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->''Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.''
-->--'''Steven Wright'''

-->''"Basically I'm just gonna walk the earth...You know, like Caine in the ''KungFu'' - walk from place to place, meet people, get in adventures."''
-->--'''Jules Winnfield''', ''PulpFiction''

Footloose and fancy-free, we set off among the AdventureTowns, seeking the next place, rather than our fortunes.

This trope is bottomless, it seems. The audience ''wants'' to believe life without roots is romantic and [[InHarmsWay full of adventure]]. [[TheDrifter The character]] has no home, no job, no money, no identification, no friends, no visible means of support, yet is always healthy, well-fed, clean, and welcome wherever he goes.

Most of us would agree with Vincent Vega's response to Jules: "You're gonna become a ''bum!'' If you don't have a job, a home, and legal tender, that's all you'll be is a bum. Someone who picks in garbage cans and eats the stuff I throw away."

There have been few WalkingTheEarth shows lately; the trope lay fallow until fall 2005, when a WalkingTheEarth show entitled ''{{Supernatural}}'' premiered.

This trope is a very American one, and it's also a very [[{{The Nineties}} Nineties]] one - it's practically joined at the hip with the {{Nineties Adventure Show}} genre, in which it saw by far its fullest expression. As far as big TV producing nations go, The U.S. of A. has the geography best suited to this form of adventure, however, in reality, [[{{California Doubling}} most of these shows which featured American leads were actually shot in either Canada or New Zealand]] and [[{{Ooh Me Accents Slipping}} featured plenty of local supporting cast]]. (Notable exception: DoctorWho, largely because he isn't limited to walking the ''Earth'')

When one is forced to walk the earth against one's will, this trope becomes the much darker FlyingDutchman.

If a character WalkingTheEarth has a strict code of honor and spreads justice in his wake, he's a KnightErrant.

