Mary Mosso spent a year walking around the United States and when she got to Harmony she fell in love.

Mosso, 44, spent a little more than one year walking through the 30 states east of the Mississippi River. The trip started and ended in her native Massachusetts, though part of her journey was to look for a new place to settle and work on a book based on the trip.

“I had a plan to keep a short list of places to go to write the book. When I was in Harmony I was like 'I love this.' I didn't expect it. I didn't think Pennsylvania, New York or New England would be on the list,” she said.

Mosso said she always wanted to walk across the country or have some type of adventure, but always had other obligations.

She had a son when she was 19 and raised him while putting herself through college. She worked as a social worker after college and for the past 10 years had been the manager of a restaurant.

A couple of years ago, her son finished college and moved to Los Angeles and she learned that she would lose her job when the restaurant she managed changed hands.

“I didn't think of it as a year off. I looked at it as, for a year I'm going to live differently,” she said.

In October 2013, she moved out of her apartment, made sure her cell phone bill was taken care of and set out with a stroller filled with clothes, toiletries and camping gear.

She walked about 20 miles a day. Although she had a few minor injuries and plenty of fatigue and soreness, she made it through the year without major health problems.

She knew she would be capable of walking great distances after participating in a Susan G. Komen 3-Day event where she walked 60 miles in three days, she said.

Mosso said she spent about a year planning a route and notifying friends and family in various areas when she would be stopping in. During the journey, she kept a journal and posted photos to “Because I Can” on Facebook.

Some of her family were worried about her being out on her own but she kept in touch with her cell phone and the Facebook page, she said.

After the first month she largely abandoned her itinerary and took time to enjoy the places she visited. These were mostly small towns instead of big cities.

She had some money saved up for food and other expenses. For lodging, she stayed at campgrounds and with strangers she found through couchsurfing.org or by talking to people at gas stations and small-town gathering places.

“I lived simply, I did a lot of grocery shopping at the dollar store, ate a lot of peanut butter. The kindness of strangers was amazing. I couldn't have done it without that,” she said.

Starting in October, she went south and spent most of the winter in southern states. Then she went north through the Midwest and went through Ohio to Pittsburgh. Next she went north to New York and New England before returning home in October of this year.

One friend she arranged to meet along the way was Elizabeth Jacobs of Zelienople.

They met through an online book club and had been friends for 15 years, but they didn't meet in person until Mosso's trip.

Jacobs hosted Mosso when she came to this area. They visited museums, shops and restaurants. They also did some volunteer work.

Mosso said she decided Harmony would be a perfect place to work on a book because it was quiet, but also vibrant with friendly people, small shops and artists.

“The people were so nice, it has a southern feel to it without being in the South,” she said.

Mosso decided she wanted to move to Harmony after her trip, so she stayed several days longer than originally planned meeting people and even lining up an apartment to move into in January.

“She saw the entire eastern half of the country and all different kind of ways of living and communities,” Jacobs said. “She's pretty much seen it all and she picked our place to live, so that says a lot about what a great place to live Butler County is.”

Mosso said outside of Western Pennsylvania, her favorite states were Alabama and Louisiana. There she experienced new cultures, met friendly people and shot a gun for the first time.

“Louisiana was so much fun and it was like four states in one state, because it was culturally so different in each section,” she said.

Her plan is to write a book based on her experience, though it will not be a journal or memoir simply documenting the trip.

She plans to move to Harmony in early January and will work on the book for no more than one year. After that she will seek a publisher or possibly self-publish it.

To see photos and read more about Mosso's journey, visit Facebook.com/becauseican201314?fref=ts.