“The Waver,” has died at his home in Iowa at the age of 75. Ed Carlson was an institution in Reno from 1974 to 2007 when he moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to be close to family.
He used to wave at drivers in Reno, then hitch-hike south to Carson City, where he waved some more before hitch-hiking back to Reno the same day. Ed served in the Army and worked a variety of jobs, including deputy sheriff, logger, oil field worker, dock worker, bartender, carnival worker and female impersonator in a comedy show.
Ed wrote a book about his experiences titled, “I Walked to the Moon and Almost Everybody Waved,” after having walked 200,000 miles — about the distance between Earth and the moon. He published it in October 1996.
In his book, Ed writes that he hitchhiked blindfolded from Boston, where his brother lived, across the country to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, then back towards Chicago. It was during his journey to Chicago that a voice told him he needed to be in Reno.
Ed walked Interstate 80, and the first vehicle to come along was a van driven by a man headed to San Francisco. He gave Ed a ride, dropping him off in Reno during May 1974.
During Ed’s early years of his walking and waving, he would get nasty looks and called names. However as he continued to walk and wave people began to wave back.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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