Subtrope of InHarmsWay. See also: SternChase, TheDrifter, FlyingDutchman.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* ''{{Blame}}''! jumps several steps ahead and has a protagonist '''''[[BeyondTheImpossible walk the Solar System!]]'''''
* The anime ''GoldenBoy'' is about a young man who ''bikes'' the Earth.
** More accurately, the titular young man bikes Japan. But in Japan, the world IS Japan, so the trope stands.
* The cast of RPG-trope specific ''{{Pokemon}}'' also engaged in WalkingTheEarth, as especially pointed out via the amazing GhibliHills landscapes in the ending credits of the first movie. If the game is any indication, it's a-okay to wander the world alone at the age of ten!
** [[AllThereInTheManual Eleven.]] [[{{Mons}} While carrying around superpowered monsters capable of breathing fire, flying, generating enough electricity to power a small town, et cetera]]. When there's a free TraumaInn in nearly every town. And remember that [[FantasyCounterpartCulture just about every region is analogous to a part of Japan.]]
* ''[[KinosJourney Kino's Journey]]'' has a main character and a talking motorcycle travel across a fictional world.
** [[spoiler:A pretty acceptable alternative to being forcefully altered into a {{Pollyanna}}-i.e. an adult.]]
* The brothers in ''NightHeadGenesis''.
* In ''RanmaOneHalf'', the Saotomes had been doing this for about fifteen years at the opening of the series. It's left up in the air whether or not their time in the Tendo Dojo qualifies as the ''end'' of their WalkingTheEarth, or merely a temporary respite. Also, antagonist Ryoga Hibiki always Wanders The Earth, due to the fact that his [[NoSenseOfDirection sense of direction]] is so ''bad'' he gets lost trying to [[TheExitIsThatWay walk across a room]]. [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Ukyo Kuonji]] also spent about ten years doing this after Genma stole her father's cart and abandoned her, while minor [[VillainOfTheWeek single-arc antagonists]] are often implied to be doing this, like Natsume & Kurumi (anime) and Ryu Kumon (manga), who are travelling all over Japan in search of their father and the counterpart to their school of martial arts respectively.
* Vash the Stampede and Nicholas D. Wolfwood from ''{{Trigun}}'' are examples, except that the planet isn't Earth.
* The setting of ''TheSlayers''
* The ''{{Saiyuki}}'' gang could be considered to be part of this trope; although they do have a destination, they get side-tracked so often that they might as well not have one. Luckily, Sanzo has a credit card. The kind that's accepted everywhere. Even in small, rural villages in the middle of nowhere.
* This makes up most of the plot of ''ScrappedPrincess''...but they do a lot more running, so to speak.
* [[spoiler:Simon and Boota]] did this at the end of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Not all fans were pleased with the circumstances. It's justified by the fact that he's simply not the type of person to settle down - let [[spoiler:Rossiu]] lead Kamina City while [[spoiler:Simon]] has his freedom.
* The characters from ''BloodPlus'', literally circling the world by the time the series is over. Particularly Hagi, who not only accompanies Saya on her journey during the series, but also wanders the earth during her dormant periods as well.
* Kenshiro is introduced doing this in ''FistOfTheNorthStar'', and generally wanders when he isn't dealing with a specific foe.
* Guts wanders Midland in ''{{Berserk}}'' when we first see him, until the "Conviction" arc gives him something to focus on.
* ''RurouniKenshin'' [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] this trope, showing what happens when a swordsman who'd been wandering around Japan for 10 years actually settles down in one place for a while. Kenshin does leave Tokyo occasionally, but it's always for a specific place and a specific goal, and he always returns to the Kamiya dojo in the end.
** It's also played straight: [[spoiler: Soujirou, Shishio's [[TheDragon Dragon]] ends up Walking The Earth after the Kyoto arc.]]
* [[spoiler: C.C.]] ends up doing this in ''CodeGeass''.
* Kusuriuri-san (The Medicine Seller) in ''{{Mononoke}}''.
* Van from GunXSword was WalkingTheEarth before the series began - more specifically, before he met Elena - and then ends up wandering about nearly aimlessly in search of The Clawed Man who killed her. [[spoiler: After he gets his revenge, he leaves his comrades to continue his aimless wandering. The last shot of the series, however, indicates his wandering may be cut short.]]
