American Highway (2024)

[bunniefuu]

[man] When you look

at the highway

from far above,

it resembles countless

vessels of oxygen

pumping through

the veins of an organism.

But as you get closer,

you start to see us

writing on pages of pavement,

writing chapters of a journey.

[soft acoustic guitar music]

My current situation and story

isn't all that unique

or special,

but I guess that's

the point of all this.

So 10 years ago,

I had just graduated college

and was living at home

with my parents,

working a job I hated.

Achieving a life of success was

something I desperately wanted,

so I started writing

a movie script,

The Highway.

A fictional story

of a road trip two brothers

take

across America,

and how the adventures

and people they meet

inspire one of them

to chase his fading dream

of making movies.

I then quit my job,

and my dad rode with me

across the country and helped

me

move to California

so I could try

and bring The Highway

to the big screen.

I was eager to start

this next chapter

and bring aspirations to life.

[keyboard keys clacking]

Hey, buddy, it's me.

Which is you,

ten years from now.

And I just wanted

to tell you that...

I'm sorry I didn't try hard

enough chasing your dreams.

What happened with your life

is you move back home,

you didn't achieve

the success

that you dreamed of or expected,

but you found a job

that made you happy.

You found a life

that made you happy.

And that's also where

eventually you met a girl

that you fell in love with.

But that doesn't come

without a heartbreak,

because right now

I am sitting alone in a hotel,

and I have just lost that life.

I was depressed

and drinking alone

after a breakup

with my girlfriend.

I just moved my stuff

out of her house

and was contemplating quitting

my job where we both worked.

[sad, folksy music]

I have no idea what to do

or where to go,

so I guess I thought

maybe you could tell me.

In a world just like a flyer



[dramatic guitar music]

We live in a country full

of diverse, everyday Americans

navigating the challenges of life

to find happiness and success.

Those are the people

I want to meet

and whose stories

I want to hear,

because over the past few years

I've only seen America

through a lens

of news and social media,

not what it is face to face.

So I cashed out the $6,000

in my retirement savings

and decided to start

a journey with three goals.

To see America

through its people,

to search

for where I'll live

to pursue a happy,

successful life,

and to chase the dream

of making a movie

about the highway.

But by living it now.

Before time flashes by

and suddenly

it's 10 years later again.



I reached out

to an avid traveler

and talented videographer,

Seth Tucker,

a childhood friend

I hadn't seen in 14 years.

- Hello!

- Long time no see.

- [Brian] Yeah, good to see you.

- Dude, how are you?

[Brian] Oh man, uh not bad.

So like when you first called

me and told me about this,

which is totally

out of the blue.

- Oh, yeah.

- Brian Mulvey?

This is the part

of the conversation

where we insert

that picture of me

punching you into a locker.

I will say I really looked up

to you back then.

When you first called me

and told me you were

about to do this

and you went all into it

between the landscape

and the people that you meet.

It's really eye-opening

and it's humbling, you know,

and I think to me

that's what spoke the most

and why I continue

to love to do it.

We're about to leave here

and get set.

I'm excited.

- Excited, dude.

- Let's do this.

- Let's do it.

- Let's go.

All right, a little bit

of an update.

We still haven't left town yet.

We're already facing

a little bit of a setback

with Seth's van.

It does need to get fixed.

It's not road ready, unfortunately.

The plan was and hopefully

still is to take two vehicles,

Seth's van and my Corolla.

The reason for that being

is there's going to be

a lot of stuff that we have

to transport on this trip.

So what's the issue?

They're going to put a new pump,

a fuel pump and fuel filter.

This has already

delayed our departure

by a couple days now.

It's just something that we got

to figure out.

So setbacks are something

that I expected,

but I guess I didn't expect it

before we've even left.

Stuck in a hotel room

for a couple more days,

I decided it was probably

time to tell Seth

how much ground

I wanted to cover

in just a little over a month.

Holy sh*t, dude.

That's--

I mean, that's three quarters

of the United States.

Like, I mean, you're--

[exhales]

Whoa.

Is that a lot?

Give or take being

all direct routes.

You're talking

a little over 10K.

- Miles?

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Let me figure out

the gas cost here.

Yeah, dude, for real.

It's going to be

a lot of miles, dude.

Realistic?

Um, I mean...

[exhales]

[upbeat country music]

It runs.

