In January 2026, a 22-year-old from North Carolina named Jack Kadis began an attempt to walk the entire perimeter of the United States of America. He set out from Virginia Beach and immediately began trekking south along the Atlantic coast. On Friday, that journey brought him through Flagler Beach on Day 51.
Kadis has been documenting his journey on Instagram, as well as TikTok and YouTube. He posts daily video updates on where he’s been, how he’s gotten by, and the people and things he’s encountered. In doing so Kadis has grown to over 36,000 followers in less than two months of walking.
Unlike many famous solo cross-country expeditions, Kadis’s purpose is simple. He’s not raising awareness for a lofty cause. He’s not attempting to break a Guinness World Record. “I hope to entertain people,” he said while walking past Break-Awayz late Friday morning. “That’s one of the most frequently asked questions and it always trips me up, but that’s a new answer I’ve never given before. I think I like to entertain people. That’s my biggest directive.”
At night Kadis finds a safe (and ideally legal) place to set up his tent. He works with only what he can carry on his back: a tent, clothing, water, food, and rain gear.
Help From a Local Business
Entertaining his followers is not the only way Kadis has formed human connections on his journey. On Thursday he woke up in Crescent Beach and made his way down SR-A1A to Flagler County. He stopped for the night at Good Times Dog Bar, where he’d obtained permission to pitch his tent and sleep for the night.
“It’s like family over there,” Kadis said about his experience in Flagler Beach. “If you are near the area, I would definitely recommend checking it out.” While at the Dog Bar, Kadis was offered water, a hot shower, dinner from a local restaurant, and a place to sleep. He was even offered a bed, but Kadis opted to sleep in his tent like any other night.
“The second I met him, I just felt like I could trust him,” said Good Times Dog Bar co-owner Nicole Cooksey. “The second I met him, I saw he’s just, he’s a good, good, good soul.”
The Future
Over the weekend Kadis will be making his way down into Volusia County. He expects to make it through Daytona Beach in the coming few days. From there he’ll make his way down Florida’s Atlantic coast before beginning the hike north and west to circle the Gulf of Mexico.
There’s no hard goal on when Kadis hopes to complete his journey. “I think that would just be sort of daunting,” he said, peering out at the ocean. “I think that might just be, like, a waste of time.”
In the meantime, Kadis is planning on walking around eleven miles each day. Short of boisterous opossums and squirrels, he’s yet to encounter any danger. The challenges of each leg seem to be finding food and water, along with a safe place to sleep. Kadis has a Venmo open for donations by those hoping to help him along.
Its called the Gulf of America now.
The decision to refer to the body of water on Florida’s west coast as the Gulf of Mexico is not a political one. AP Style, the most commonly used metric for journalistic formatting and reference, opts to use ‘Gulf of Mexico’ as it is still the name recognized by the majority of the globe.
In another geographical renaming by the Trump admin (Denali reverting to Mt. McKinley), AP Style dictates that the name change under Pres. Trump should be adhered to as his authority over geographical names within the USA’s borders is absolute and undisputed.
It is the most efficient and equitable approach in journalism to use the name by which the most readers would recognize the place being referred to. In that case, the consensus among leading journalistic institutions is that the Gulf of Mexico is appropriate in news contexts.
https://www.ap.org/the-definitive-source/announcements/ap-style-guidance-on-gulf-of-mexico-mount-mckinley/