* Rain in ''{{Immortal Rain}}''.
* ''{{InuYasha}}''
* In ''Dragonball'' Master Roshi sends his students to walk the earth and get stronger. Goku does this for most of his childhood.
* Kuro and her party in ''ShoulderACoffinKuro''. The purpose of the journey is actually [[spoiler:to find a cure for Kuro]], though.
* ''OnePiece''.
* [[{{Claymore}} Claymores]] don't have a home. They are constantly given assignments that take them from town to town and never settle in one place.
** Although, Claymores aren't necessarily ''welcome'' wherever they go. It's more like: "Uh, great. Can you kill the shape-shifting demon really quick and go away? Oh, and don't become a demon yourself and eat us. Thanks..."
* Ginko from ''{{Mushishi}}''.
* Male Tsubasa of the titular TsubasaReservoirChronicle curses himself to [[FlyingDutchman forever do this]] as payment for not disappearing when his [[MyOwnGrampa parental paradox]] starts resolving itself. Rather than wandering ''one'' world, he's wandering the ''multiverse''. It isn't that bad, though, as he's got two travelling companions and can stop by his girlfriend's place anytime he wants to as long as he doesn't stay too long.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Doctor Bruce Banner in ''Comicbook/TheIncredibleHulk''.
** And David Banner in [[IncredibleHulk the TV series]].
* Miyamoto Usagi of ''UsagiYojimbo'', much like the historical figure he's loosely based on, MiyamotoMusashi. And many others.
* ''GrooTheWanderer''
* ''YTheLastMan'' has [[NonActionGuy Yorick]] and [[ActionGirl 355]] going from Washington D.C. to Paris the long way by the time the story ends [[spoiler: ([[HotScientist Dr. Mann]] got dropped off in China to continue her father's work)]]. It started out an escort mission to get the titular [[LastOfHisKind last man]] to the nearest cloning expert in Boston and things kinda snowballed when her lab was burned down.
* GreenLantern and GreenArrow spent some time WalkingTheEarth -- or America, at least -- together in the early '70s.
* In the unresolved ''ElfQuest: Rogue's Curse'' storyline Rayek walks the World of Two Moons accompanied by Ekuar and tormented by Winnowill's vengeful spirit.
* ''LuckyLuke'' rides around everywhere, often to wherever one of his missions take him. And he doesn't mind sleeping on the prairie ground with his saddle for a pillow.
*This is a major plot point of the graphic novel ''MidnightNation'', where a man has to walk from Los Angeles to New York in order to get his soul back.
* Travis Morgan spent most the ''TheWarlord'' doing this; sometimes intentionally and sometimes not. (Actually it was 'walking the hollow Earth world of Skartaris', but close enough.)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''First Blood'', Rambo is wandering around the United States, unable to mesh with society. The later films usually give him a home, which is portrayed as being somewhere in Thailand.
* ''{{Forrest Gump}}'' trekked (sometimes ran) quite a bit about the US countryside (not to mention a tour in the Viet Nam war) despite his homestead in Greenbow, Alabama, which seemed to maintain itself during his adventures.
* As written above, ''KungPow'' has TheChosenOne walk the earth for the first part of the movie after being raised by what seem to be rats.
* The end of ''Teeth'' implies that [[spoiler: our heroine will spend the rest of her days as TheDrifter, WalkingTheEarth and, um, [[{{Squick}} chomping off the penises of sexual predators]]]].
* [[TheNameless The Man With No Name]] in spaghetti Westerns, who rides into town, kills the bad guys... and leaves again, presumably on his way to some other town to do the same thing over again.
** This derives from the AkiraKurosawa movie ''{{Yojimbo}}'', where the ''yojimbo'' of the title is pictured wandering aimlessly around rural Japan before he comes into the village where the events of the film take place. In fact, he finds his way there by following the direction pointed out by a stick he tossed in the air.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Cain in ''Bereshis'', wandering with God's mark on his forehead protecting him---''from whom?'' is [[FridgeLogic a good question]], given that at that point there are almost no other people on Earth....
** Adam and Eve? Abel's surviving wife and kids (never mentioned but not ruled out either)? His brothers and sisters and their children? Cain, Abel, and Seth are the only children of Adam and Eve mentioned by name, but the Bible explicitly says there were others besides.