You'll never guess the places

that I've been

You'll never guess the places

that I've been

'Cause everything

is like a dream, yeah

But only in the dream

that I live in

[Brian] Over 30 days

and thousands of miles

of empty road ahead of us

to tell the story

of American Highway.

And we have no idea

how it's going to go.

'Cause everything

is like a dream, yeah

But only in the dream

that I live in

I hope we get something

on like the ground floor,

so we don't have to lug

a bunch of stuff up.

- Hello.

- [clerk] How are you?

Good, how are you?

And if you possibly have

anything on the ground floor

just 'cause we have a lot

of stuff that we have to--

We are on the third floor.

All right.

So this is calisthenics

working my core.

Less injury from running

because it's very tightening.

from this position

to a handstand push up.

[Brian] Wow.

Can I show you what I can do?

I can do a headstand, but it

has to be with a pillow.

We wanted to start

the road trip in D.C.

because it seemed

appropriate to start

the American Highway

at the nation's capital.

Seth pulled out his camera.

It's time to make this movie.

So I walked through

the streets trying to find

an interesting stranger

to interview,

and I was incredibly nervous

because I have no idea

what I'm doing.

I wonder

if this looks suspicious

carrying it anywhere.

Do you think you get questioned

by Secret Service or--

[Seth] You never know.

[security guard]

What's in the case?

The gimbal for his camera.

[Seth] Yeah.

I can open it and show you

there's nothing in here.

I promise.

It looks like suspicious,

I'm sure.

There's nobody here.

This is kind of a depressing,

depressing scene.

Usually I would expect there

to be like 50 people

taking pictures

and stuff in front of it,

but it's just us.

Pretty desolate today in D.C.

is what we've discovered.

Not a lot of action, but...

we're just the only idiots

that go out

and try and do things

like this when there's a...

spike in the pandemic

and COVID or anything.

Hopefully it's not like this

across the whole country.

We might have

picked a bad time.

Literally right in front

of the White House,

no one--

no one's standing there.

[sad piano music]

A year ago on this day,

actually,

there was the insurrection

Capitol riot,

thousands of people.

And now a year later,

kids sledding,

hardly anyone here.

It's crazy to just to see

the contrast

of whole different

change of scenery here now.

The playing in the snow sort

of symbolized a blank page

as we watched a purity

and joy and curiosity

of life that exists before

our partisanship and politics.

[people shouting]

[kids speaking indistinctly]



Walking the streets,

finding no one

willing to talk on camera

made me feel very anxious

about this project.

You can't tell a story

about people without people.

I'm feeling a pretty

big pit of anxiety

in my stomach right now.

Stemming

from a couple things.

One being the uncertainty that

lies ahead with this project.

Not, you know...

in terms of are we going

to find the right people?

Are we going to find people

with interesting stories?

Are we going to, you know,

bring this vision

that I have to fruition?

I don't know.

I don't know what lies ahead.

I want to make sure

we do it justice.

Um, but secondly,

and kind of what

I'm feeling more,

this trip isn't

just about this project.

This is also my life.

Like, I don't know

where I'm gonna live.

I don't know

where I'm gonna end up.

I don't know

what I'm going to do.

And that scares

the sh*t out of me,

to be quite honest right now.

I'm just feeling the fears

that lie within my fears.



Everything that I have

done in my life so far

has been just getting by,

getting by day to day,

like just living day to day.

And why I wanted to do this

is sort of like achieve

some vision of life beyond that.

I would say even the things

that I've learned

from what I've done

in traveling,

giving back, it feels

so good to see that impact.

Yes, leaving an impact, right?

That is something I want to do.

Just like I told you, the thing

that really started that

for me was the people

who I've met,

who not even knowing

me have given to me.

That left such an impact

on me that, you know,

I want to do the same.



[Brian] The next morning,

we rode into

a small Kentucky town,

decimated just weeks prior

by the deadliest

American weather disaster

in more than four years.



The night of the storm,

we knew the tornado was coming.

We knew it was going to be bad.

And so we got--

our grandchildren,

two of them

live with us.

So we got them out of bed

and got them into shelter.

We were in the house

when the storm hit.

It was about 9:30 at night.

And at nine o'clock,

everything's good.

We're just planning

for, you know,

normal Christmas season

and stuff.

