At mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Marc Horowitz was “stranded” at the Monterey Hostel at 778 Hawthorn St. — not by weather, or injury, or a flat tire on the bicycle he’s riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but by a philanthropic form of stubbornness.

The 36-year-old artist is on a quest to raise $26,640 — a penny for every foot of highway (2,664,000 feet) between the Golden Gate Bridge and his L.A. home — all of which will be donated to a seriously ill friend to help with mounting medical bills.

Until the donations he has raised equals the distance he has traveled, Horowitz stays put, telling his story and the story of 47-year-old Chris Vatuoni to anybody who will listen.

“I came to the Bay Area out of Indiana University, got a job and met Chris, who worked at the same place. He kind of showed me around California, taught me how to be an adult, and became a great friend,” Horowitz said. “And then, he got sick.”

Vatuoni, a husband and father from Grass Valley, was debilitated by a serious illness that went undiagnosed for eight years and drained his bank account. Six months ago, doctors finally determined he was suffering from late-stage Lyme disease, a malady transmitted by ticks.

“It’s horrible stuff,” Horowitz said. “He’s in excruciating pain. He lives with constant migraine headaches. He sleeps about an hour a night. He can’t go outside because the sunshine hurts his skin. Really, he’s not living. I just want to do what I can to help Chris get his life back.”

Vatuoni’s medical insurance covers only a portion of his medication and won’t pay for the Lyme disease specialist he needs to see — which is where Horowitz’s 2-million-foot bike ride comes in. He’s using newspaper coverage and social media like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to alert the public to his quest, raising funds for his friend a contribution at a time. The first four days of his ride netted $5,462.36.

“The generosity, the understanding and the kindness people have shown me so far has been mind-blowing,” he said. “I just came from Santa Cruz, where a couple put me up at their home, fed me, gave me a shower and sent me off with $40. That kind of stuff has happened all along the route.

Horowitz said he has set aside 15 days for the trip and would love to average 70 to 80 miles a day, but he won’t move from each location until enough donations have been raised to meet his goal.

“I was stuck in Santa Cruz for a full day, and I’ll be stuck here in Monterey until I’ve raised the money,” he said.

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, he still needed $2,112 to finance his trip to Big Sur.

Donations can be made via Horowitz’s website at www.bike4chris.com. His progress also can be followed on Twitter at twitter.com/bike4chris, and on Tumblr at bike4chris.tumblr.com.