** The 'mark' Cain received was not necessarily a physical mark on his face. [[EpilepticTree God may have provided Cain with a dog, which would have followed Cain and protected him (and also provided an origin myth for the first canine-human partnership)]].
* Jack Reacher from Lee Child's books. After spending his life traveling the world with the army and living overseas most of his life, he chooses to become a drifter to see America. He never intends to make connections or put down roots, each of his adventures takes place in a different location, and he never buys anything he can't throw away.
* 'Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.'--from Job in The Bible, making this one of {{The Oldest Ones in the Book}}.
* LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Sharing Knife'' series of books.
* Ulysses as portrayed by Dante in ''Inferno''
**This characterization was picked up by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his poem about Ulysses. He gave the same story a more sympathetic treatment, but without removing the desire for adventure.
--->''I cannot rest from travel: I will drink''\\
''Life to the lees:''
** Note that Dante, at least formally believing the ''Æniad'''s conceit that the Troyans founded Rome and became the notional ancestors of the Italians, has it in for Odysseos, hence his position among the False Counselors in the eighth[?] circle of Hell.
* RobertAHeinlein's blind singer Rhysling, composer of the song "The Green Hills of Earth" in the short story of the same name. Until the accident that blinded him, he had been a spaceship engineer; after the accident, he took advantage of the informal custom that a spacer could have one free trip home, using it to wander at will all over the solar system.
* Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian and all Conan-derived characters. Conan himself, at least, has some explanation for how he makes a living while wandering (thief and occasional mercenary soldier).
* Randall Flagg, BigBad of Stephen King's ''TheStand'' and TheDragon of ''TheDarkTower'', is the rare villainous version of Walking the Earth. And Walking Alternate Universes.
** In ''TheDarkTower V: Wolves Of The Calla'', Father Callahan reveals that he had spent the time between the events of ''[='Salem's=] Lot'' and his arrival at Calla bryn Sturgis wandering the Earth.
*In John Steinbeck's ''East of Eden'', Adam walks the earth for several years after leaving the Army-he doesn't have much want or need to return home.
* Mark Twain's ''{{The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn}}'' ... possibly inspired by Twain's real life experiences.
* The Old English poem ''The Wanderer.''
* ''Underneath the Lintel'', a play by Glen Bergen, is about the narrator following the clues left behind by The Wandering Jew (see Mythology, below) across the world. Note that the treatment of the Jew is not based in racism, as the original myth is.
* In ''TheLordOfTheRings'', Gandalf the Grey spent two millenia [[WalkingTheEarth Walking The (Middle) Earth]] while searching for ways to resist the rearising of Sauron.
** Bilbo develops a taste for this after his adventures in ''The Hobbit'' and leaves to do just that near the beginning of ''The Fellowship of the Ring''.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''TheATeam'' travels the USA in their van.
* ''DoctorWho'' is a classic example of this, though it's helped by the fact that the Doctor, with a TARDIS and {{time travel}}, really doesn't need to worry about food, shelter, or expenses.
** Although we never see him actually acquiring any of these things. Presumably the TARDIS is equipped with bedrooms, toiletries, and an infinite cupboard somewhere.
*** Although he does have to make runs to Earth when he runs out of milk.
** In the 3rd series finale, Martha Jones has walked the earth for one year in order to [[spoiler:tell everyone left on earth the story of the Doctor who has saved them countless times so that at the right moment they can all think of the Doctor and save the world.]]
*** Subverted by Donna during her off-screen time between Christmas 2006 and series four. She got bored after a few weeks after she realised "it's all bus trips and guidebooks and don't drink the water and two weeks later you're back home".
* Dr. Richard Kimble, going from town to town, searching for the One Armed Man in ''TheFugitive''.
