Mary Hosbrough (left) and Jennifer Jacobsen-Wood, also known as Pedestrians in Peoria, pose by a mural painted by artist Steve Fairbanks while on an adventure to walk down every street in Peoria. The longtime friends are chronicling the project on Facebook. (Photo courtesy of Pedestrians in Peoria)

After walking 314 miles in a road race across Tennessee last summer, lifelong friends Jennifer Jacobsen-Wood and Mary Hosbrough are now tackling the streets of Peoria.

The two women have set a goal to walk every street in the River City, a project they started in November and are documenting on Facebook under the name “Pedestrians in Peoria.”

“Our goal is to do all the streets in Peoria that are accessible that don’t require going on private property,” Jacobsen-Wood said. “We’re having fun with it. We’ve been out when it’s sleeting and we’re miserable, and we still laugh all the time.”

According to Peoria Public Works, there are 1,445 city-owned streets, but the pedestrians are using a mapping tool called CityStrides that shows 1,645 streets, because it includes roadways such as the access road at Unity Point Health-Proctor and Northwoods Mall.

“We have walked 29 times since we started on Nov. 24, 2019, and we have completed 259 streets in Peoria,” Jacobsen-Wood said at the end of February. The two have also walked 11 streets in Peoria Heights and 13 in West Peoria, mostly by accident.

The CityStrides app makes it easy to share their progress on Facebook because it fills in the completed route in purple.

“I was originally just going to post the map and maybe a short anecdote, but then I got interested in doing the research into the history of the areas where we were walking,” said Jacobsen-Wood, a librarian.

With photos mostly taken by Hosbrough, the posts have become longer discussions about Peoria history and the people they meet along the way. Their page now has more than 1,500 followers.

One follower, Jeanette Brickner of Washington, said, “It’s very cool what these two are doing. I am learning new things from their posts. Some of us have lived here all our lives and still don’t know certain things that PiP is posting. As a fellow adventurer, some of their posts have inspired me to visit new spots in Peoria.”

While they didn’t expect to have so many followers, they enjoy when others provide information and fill in the blanks on some of the Peoria artifacts they encounter.

“We walked past something that looked like a fountain near Glen Oak Park and didn’t know what it was. When we posted a picture, one of the people following us on Facebook said it was a Kinsey fountain, which was used as a watering spot for horses back in the day,” Hosbrough said.

Learning about Peoria is just one objective for the two pedestrians. The project is also helping them train for another 300-plus mile road race they plan to walk in Tennessee this summer.

Three months into their project to walk and explore every street in Peoria, it was warm enough in February for the Pedestrians in Peoria to wear sandals, as long as they kept on their socks. Mary Hosbrough and Jennifer Jacobsen-Wood started their walking project toward the end of November. (Photo courtesy of Pedestrians in Peoria)

“We both for awhile have been trail runners, but I have a lot of injuries so I gradually started walking more and Mary has been kind enough to walk with me,” Jacobsen-Wood said. “We’ve been friends for 40 years since the second grade. We grew up together in  Sunnyland.”

They generally walk on the weekends and have complementing personalities that help them navigate most situations or obstacles they might encounter.

“I talk to pretty much everybody we pass,” Jacobsen-Wood said with a laugh. “I think we’re kind of noticeable because we’re out walking when the weather’s not great, and we wear hydration packs and carry a lot of our own supplies.”

As a substance abuse counselor, Hosbrough has training that kicks in whenever they encounter a potentially volatile situation.

“I tend to freeze a little in an emotional situation and not know what to do, so having Mary as my walking partner is great because she knows what to do,” Jacobsen-Wood said, describing a time they encountered a disturbed woman who was loud and agitated.

“If there’s something involving hurt animals or distressed people, that’s something I’m comfortable handling,” Hosbrough said. “And anything that requires talking to people, Jennifer handles.”

The women said they’ve never felt scared or nervous in any of Peoria’s neighborhoods, including areas reputed to be more riddled with crime.

“We haven’t had any negative experiences with people. We do sometimes get the comments from people who hear about what we’re doing and say we’re going to get shot or something. That’s annoying,” Jacobsen-Wood said.

“It’s not that we’re naïve,” Hosbrough added. “We also want to validate that some people do have bad experiences, of course, and maybe we will, too. But that doesn’t negate us wanting to do this project and enjoying it as much as we can.”   

The pedestrians are also using the project to promote positive aspects of Peoria. “This could be a social media thing, but it seems like there are a lot of naysayers that are very negative about Peoria,” Jacobsen-Wood said. “It’s not perfect, but there are so many wonderful things about our area. I am just shocked at how many picturesque neighborhoods we’ve seen and how friendly people are.”

The people they meet are what makes the project the most meaningful, the women added.

“Seeing a building that someone lived at in the 1800s makes it easier to imagine the everyday lives and concerns of people who are no longer alive. And a lot of the facts we learn, we might forget. But I think we’ll remember the interactions we have with people during this,” Jacobsen-Wood said.

The friends anticipate the project could take anywhere from six months to two years to complete, noting that their walks aren’t always specifically mapped out.

“Some people want to walk with us, and we’re welcoming and will enjoy doing that, but we want to let people know that it might not be planned well in advance exactly what we’re doing,” Hosbrough said.

For more information, visit the Pedestrians in Peoria Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pedestriansinpeoria.