miles per week, and spend $13 per day.

So at least until the Resistance hits me again, probably sometime later today, I am feeling good. Out here on the road anything can happen, and it usually does, but as long as I hit those two targets, that anything is fine.

…on why he backed the project:

“I really admire Matt’s courage and commitment in doing this walk across Turkey. He could have spent the next six months sitting in some corporate cube, earning a steady paycheck, and deferring his dreams. Instead, he literally chose the road less traveled. That’s why I decided to back him on Kickstarter. I wanted to see at least one man’s dreams come true.

“But more than that, I think Matt is a wonderful ambassador who bridges the divide between East and West. His thoughtful book, A Tight Wide Open Space, provided a sensitive, nuanced look at the life of an expat in Turkey. It brought back good memories from my own visit there. And I look forward to more insightful writing from Matt.

“These are two great reasons to support his trek!”

Thanks Jesse!

If you are enjoying following this trip and want to continue seeing it unfold, the time to back it on Kickstarter is now. The time is not later when I’ve gone dark and am trying to come up with a Plan B. The time is now.

Yesterday’s mid-day stopover in the village of Bozan had a pleasant surprise in store for me. I had been planning to just stop in at the mosque garden, resting up a bit in the shade and washing up at the mosque’s fountains.

On the way into the village, however, I met Yakub on the highway. Bozan straddles the highway, and Yakub was crossing from one half to the other when we met.

Yakub, 28, is from Bozan, population 700, but lives and works in the nearby township of Dazkiri, where I had stayed the night before. He is an accountant for the township there. Yakub is married with one child, a son who recently celebrated his first birthday.

At one of the village’s tea gardens Yakub and I met up with Yakub’s older brother and a friend of theirs. The four of us shared a couple glasses of tea and some get-to-know-you conversation. Then we all walked across the street to the mosque. They gave me a tour of the inside of the mosque, which I enjoyed, because when I go to a mosque I tend to stay outside in the garden where I can chat with people, wash up, sit in the shade, camp, etc.

People tell me I can freely enter the mosques, but I tend not to unless specifically invited, simply because to me it’s like going into someone’s home — you don’t just walk in unless specifically invited to enter.

In the mosque Yakub pulled out a Koran and began explaining some of its aspects to me. He reads Arabic, which gives him more direct access to the unfiltered word of God, since one of the central tenets of faith in Islam is that the Koran, in its original Arabic, is the literal word of God, not various peoples’ interpretations of it.

I will stay away from any deeper commentary on religion, since there are plenty of people more knowledgeable than I. I will simply describe what happened yesterday.

Yakub sung some verses from the Koran and then translated the verses line by line into Turkish. This pushed the limits of my Turkish, definitely.

It was abundantly clear that the subjects of Islam and the Koran were very important to Yakub. You can tell a lot about a person by listening to him or her talk about a subject that is important to him or her, regardless of what the subject is. How understanding of others is the person? How patient is that person? Does he or she expect others to hold the same views, and is there room in the person’s mind and heart for those who don’t? Stuff like that.

On the road I usually have these kinds of deeper conversations a couple times a week. Most of them are about religion or politics. My Turkish is not good enough to understand the finer points these people are making, but sometimes I think that’s actually an advantage, since it forces me to pay even closer attention to their body language. How much eye contact do they make with me? What’s their breathing like? If they touch my arm, how do they touch it? Stuff like that. These things tell me as much about a person as the words that come out of their mouth, perhaps even more.

I won’t go into the specifics of what Yakub said. I need some time to let it stew anyway, and there are another six months of conversations like this to come. I’ll aggregate them and mull them over and then comment on them in the books.

After our mini-lesson on Islam, Yakub and his brother and I crossed back over the highway and went to a lunch that was being held in honor of a wedding that was taking place that evening.

The communal wedding lunch I attended a week ago in another village had had religious overtones and purposes. This particular lunch, as Yakub explained to me, was simply a lunch to bring the village together, to feed the hungry, and to celebrate a major event. There was seating for about 100 people, and people came and went individually — there was not a set “start” and “end” time.

We ate chicken stewed in tomato sauce with green peppers and potatoes, rice, soup, salad, and bread. For dessert we ate helva, a paste made from various ground nuts, beans, or lentils and containing lots and lots of butter and honey.

Lunch eaten, the three of us went back to the tea garden, shared a couple more cups of tea, exchanged Facebook addresses, and then went our separate ways.

…on why she backed the project:

“Turkey is a country I know very little about and may never have a chance to visit. When Matt Krause shared with my husband and I that he was planning to walk across Turkey, logistically we wondered what that would look like. Where is he going to sleep, eat, or how will he fund this?

“During the last 3 weeks I’ve been following his blogs on Heathen Pilgrim and have been amazed at his resourcefulness and dedication to this journey. In this short time I’ve learned more about this country and the same general theme of generosity and kindness continues to surface.

“It’s all very “Into The Wild,” but instead of the “leave it all behind” mentality, Matt is trying to to take us with him to explore what appears to be a beautiful country. Backing this project means I’ll continue to learn about a country I may never have a chance to see.”

Thanks Jennifer!

If you are enjoying following this trip and want to continue seeing it unfold, the time to back it on Kickstarter is now. The time is not later when I’ve gone dark and am trying to come up with a Plan B. The time is now.

Yesterday’s unexpected events were a tour of that mosque in Bozan, a lesson in Islam that pushed my Turkish to its limits, and a wedding luncheon.

All in a day’s work out here on the road. Wrote up some notes yesterday afternoon, but battery is running low on my phone and I’ve got a lot of ground to cover today. Remind me to post those notes if I forget.

…on why she backed the project:

“Matt has been a friend of mine for over 15 years and approaches life differently than anyone I have ever known. This is not a bad thing, it is just a whole different perspective and when I heard about his walk, I knew doing a Kickstart pledge was a no brainer.

“I actually wish I had the courage to do what Matt is doing but I don’t so I am living life thru his adventure and what an adventure it is turning out to be.

“The color of our skin or the differences in our religious beliefs do not make us separate they unite us. The mystery is that we are so connected even when we feel so far apart!”

Thank you Helene!

If you are enjoying following this trip and want to continue seeing it unfold, the time to back it on Kickstarter is now. The time is not later when I’ve gone dark and am trying to come up with a Plan B. The time is now.

…on why he backed the project:

“Matt had the courage to actually do what many of us only ever allow ourselves to daydream. Whether it’s walking across Turkey, starting a new business, or manning a mission to Mars, the world is better off with more dreamers that have the courage to do. Supporting Matt’s efforts is a way for me to hopefully inspire others, including myself, to do the same.”

Thank you Mark!

If you are enjoying following this trip and want to continue seeing it unfold, the time to back it on Kickstarter is now. The time is not later when I’ve gone dark and am trying to come up with a Plan B. The time is now.

Made it to Dazkiri, my goal for the day, thus completing my first full day of walking on the plateau.

My right foot’s doing better, but is still a little weak, making for longer days, since I only walk about 2/3 of my normal speed. I am looking forward to a week from now, when I’ve planned to take an entire week off. Man, I am so going to take it.

According to my phone’s GPS, I’ve left Denizli province and entered Afyonkarahisar province. I did not see a provincial border sign to photograph, and I’m in no mood to walk back and find one.

By the way, “afyonkarahisar” roughly translates into black castle of opium. Maybe that’s why there was no sign at the provincial border, the highway crew was strung out.