Many people have decided to walk, run or drive across the country for various worthy causes. But it might be safe to say Eric Sheets is the first to attempt to walk bare foot from western Ohio to the west coast along with a donkey and a dog.

The 30-year-old left Rockford, Ohio, his hometown, on Memorial Day, and arrived in Oskaloosa Sunday morning around 3 a.m. Tuesday afternoon, Sheets and Buck were sitting under the shade of a large tree at the Southern Iowa Fairgrounds, while tethered to a nearby tree was Moses, frequently flicking his tail to shoo the flies.

The trio does its walking at night because it is cooler and there is less traffic, Sheets said. So far, Sheets estimates they have covered 500 of an approximately 2,000-mile trip to Seattle, Wash.

He said they try to average 15 miles a night. And on one night, they walked 33 miles.

The idea for the walk hit Sheets last year on June 9. The reason for the bare foot walk is to bring about an education revolution.

“I’m trying to compare the education system as it is the same as walking barefoot — it’s slow and painful and not much progress for society,” Sheets said. “It’s the same education system. The same textbooks are still being printed that say two plus two since the book has been printed. Well, now we have technology and we need to take advantage of that.”

The walk to Seattle is to pitch something called “adaptive learning” to Bill Gates, who in the past has expressed a willingness to address education issues, Sheets said.

“I’m not walking for the fun of it,” Sheets said. “So if I’ve got a shot to get this to Bill Gates, well, I’ll play my cards.”

Sheets defended his motive as purely altruistic.

“People are like, ‘You’re trying to sell this to him,’” Sheets said. “No, I’m trying to give this to him. I’m trying to give it to humanity. If Bill Gates wants nothing to do with it, that’s fine. At least I gave him a shot. But there will be someone that will take this up.”

Sheets said the idea he developed three years ago is way beyond his capacity.

“Well, think of a touch screen television that interacts with you as you watch TV,” Sheets said. “So as you watch television, it knows who you are. And as you watch the certain shows that you are watching, it starts asking simple trivial facts of knowledge about it. And dependent upon how the level of answers you give out that are correct, depends on the next level of how hard they go or backs off.”

The learning program could be introduced to children as early as 1 year of age and would adapt as the user ages and changes preferences.

“It would be adaptive learning because it keeps growing with you through the end of your life,” Sheets said. “I’m talking all the way through our college years through our adult years right now. Because you could introduce this to people that’s never had any…they don’t even have to have a G.E.D.”

Sheets admitted his vision of adaptive learning is beyond the current level of today’s technology and not available.