Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Martin Vosseler walks down Williamson Road during his pass through Roanoke on Thursday. Vosseler is walking from Los Angeles to Boston to promote the use of renewable energy.

All the belongings Martin Vosseler has with him are packed in a 55-pound duffel bag, attached to two sticks with a wheel. So far he has walked 2,300 miles and expects to walk 1,200 more.

Martin Vosseler (right) receives a cold Gatorade on a 93-degree day Thursday from Jay Hogan, who works for ColonialWebb Contractors. "It's hot out here. I have been working on a roof all day. I know he needs a cold drink," Hogan said as he gave the drink to Vosseler. "I have met so many nice people on my trip," Vosseler said. "Everyone is very, very nice."

These days it's not too hard to find people willing to share their concerns about global warning and renewable energy.

But few of them probably have talked to as many people in as many places as Martin Vosseler, a retired physician from Basel, Switzerland.

The 59-year-old was in Roanoke on Wednesday and Thursday during the latest stop on his walk across the United States to advocate the use of renewable energy resources.

The trek began in January in Los Angeles, where he arrived after a train ride from Boston. Vosseler traveled from Europe via freighter, the same way he expects to go home in September after completing his walk.

He stays in hotels where he can find them; in the tent he carries when he can't. All the belongings he has with him are packed in a 55-pound duffel bag, attached to two sticks with a wheel, which he can push or pull like a barrow.

Vosseler has been interviewed by media across the country, and he said he will be featured on a Weather Channel program called "Forecast Earth" in two weeks.

He has several Web sites, one of which -- www.sunwalk2008.com -- details this trip and even includes a map showing where he is each day.

Vosseler said he has walked 2,300 miles so far, and expects the total to be about 3,500 when he returns to Boston at summer's end. That will have been about 8 million steps -- and eight new soles on his sandals.

He's been promoting the cause for more than a decade, he said. In the past, he walked from Basel to Jerusalem, and crossed the Atlantic in a boat with a motor that used no more energy than a hair dryer.

Once he completes this project, he said he hopes to walk from Europe through Asia, and someday to sail the Pacific.

But now, he's enjoying the new people he meets every day and says he hasn't had a single bad experience on the walk.

He said he expected to be in Buchanan in Botetourt County on Thursday night and in Washington by June 13.

In the past couple of years, he said, "there's been an increased awareness of the energy problem. Whether it is because of the influence of Al Gore's film, or increased oil prices, or the increased number of tornadoes, people are concerned. They realize something needs to be done."

While he sees the solution to the energy crisis as "a much bigger project than flying to the moon, or the Manhattan Project," which created the atomic bomb, Vosseler also said he firmly believes it is possible.

With the sun our major provider of energy, only 1 percent of all the energy on Earth is nonrenewable, Vosseler said, "and 60 percent of that is wasted. So, if we cure the waste, we only have to replace the other 0.4 percent."

Instead of using oil, coal or nuclear power, he believes we can find ways to use solar, wind, tidal and geothermal energy.

"One hundred percent renewable is the goal," he said.

If the United States leads that effort, he added, "other countries will follow, and such a change could heal the U.S. economy."