* Hercules and his sidekick Iolaus of ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' also wandered the ancient world battling monsters, gods, and warlords.
* The protagonists of ''Highway To Heaven'' -- though again, having an Angel of the Lord riding shotgun probably makes the little things easier to deal with.
* In ''The Immortal'', has Christopher George as Ben Richards, who runs from the employees of a terminally ill, wealthy man who want to capture him for transfusions of his blood because he has every immunity there is, and is likely to live forever, and would do something similar for anyone who got transfusions from him. The exact opposite of ''Run For Your Life'' (see).
* Caine in ''KungFu'' is, of course, the TropeNamer, and did a lot to show people how easy it was to apply the model of AdventureTowns to an ongoing series.
* ''TheLittlestHobo'' was this kind of series, only the central character was a dog.
* ''QuantumLeap'': Like the show article says, replace "Earth" with "Timeline".
* In ''{{Renegade}}'', Reno was a bounty hunter on the run from the law.
* The lucky guys in ''{{Route 66}}'' got to do it in a Corvette.
* In the mid-1960s series ''RunForYourLife'', Ben Gazzara played a terminally ill man who roamed the world, trying to live as full a life as possible in the time left to him. See ''The Immortal'' for the inverse.
* In the Saturday-morning live-action adaptation of ''{{Shazam}}!'', Billy and his Mentor "travelled the highways and byways of the land on a neverending mission".
* The TV version of ''{{Starman}}''.
* ''{{Supernatural}}''. Partly justified in that the Winchester boys have been shown to be competent enough forgers and con men to make a living.
* ''Then Came Bronson'' has Michael Parks traveling around the country on a motorcycle.
* The ''TouchedByAnAngel'' spin-off ''PromisedLand'' featured a family that traveled the US while living in a trailer home.
* Parodied in ''WhateverHappenedToTheLikelyLads'', where Bob points out to Terry that his dream of doing 'whatever I like' can't happen except in America. Terry flees anyway, and gets as far as Berwick-upon-Tweed.
* Xena and her sidekick Gabrielle from ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' wandered ancient Greece (and Rome, Egypt, China, India, Scandinavia) fighting warlords to atone for her past as the worst warlord of them all.
* Every week Jarod was in a new place with a new job in ''ThePretender'' while running from "the Centre".
* TravelogueShow as a genre in general is arguably a nonfiction version of this trope.
* ''Feasting on Asphalt'' is a travelogue show about road food starring [[GoodEats Alton Brown]].
* Celeb chef Anthony Bourdain's travelogue show ''No Reservations.'' In fact, the original premise of the show was that he would be dropped off at a location without his knowledge ala ''ManVsWild'' or ''{{Survivorman}}'' and forced to experience the local culture on his own, but that premise was quickly dropped in favored of well-researched and carefully-planned itineraries.
* ''Movin' On'' with Claude Akins, who plays a long-haul truck driver, and his co-driver who quit law school one credit short of his degree.
* Adam 'the Knight' of the Yorkshire Television series [[TheWandererTVSeries The Wanderer]]. His [[TheObiWan mentor]] and his love interest also seem to spend a lot of time on the road.
* ''{{Knight Rider}}'' has Michael Knight driving [[strike: the Earth]] the United States and [[TheyFightCrime fighting crime]] with his [[CoolCar cool AI car/buddy, KITT]].
** The 2008 revival series has Michael Knight (Jr.) also driving [[strike: the USA]] California and fighting crime with the new incarnation of KITT, after it's mid-season retool.
*Played ''very'' straight in ''{{Firefly}}'', with the crew of ''Serenity'' being constantly on the move. Though they do live in a comfortably-sized spacecraft, the crew has to constantly deal with PerpetualPoverty and is always on the run from the law, and sometimes complain about not being able to stay in once place for longer than a few days at a time.
*Arguably [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''TheRiches'' in which the premise is that of a family of [[IrishTravellers travellers]] that ''stops'' walking the earth.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* The song by the group Lobo, ''Me and You and a Dog named Boo'' tells a story of a guy and someone else who is apparently his LoveInterest, as he, his girlfriend and their dog are "travelin' and livin' off the land."

