john francis, welcome to our program. >> thank you, maria. >> hinojosa: good to have you here. so you are the author of the book planetwalker: 17 years of silence, 22 years of walking. >> yes, i am. >> hinojosa: and so it really was. people, i'm sure they're like, "really? he stopped talking for 17 years?" >> right, i did, actually. >> hinojosa: and you walked for 22. >> for 22 years, without motorized vehicles, yeah. >> hinojosa: and throughout all of that, an essential part is your friend here, the banjo. >> my friend the banjo. >> hinojosa: does banjo have a name? >> well, it's american princess. american princess. it's an old banjo. it's over 100 years old, and was built in philadelphia. >> hinojosa: so the banjo became a central part of you as a persona in these years where you were walking and you were not talking. >> yeah, it did. >> hinojosa: but let's go back for... and you play it normally. >> i do, all the time. so you might hear it as we're talking. >> hinojosa: it's an extension of... >> yeah, it is. >> hinojosa: but let's talk about how it all started. it started

francis, john's grill since 1908, the left ty o 'douls, and photographs. the event coordinators. the day from the chronicle is here. with someone from emergency management. we have someone from sfpd. we have the guardians of the center and ron ross from the history association. we are about 10 minutes away from the motorcade showing up. we have come together at this ungodly hour to remember those who survived being tossed from their beds 105 years ago this morning at 5:13. 105 years ago, powerful seismic waves rolled across the city of san francisco. experts estimate the earthquake was around 7.9 on the modern skills. by the end of the first day, the city suffered 26 aftershocks and then succumbed to a raging inferno that showed no mercy for 74 hours. i would like to give you a moment by moment description of what happened to our great city on that day and its citizens. this is not boring history. this is very real, as we all saw recently in japan. here is how it went. an opening shock at 5:12 was felt. 25 seconds later, residents were zerawakened. the first casualties from the m