And at nine, about 9:27, 9:30,

the storm hit.

It lasted about two minutes.

And in two minutes,

we're homeless.

[Brian]

This is just heartbreaking.

Where do you

put all these people?

There is not a single home

that's not damaged.

I mean, none of these

are even livable.

[Seth] Yeah.

We didn't have any loss

of life, you know,

and we're thankful for that.

At the same time,

our heart hurts for those

that did lose because

they had the same kind

of stuff to go

through that we did

with the cleanup

and all that kind of stuff.

But then they had to plan

funerals and go to funerals

and stuff like that.

And, you know, their lives,

everybody's lives is going to

be forever impacted from it,

but not like those that,

you know, lost loved ones.

[somber music]

Really, probably the darkest

days are behind us.

This is not the end.

We know ultimately how it ends.

You know,

we've got some chapters

between here and there.

We don't know how those chapters

are going to be filled.

We're just enjoying life

and seeing

what's going to be ahead for us.



[woman] When I found out that

they were going to open up

the fairgrounds

for food and things

for people, I said,

I'm going to volunteer.

We're getting it from all

over the United States.

Semis, just loaded with food, clothing.

The community, people that I've

worked with has been awesome.

I think they're very thankful

that anybody is here to help.

[Tommy] The community

coming together,

is just--

it's been awesome to watch.

It's fulfilling my life that

it's happening in my town.

Everybody's coming together,

Black and white,

putting together,

and I think the Lord's

going to work it all out.

[Brian] People

from all over the country

traveled to Mayfield,

a place they'd probably

never heard of,

to offer help,

which showed me

a unified side of America

that's rarely focused

on in the media.

Walking through the streets,

we met a family

who came from Georgia

right after the tornadoes

to offer free meals

to those in need.

I'm not just a local yokel

or fly-by-nighter.

I've got my restaurant

certificate.

[Brian] Yeah, don't worry.

I'm not with

the health department.

So my friend Seth and I were

traveling all over the country

to just meet people from

different areas, show America.

Now the people are pulling

together to help people.

Absolutely.

So it's me, my son

and my husband.

- Okay.

- Three of us.

We're all funded by ourselves.

Really?

We ain't getting no--

I mean, we're getting some food.

- Yeah.

- From up here [indistinct].

We've got three or four

generators running.

We spend about

$130 of fuel every day.

Oh, my goodness.

And hoping.

People giving [indistinct].

So what do you want

for Christmas?

I want to go to Kentucky

and feed the people there.

That's what I want

for Christmas.

Well, then the construction

guys came and said,

"how long are

you going to stay?"

I said, "Well,

my birthday's January 12th,

so I'm going to tell

my husband for my birthday,

I want to stay

three more months."

- [Brian] Wow.

- So we're staying.

Those are the best looking

tacos I've seen.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

Hey, look at these.

[Seth] Good looking tacos.

Mm. 10 out of 10.

Obviously it doesn't

just take a month

that these people need help.

I mean, this is going

to take years and years.

About three years,

a good three years. Minimum.

We don't know if the city's

going to let us rebuild

back or anything else.

So even if they do,

they're thinking about maybe

a two or three year cycle

before it's built.

And that's a long time to kind

of live in uncertainties.

[Hank] And right now

they're going to tear it down

and clean it up.

They started building it.

It'll be 10 years down the road

to build all this back up.

[Brian] Yeah.

What inspired you

so much about Kentucky?

Have you guys done this

for other like relief efforts?

No, this is the first time.

We've been 25 years

out of our restaurant.

I've been the homeless

ever since.

They're all in need.

- We're just trying to help.

- Yeah.

In fact, I can

tell you a little story,

this happened the other day.

Just after fueling up

my generator.

This little baby mouse

been running across guys.

He crawled up on my shoe

and I could actually

get down and pick him up.

He didn't try

to get away or nothing.

I put him in a little cage

in there and feed him.

[Brian] That's Mayfield,

the mouse.

[Bud] Yep.

[Brian] Look at him.

Now he's living

the life of luxury.

We ain't just

helping the people,

we're helping the wildlife.

Yeah. Not bad. Not bad.

You can ask anybody

that knows me.

I'll give you the shirt

off my back.

And help you.

And that's the way I was raised.

[Brian] How much fulfillment

have you felt helping people

and seeing people you're

making an impact on here?