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mythology ]]

* Odin did a bit of this, enough to earn him the nickname Wanderer.
* Medieval Christian folklore held that there was a Jew who taunted Jesus on his way to being crucified, and was thereafter cursed to keep living and wander the earth until the second coming. The details vary wildly between stories, but the myth is now largely forgotten due to modern ValuesDissonance and UnfortunateImplications, particularly after the Nazis made a viciously anti-semitic propaganda film named for the legend (''Der Ewige Jude'', the Eternal Jew).
** This legend has also been conflated with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities, so the "wandering Jew" may be "wandering Judas."

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* Too many DungeonsAndDragons [[WeHelpTheHelpless adventuring parties]] to count.
* Eldar in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' who feel too confined by their society's rigid structure are allowed to pursue the Path of the Exile and become Rangers, though they usually respond to requests from their craftworld to return and offer their skills (and sniper rifles) in defense of their race.
* Dwarf Slayers in {{Warhammer}} are [[FlyingDutchman banished from Dwarf society]] and doomed to [[DeathSeeker seek out battles]] so they can [[ForgivenessRequiresDeath meet an honourable death]]. Er, OrSoIHeard...
**It's RightThereInTheManual actually. Dwarves who have been disgraced must seek out their own death, and cannot commit suicide due to moral code (their gods would deny them a peaceful rest). They have 2 choices: Join the side of Chaos, or become a Troll Slayer. If they don't die as a troll Slayer, they try to become a Giant Slayer. If they still survive after that, they become Daemon Slayers. Its hinted at that there's a class beyond even Daemon Slayer (Dragon Slayer), but in-verse such a thing would be impossible as Daemon Princes would pose the bigger challenge.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Trent in ''{{Freelancer}}'' is a young pilot who ''flies the space''. The game provides quite enough missions to give him cash not only to keep himself well-fed and groomed, but also to outfit his ship with enough firepower to destroy ''entire space stations'' (if only the game would actually let the player destroy space stations, which are indestructible by the player. Still, the player can eventually destroy any ship in known space. Or 10).
** Of course, Trent doesn't ''want'' to fly the space. The backstory sets up that he was just looking to make a quick buck and had it within his grasp before being sent back to well before square one, setting up the main game's plot.
* This is the plot of the RPG ''RomancingSaGa'' - a main character wanders around the world, fighting monsters and righting wrongs with no greater goal in sight, until the lord of all evil rises from his prison and the player gets the job of sending him back again.
* Most, if not all of the ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' games. They're called "[[TheDrifter Drifters]]" for a reason, you know.
** Of course, in Wild ARMs mythology, Drifters are less about walking the earth and more about living day to day, doing odd jobs (which tend to be monster hunting) to earn a living. They don't wander because they want to either: more than a few characters have become drifters by necessity rather than by choice.
* Subverted in Orstead's Ending of the Final Chapter in LiveALive [[spoiler: He does wander the earth but with nobody around]]
*Link from ''TheLegendOfZelda'' usually does this after defeating Ganon. In particular, ''Link's Awakening,'' ''Majora's Mask,'' and ''Phantom Hourglass'' all involve adventures that happen as he is adventuring with no particular goal in sight.
*Ike from ''FireEmblem'' does this. He turns down a chance to be a noble in order to wander around with his posse of mercenaries, and all of his endings involve him leaving Tellius forever, presumably to do some more earth-walking.
* Guy in the ending of ''FinalFight'', after clobbering fellow player character Cody. (They were rivals for the love of the DistressedDamsel.
* This trope is what you do in more or less every [[{{Console RPG Cliches 1 To 24}} Console RPG]]. When you can get money simply by killing monsters ([[{{Money Spider}} they somehow drop it or have it in their blood or something]]), freeing you from having to have any kind of steady employment, and there's an [[{{We Buy Anything}} Item Store]] in every town that conveniently sells everything you might need to survive and an [[{{Trauma Inn}} Inn]] in each of those same towns that can constantly keep you in perfect health, it seems like a lot more viable of an option than it does in [[{{Real Life}} real life]].
** Especially if you can use magic. Conjuring your own food and water helps, as does being able to teleport in case of emergencies. Obviously, this means that this trope can be perfectly ''reasonable'' in fantasy settings.
* ''StreetFighter'''s Ryu embodies this trope. His ending in ''Street Fighter 2'' even calls him simply a "wandering warrior".
* Zero at the end of the first ''MegaManZero'' game, separated from his allies for almost a year.
* It is only implied, but this supposedly happens to [[spoiler:Veyne and Pamela]] in their ending in ''ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis''. This is probably because [[spoiler:Pamela is a ''ghost'']].
* If you don't find Ancardia in Maria's route of ''KnightsInTheNightmare'', she and the Wisp wind up doing this for the rest of their lives.
* Bartz (and his chocobo!) in FinalFantasyV. He starts the game as a wanderer, [[spoiler:following his father's dying wish that he carry out this trope]]. He returns to this after saving the world.
** In ''Dissidia Final Fantasy'', when he's threatened by Exdeath by being told that he'll wander forever in the void after being defeated, he calmly replies that that doesn't sound half bad, but then goes on to win anyway. He personifies the wind, after all, and the principle attribute of the wind is that it travels.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* In ''SluggyFreelance'' Oasis started doing this after the "Dangerous Days" arc (though so far we've only seen one of the [[AdventureTown Adventure Towns]] she's visited).
** Turns out she did it until she found Podunkton, then stopped. So there wasn't much wandering after all.
* Ohforf'Sake, the main character of TheNoob is continuing to wander the world of a {{MMORPG}}.
* Galatea in ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob."
* Subverted in [[CwensQuest Cwen's Quest]] where Cwen is [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Cwens_Quest/index.php?p=413930 cold, hungry and miserable]] during a walking the earth phase in her past. Even in the present, while she is on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, her life is often shown to be less then glamorous.
*TheOrderOfTheStick does this, being, presumably, a [[DungeonsAndDragons D'n'D]] party. [[spoiler: When the party split up, though, it was a kind of settling down. With Elan, Durkon and V with the Azure City refugees, which were themselves WalkingTheEarth, but it seemed like settling due to their lack of any real progress. The other half of the party, Belkar, Haley, Roy's corpse, and eventually Celia, stayed in the hobgoblin occupied Azure City to become part of TheResistance.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

