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GREENSBORO - If you see a man with a sign walking with a pack along U.S. 29 this afternoon, stop him.

He's B.J. Hill, a 32 year-old man from Massachusetts who is hiking across the United States with a message.

Or hundreds of messages, for the president-elect Barack Obama, collected during his Walk America 2008.

Since beginning his journey by foot in San Francisco in March, Hill has covered 17 states and worn out seven pairs of shoes while carrying his life on his back and a notebook in which he's gathering handwritten messages for the president.

"I don't think that anyone else has actually done this before," Hill said, "maybe Johnny Appleseed."

Along the way he's gotten help in the form of donations, crashing on a couch or catching a meal from a just-met friend.

The Web site CNN.com profiled him recently, and NPR is interviewing him for a program, too.

He's a teacher taking time from the classroom to do such a walk for a second time. In 2006, he walked across Massachusetts collecting messages to hand-deliver to the governor.

He hopes to do the same for the president. According to his Web site, walkamerica2008.com, Hill may actually get a few minutes of Obama's time, too.

"What I really want to do is I'd love to copy each page of the journal before I give it to the president," he said. Then, he said, those copies could be put in libraries and on the desks of other Washington politicians.

Messages range from gas worries to war troubles and, most lately, the economy.

"One of my favorites, collected in Evanston Wyoming," he said, "is from a woman who wrote, 'Dear Mr. President - My husband and I are in our 60s, we've worked hard all our lives, and next week we're facing bankruptcy court. What happened?"

Now hiking through the southern states such as Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas, more messages mention religion and promises of prayers for the president.

"I imagine that, as I head more north, they'll become more secular again," he said.

Hill will continue on to Greensboro along U.S. 29 and then north to Virginia over the next few days following the election.

"It's probably one of the most important elections," he said, though he doesn't endorse either candidate and keeps a realistic view of politicians in general.

"What happened last night, it's going to be imprinted on the national memory," he said. "An African American person who got the election ... and I'm not saying that I'm endorsing Barack Obama and not that he could walk on water or anything."

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com