Eight television producers contacted him, he said. He met with two of them in Middletown and reached an agreement with Larry Landsman, a former director of nonfiction programming, East Coast, at the Syfy channel, where he developed shows like “The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence.” Now a founder of a production company, AEP Media, Mr. Landsman hopes to put together a “Fat Guy Across America” reality show.

It is not a problem, Mr. Landsman said, that Mr. Hites is already on the road. “Look, it’s not hard to pick up the journey,” he said in a phone interview. “He has a long way ahead of him, quite frankly.”

Some of those following Fat Guy Across America online were dismayed by the lack of narrative tidiness when Mr. Hites’s updates showed he was taking a Greyhound bus back to Indiana, to honor a commitment he had made to D.J. an event at his church. An anonymous donor paid the bus fare, he said, and Mr. Hites and his wife went back east in the Pontiac.

Back on the trail, they stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Connecticut, where Mr. Hites texted an online fan who had been trying to meet them. The supporter showed up within minutes, banging a cowbell. “She was going nuts with it,” Ms. Atterbury said. “I jumped. She’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Holly!’ ”

They showered, changed and slept two nights at the woman’s big house. She also served them dinner: steak burgers, corn and a salad with vinaigrette. “I have not met a single bad person on this trip,” Mr. Hites said.

During the New York stop, they said they were not sure if they should pay for a hotel. “We don’t have access to funds that we need right now,” Mr. Hites said. “It’s all locked up.” Mr. Landsman told them they could pitch a tent in his backyard in New Jersey, but Mr. Hites seemed to be holding out for better accommodations.

“I’m going, ‘Larry, you need to start investing, man, if you want me to do these things for your TV show,’ ” Mr. Hites said. “ ‘You need to start spending some money.’ ”