*Common in DimensionHeroes, from Wyn traversing the Earth to the Dimensional Guardians traversing Creturia.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Even Cartoon Network has done this kind of series, twice: ''SamuraiJack'', and then ''[[BenTen Ben 10]]''.
** Samurai Jack does have a purpose to his wandering, however: he's looking for a way back into the past. A journey without a specific destination, but with a very specific goal.
* Sonic and Tails in {{Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog}}
*''[[{{Scooby-Doo}} Scooby-Doo]]'', in all its incarnations, is centered around this trope, as the teenage heroes roam the country solving mysteries for local townspeople, without getting paid, without having any recurring family or friends, and without ever worrying about school or jobs. Later spin-offs, adaptations and supplemental material refer to them as "Mystery, Inc.", though it's only in the more recent entries that they're generally recognized as investigators, and even then there never seems to be any payment involved. Their wanderings are [[ParentalBonus subtly]] parodied in some spin-offs: at one point, the Mystery Machine drives through a snowfield to a scientific outpost, and a character cheerfully announces, "here we are gang, Antarctica!"
* [[AdultSwim Adult Swim]]'s ''[[XavierRenegadeAngel Xavier: Renegade Angel]]''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Jack Kerouac
* Historical example: MiyamotoMusashi, the famed swordsman and author of The Book of Five Rings, spent much of his life as a {{ronin}}, wandering Japan as part of a Musha Shugyo (warrior pilgrimage).
** A generation later, YagyuJubei embarked on a similar pilgrimage and disappeared from all records for a dozen years.
* Chris [=McCandless=], as documented in Jon Krakauer's book ''Into the Wild'', and the subsequent movie adaptation.
* It's a tradition of the old guilds, once one passes ''apprenticeship'' to become a ''journeyman'' and walk the Earth plying one's trade to accumulate knowledge enough to add to the craft.
* It's also a tradition amongst the devout, both amongst classical Christians and Muslims, to go on a ''pilgrimage'' (in the latter case, specifically to Mecca). One ''can'' book a flight, but one is ''supposed'' to walk, except, of course, when Oceans block the path.
* A man named Peter Jenkins did this in 1973, and wrote a book about it titled ''A Walk Across America.'' (He didn't walk coast to coast, but went from Alfred, NY toward the Gulf of Mexico.) He spent a summer building up his endurance by running, and then started off ''in October.'' Surprisngly, he didn't freeze to death, although he came close a few times.
** Actually, Jenkins did go coast to coast. His walk from Louisiana, where he ended the first book, to Oregon where he completed his journey, is chronicled in the second book, ''The Walk West''. Not only did he make the cross-country walk, but he got married shortly before setting out on the second leg, and his wife went with him. He followed that up by walking through China.
* Many nomadic societies throughout history (the Mongols are one prominent example). They live on land that isn't suitable for stable agriculture, so they make a living hunting, grazing livestock, and raiding towns or other tribes.
*This troper remembers seeing a global nomad in the documentary ''Encounters at the End of the World''. If memory serves, growing up in Communist Eastern Europe caused him to cherish the freedom of travel. He kept a backpack packed at all times so he could up and leave at a moment's notice.
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