How much of an impact?

How do I know?

How do you, how do you feel?

Do you feel fulfilled?

- How much fulfillment?

- On top of the world.

[Roberta] What you give away

comes back to you 10,000 times.

Because we're just so blessed.

And just not money.

Health wise.

My man's been in two wars.

He's been in one.

And we're all healthy.

Cancer survivor twice,

he's a cancer survivor.

And I just believe

God gives me the strength

to go on to do

what I'm doing now.

- [Brian] Yeah.

- How many people that are 75

are laying in the nursing home?

[Brian] And standing outside

in 30-something degree weather

- in a t-shirt too.

- [laughing]

I've got like four layers on.

You're tough as nails. Geez.

I had breast cancer

eight years ago.

And I consider myself a warrior

because I was raised

in the country

and I'm a rough old bird.

Go where the wind blows

you for a while.

Yeah.

I appreciate that.

And good luck with

what you guys are doing here.

I'm glad, you know,

to see this.

I'll stay until

they tell me I have to get out.

Yeah.

20 years from now,

like, "All right, we really--

we're good."

But I just love life

every minute of it.

Every day

that God lets me get up

and put my foot

on the ground,

I go, "I'm going to do

something useful today."

I put all that food out

this morning.

- [indistinct]

- [Roberta laughing]

I'll take care of other people

before I worry about myself.

[Brian] I love that.

It's uplifting, you know,

to see people who have lost

everything

that are still feeling

that there's still hope.

[Tommy] There is hope.

There's always hope.

It is an opportunity

to make a new start.

Life is going to go on.

And that's really

what life's about.

It's about change.

It's how we deal with it.

[Brian] Roberta, Hank,

and Bud spent a total of 70

days

and $12,000 to help

the people of Mayfield.

And like Roberta says,

what you give away

comes back to you 10,000 times.

Something I will say

about Kentucky

is it is truly the nicest

people I've seen.

People that will just strike up

a friendly conversation

with you in the grocery aisle.

Just everyone in there knows

each other, makes small talk,

checking in on each other.

I mean, people

even started talking to me.

It's just friendly people.

I mean, that's--

it's nice to see.

And I think that really

represents, you know,

Mayfield and how,

you know,

a guy that I was talking

to on the street

told me this was a strong

community beforehand,

but it's even stronger now

since this tragedy happened.

And I just, I'm very impressed

with Kentucky people.

The hope and resilience

in the people of Mayfield

showed me that whatever

problems

that I'm facing in life,

they pale in comparison

to those of others.

It's time to embrace the

journey

we're on and enjoy it.

[upbeat music]

- [Brian laughing]

- Stiff!

Mattress is a big no.

After a week on the road

and in need of some fun,

we partook in a bunch

of random activities

in our short time in Memphis.

[indistinct]



Eh!

What you

feeling like then?

Uh, all right, let's go there.

Boom, done.

[upbeat blues music playing]

[server] How you doing?

[Brian] Good, how are you doing?

[server] I'm doing good.

Sit wherever you want.

[Brian] Perfect.

Are you proud

to be from Memphis?

Yes, yes I am.

I've just like grown up

on Bill street,

kind of, and I've always

come down here

and that's what made me

want to work down here

once I got old enough,

I was just like--

because my parents,

my parents worked down here

when they were my age.

My grandparents did too,

and it's just kind of been

a family thing.

And one thing

I love about the job

is just getting

to meet everyone

and like

especially you guys,

like I don't think I want

to live here forever,

but I do want to kind

of like get my life figured out

before I move,

you know what I mean?

[Brian] We went out that night

and made friends with a couple

at a brewery and they took us

to

their favorite local dive bar.

Going into freshman year,

I was 4'10".

- [Seth] Yeah.

- End of sophomore year,

- I was 5'7".

- [Seth] Yeah.

Then end of senior year,

I was 5'11".

I haven't grown taller

since fifth grade.

- [Brian] Really?

- Yeah.

[Brian] You were that tall

in fifth grade?

[Seth] You guys are big

Three 6 Mafia fans too.

I used to work with

Juicy J's mom.

[Seth] Really?

I remember in high school

listening to a lot

of Three 6 Mafia.

Just thinking I'm awesome

in my '88 Oldsmobile.



