In 2004, Joe Hurley walked across America.

Hurley, a Connecticut resident who grew up in Boston, walked the entire 3,600-mile stretch of Route 6, which spans the country from Provincetown all the way to Long Beach, California.

Along the way, Hurley experienced pain like he’d never felt, visited towns he never knew existed, and met friendly folks and some not-so-nice. He trudged through inclement weather both hot and cold, up hills, across mountain ranges, and into cornfields that seemed like they would never end, making countless memories along the way.

Hurley, then 60 years old, said he has one memory in particular from his walk through Wareham, and that was of a man who had spent over $1 million restoring the Lightship Nantucket II that's currently docked near the Narrows in the Wareham River. The owner didn’t want a story published at the time, so no Wareham story made the book, but Hurley did say that the weather in Wareham in March of 2004 was cold and rainy and that it reminded him of his home in Connecticut. Memories aside, he passed through town, as The Grand Army of the Republic Highway (as its often referred to) passes through Wareham on the way from the Cape towards California.

On Aug. 16 at 11 a.m., he’ll visit the Wareham Free Library to promote his new book, entitled “10 Million Steps on Route 6,” which documents many of the cities, towns, and overall experiences of his cross-country trek, with many of those stories being published in newspapers across the country at that time.

“The fist day I started, I was already tired,” said Hurley, who set a series of goals along the way, with the very first being to get off Cape Cod. “Wareham was certainly part of that.”

Hurley, a retired newspaper-man, said the idea for the trip started when he was reporting for the The Sun-Times in Danbury. He realized he didn’t know much about the eastern part of Connecticut, set out on foot and wrote several stories for the newspaper about his adventures throughout the state.

That sparked his curiosity.

“I started looking at Route 6, and I was shocked that it went all the way to Cape Cod. Then I looked to the West, and it kept going and going and going, all the way to California,” he said. “I thought it would be a great idea to [do what he did for the newspaper] for the rest of the country. That’s really how the walk was born.”

The walk had its share of ups and downs, figuratively and literally. Though he had Travis Lindhorst, a freelance-photographer and driver who both accompanied him and contributed to the book, there were some points where he didn’t think he was going to make it.

Lindhorst would drop Hurley off at a spot along the road in the morning and pick him up a set location in the evening, taking pictures in the meantime. But in Nevada, for example, Hurley was walking along a stretch of Route 6 where the only towns around were over 100 miles apart, and he got caught in an unexpected snowstorm, with Lindhorst nowhere in site. Eventually, the two found each other.

“That was probably one of the scariest parts,” he said, noting that that particular stretch of road is actually called “The Loneliest Road in America.”

Hurley said that overall, the people he encountered got nicer as he headed West. In the Northeast, he’d barely get so much as a wave out of people, but by Pennsylvania, people would come up and talk to him and offer help, and by the time he reached the Midwest, several people would approach him a day to see if he needed any assistance in his journey.

This year, Hurley published the book about his journey, which is packed with pictures, places, and anecdotes from his epic trip, and will be available when he visits Wareham in August.

Hurley said he’s grateful for being provided the opportunity to stop in at the Wareham Free Library, which will be the last stop on a book tour that will visit several cities and towns across the Cape and parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Hurley said those who visit the library that day will be able to view the book, and he’ll give a virtual tour to share his experiences captured in it.

“We take a virtual trip across the country with the book as our roadway. Along the way, we meet all sorts of Americans and visit places most folks never see. The audience loves being part of the journey.”

Now 70, Hurley said that if he were younger, he’d love to make the trek again, but it would be physically impossible. As for anyone thinking of making a similar journey, Hurley said that being prepared is always good, but first and foremost, one has to be lucky to make it all the way across.

“People ask me what they need most—what they need most is luck,” he said. “You can do all the preparing you want, but there’s so many things you can’t control, like the weather, getting hurt, or sickness. [If any of those things happen] the trip is over and there’s nothing you can do about it.