Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 374 miles

Nine miles in six days - now that's what I call a snail's pace. But it's been the most unforgettable six days of my trip so far.

I was getting a bit worried about the pain in my leg, which I'm pretty sure is a condition called shin splints. Thank you so much to everyone who emailed with advice and suggestions - the consensus was that rest was the best remedy.

Trouble is, I'm not good at resting, which would normally involve twiddling my thumbs in my tent or motel room, and I didn't relish the prospect.

For the first time, I'd given out my phone number in a newspaper interview. Cheekily, I said that I welcomed calls and offers of accommodation - motels and nights in the tent are fine, but one of the main reasons I'm doing this walk is to meet people.

By a huge stroke of good fortune, two people responded. Both went to great lengths to help me recharge my batteries for a while.

The first was Wilma, one of the warmest, kindest and most generous individuals I have ever met. I shall miss her very much.

The second was Tim Woolston, to whom a similar description applies. He left a message saying he was an Englishman living in a Christian community called the Bruderhof, in Farmington, PA, and they'd like to meet me. Intrigued, I went to see them, and ended up spending three days with Tim and his wife Martha.

Founded in 1920, the Bruderhof (place of the brothers) has some 2,500 members living in communities in the US, Germany, Britain and Australia. Their strong emphasis on pacifism has made them victims of persecution in the past.

Spring Valley, where I stayed, is home to around 250 men, woman and children, while New Meadow Run, just across the road, has another 250.

Members pool all their money, and also raise funds through two businesses: Community Playthings, which manufactures toys and furniture for schools and daycare centres, and Spring Valley Signs, which makes handcarved signs.

I was overwhelmed by the welcome I received. I've shaken so many hands in the past week that I'm in danger of adding carpal tunnel syndrome to my list of maladies. I've made speeches to a couple of hundred people at a time - something that would have had me quaking in my hobnailed walking boots a month or so ago. And I've spent several hours picking beans on their huge expanses of organic garden, and screwing castors onto furniture in Community Playthings' state-of-the-art factory, where all the staff work for free.

Some of the happiest moments involved kids from the communities' two schools. At Spring Valley, the fifth and sixth graders asked me to talk about Jayne and my walk. We had some time left over afterwards, so we did battle in a hilarious geography quiz, them versus me, in which they disproved once and for all the stereotype that Americans have no idea what exists beyond their own shores.

The kids at New Meadow Run school make their own bread and sell it in the driveway on Saturday mornings. They donated $500 of the proceeds to my walk. Thank you all so much!

I was really impressed by the way in which these communities have made such sacrifices to put their ideals into practice. It was only a brief visit, but it looked to me like a very successful experiment which the outside world could learn a lot from.

One sobering thought: they told me I was the fourth person this year to pass by their entrance on a trans-US trek and to be invited in: three walkers and one horse rider. I've also met two others, so maybe there are huge armies of us crisscrossing the States, oblivious to one another's presence.

It's back to real life tomorrow as I resume the walk. I'm going to keep my mileage down for a while, as I don't think the injury is fully better. The relative solitude will also take some getting used to after all this constant open-armed hospitality.