Story first ran in Dec. 10, 2014, edition of the Siuslaw News

Jean White of Florence has walked in every state in the U.S. and on every continent. So what's on the 81-year-old retired school teacher's bucket list?

"There are two little things I want to do before I kick the bucket ," she says. "I want to walk Ohio and I want to walk Australia."

She'd also like to do a Mediterranean Cruise. So there is a third little thing. Why the first two? Ohio is the only state and Australia the only continent that she has yet to do a walk sanctioned by the American Volkssport Association (AVA).

"I've been to Ohio, I've walked in Ohio," White says. "But I've never been in the right place at the right time." There were no sanctioned walks in Australia when she walked there. The list appears modest for someone of White's accomplishments , except for the fact she had a stroke earlier this year.

She hopes to complete her recovery with a sanctioned 10-kilometer walk this Saturday in Depoe Bay.

"That's the plan, I expect to take part," White says. "I was flat on my back for three weeks after the stroke, and the doctor says now it's time to get back to volkswalking."

Her return to the sport coincides with the AVA's "It's Time to Walk" 10K starting at 10:11 a.m. this Saturday (12th month, 13th day) at Gracie's Sea Hag. The nationwide event is being organized locally by the Yachats Coastal Gems Volkssports Club, which includes walkers and hikers from Florence to Lincoln City.

It will be a nice comeback for White, who did her first volkswalk in Tigard in 1991.

"We walked from the high school over to City Hall," White says. "I've been collecting (record-keeping ) books and pins and lifelong friends ever since."

The AVA offers two blank books to members, one to record events and the other distances. When a book is complete, it can be sent to the national headquarters in Texas for a commemorative pin.

White has many dozens of pins. "My first 10 walks or so were in the state (of Oregon), but I've been walking all over the world since," she says.

White's first international walk was in the United Kingdom in 1999. Her most recent international walks were to South Africa in 2011 and Antarctica in 2010.

"Antarctica was special," she says. "There were penguins all around us, curious, coming up to you, nipping at your toes."

She and her fellow walkers arrived aboard an old icebreaker that had been converted to a small cruise ship. "It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't bad," White says. "I'd rather do that than sit on a ship and just look. At least you get out and do stuff."

All her trips have been through Walking Adventures International (WAI), a Vancouver, Wash., company founded by a former high school history teacher.

WAI has been in business more than 30 years, and is a sponsor of the AVA. The company offers packaged trips to all 50 states and the seven continents.

"There are people on those trips from all over, not just Oregonians," White says. "I've made some great friends." She also has made some good friends in Florence, where she settled in 2004. White has been a tour guide at the Heceta Head Lighthouse and a volunteer at the Siuslaw Library.

"I was shelving books one day a week, before my stroke," she says.

Her doctor has been reticent to allow her to return to the stairs of the lighthouse, but he has been encouraging her when it comes to walking.

"There are a lot of nice hikes around here," she says. "I try to walk every week with the Thursday Trail Trekkers.

"Sometimes it's two or three miles, sometimes six or seven. It's all women, and it's a lot of fun."

So she pushes on, a step at a time. This weekend it will be a 10K along a scenic coastal route. One day soon she hopes it will be Ohio, for that sanctioned walk. Then Australia. And then a Mediterranean cruise?

"I guess I've walked just about everywhere," she says, "but Mars."