this trip was something of an experiment. I wanted to test the workabiliy of essentially walking in a direction, trying impromptu forms of transit and accomodation and see how many things I could see on a budget. I wanted to move slow enough to wittness the culture, geography, and weather shift. I wanted a little to see if the spirit of karoack was still alive.
on a scale of realistic to romantic id have to admit that the experiment fell on the grounded side, and that ground would've been better traversed with an automobile.

walking: you will either be on the unpleasant shoulder of a highway or abandoned drearily to long miles through unpopulated wilderness and wasteland.

hitchhiking: died off some time after Karoack did. if your time is worth literally nothing you might like this method, and though I met a couple locals this way- a rarity in the rest of my trip- it really got me almost nowhere in a long time.

busses: pretty affordable in the states. certainly close to what you would pay for gas in your own car. I rode greyhound, amtrak and bolt. the cheapest runs are the longhauls betwwn cities, so tbe nature of it is tbat you miss lots of interesting in the mean.

train: loved the train. same issue as the bus in that you skip stuff seen better by car, but the view from a train can exceed the highway by a long shot and they are immensely more comfortable than a bus, plane and even most automobiles. have a drink. take a walk. enjoy.

local transit: time consuming to navigate but often the best way to see a city. I found San francisco to be the easiest network, though it might have lacked the glitz of a light rail- which it seems some cities only put in so they can say they have one.