Many marchers Thursday morning were unaware of the schedule; some predicted that the march would take as long as 12 days. Though most carried little but a guitar or drum or tambourine and a water bottle, they said they were not worried about provisions or safety during the trip.
"I'm not concerned at all," said Jay Kidd, 19. He made a much longer trek, he said, from Richmond to Miami earlier in the year with fellow Occupiers. "You get to interact with yourself and how you take to the elements."
Mary Hath Spokane, 65 - comparing the Occupy movement to Thomas Jefferson's vision of America and the civil rights protests she participated in as a college student - said she wasn't worried about walking to New York in the heat. After all, she has already withstood wintry, 90 m.p.h. winds while camping out at Occupy Olympia in Washington.
Carr said there would be three meals a day and plenty of water, plus precautionary measures to handle the heat. An air-conditioned van is riding alongside the chain of walkers, five medics are traveling with them, and 10-minute rest stops every hour are planned.
The group solicits donations online.
Most of the Occupy marchers ended the night at Snipes Farm in Morrisville, Bucks County. The farm was supposed to be the final destination for Day 2, but the group could not find an appropriate place in Northeast Philadelphia, said Batya Weinbaum, 60, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Weinbaum drove a van with the march and helped to shuttle marchers from State Road, near the city's prisons, to the farm. About 80 of the original group settled at the farm. They considered camping at a park off of State Road, but decided it didn't have the needed facilities for the exhausted activists.
There were no incidents of heat stroke, but the marchers were punished by heat.
"It was a lot of hot walking," Weinbaum said.
She said some marchers would return to State Road to resume the trek to New York, while others would stay at the farm and rejoin the march on Day 3.
While pausing and while walking, the Occupiers plan to be singing. From the moment they began their walk at Sixth and Chestnut Streets, small groups frequently broke into song. Strumming her guitar at Third and Market, Carr joked, "My fingers already hurt."
She added, "Music is a really great way to engage people. It's much more fun than just protesting."
Jason McGaughey said he hoped to attract the attention of working people who were not free to walk along the road for a week as the band of musical marchers passed through their cities. Asked why he was marching, he said, "Things are so messed up in this country that they're going to take years to fix."
Theo Talcott is taking a week off from his organic farming in Vermont to march. "I hope we make some kind of artistic statement about making a better world," he said. "I hope it's really fun. I hope I don't get run over."
Contact Julie Zauzmer at 215-854-2771 or jzauzmer@philly.com.