[Brian] I'm definitely

enjoying starting to see green

now that we're

in Mississippi,

as opposed to the barren

wasteland of the north

and the cold temperatures,

it is now warm and green.

So that is what I love most

so far about Mississippi.

Holy cow, that guy's

going a hundred miles an hour.

So this is my first night

on this trip sleeping in my car.

I'm in a Walmart parking

lot in LaPlace, Louisiana.

So right outside

of New Orleans.

So I've never slept

in a Walmart parking lot before.

This is where I am.

This is my setup.

Traveling in two separate cars

and trying to save money

in the warm weather states...

Yeah, it looks

cozy as sh*t, man.

Led to two different sleeping

situations for Seth and I.

I'm watching TV, I'm just going

to stretch out this way.

- [Brian] Yeah.

- I can work.

Oh, that's awesome.

It feels relatively safe,

but I will...

see how the night goes and make

it through the morning

and talk to you again.

Good night.

[Seth] Word of how you liked

sleeping in your car?

I would say it was good

for the most part.

My back did get a little sore

because I couldn't fully

stretch out in the back seat.

I was kind of like

sleeping like this

or like trying to like

put my feet in the front

with me in the back.

But overall, if I had to give

it a score out of 10,

I would say a 6.8.

First time convincing

Brian to do anything

involving nature.

And when have you tried

to convince me so far?

[Seth] Have you seen

an alligator before?

Uh, actually, yes, in Florida.

It was in a pond

or swamp

or whatever you call

alligator homes.

Walking through the swamp,

we struck up a conversation

with a lifelong

rural Louisiana native

who took an interest

in our camera gear.

- My name is Ren.

- Ren, Brian.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- This is Seth.

- [Seth] Yeah, I'm Seth.

Seth, nice to meet you.

This is Ponchatoula,

which means hanging hair,

the moths

in the trees, hanging hair.

It's home no matter where I go.

It's simple.

And some would say

sometimes boring as it can be.

It's still home.

We actually grew up

in upstate New York together.

So this is totally different

vibe and culture here.

But the thing

that I've loved seeing most,

even if we come

from different backgrounds,

everyone's willing to talk

to people, kind of share

about the area, which I love.

People take pride

in where they're from

and are just willing

to connect with people.

Yeah. Yeah.

It enriches your life.

It just makes life better.

I've always said that

of all the billions of people

on the planet,

we're so fortunate

on any given day to encounter

the people that we do.

I've learned in some

of those traditions,

those old things that die hard,

grew up with a lot

of prejudicial verbiage

in my background.

And I began to realize

every single person,

we're just people.

You know?

And I can celebrate life

far more richly by encountering

what your talents

and abilities are

and what you might have

to offer someone

that I can never be,

but yet my life

can benefit from that.

And so surely I can do that

for somebody else too.

- So...

- Yeah.

Yeah. Just--

It's a great experience.

Any dreams that you have?

My-- I have

a cinematography degree

and I want to put that to use

to make meaningful content

that just moves people

and gives them

a different perspective

on the human experience.

Just capturing things

that are meaningful to people.

So that's a big dream of mine.

I have a passion for it.

I love stories.

I mean, in the end,

we've got so many days

to live and what we do

with those days

is kind of how

our life turns out.

We just happened to be here

today, run into you guys,

but I may

never see you again,

but I'll never forget

that I met you.

- Absolutely.

- So...

You never know,

that person you meet

might be somebody that inspires

you to do something

that you haven't had

enough initiative to do,

or just a memory

you can recall.

This will be a pleasant memory

to look back on.

- Great to meet y'all.

- [Brian] Yeah, thank you.

And be safe.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

- Have a good one.

- [Ren] Yeah, you too.

Nice guy. Very nice.

[upbeat music]

Okay.

Seth and I are about to go

to a drag brunch in New Orleans.

Neither of us have

ever been to one before.

I'm excited for the drag show.

I'm also excited for brunch.

I think they got

a deal on mimosas, so.



[host] Put our hands together

for one of the most amazing

entertainers,

she's all the way

from Mississippi,

so make sure you tip my ladies.

Give it up

for Miss LaTanya Love!

My mom was the first one

to call me.

She called me outside.

And now I'm still

living at home.

So this is by the time that

I was a freshman in college,

somewhere around there.

It's kind of gray now,

'cause I'm old.

But um, I was

still living at home.

So I had my two bottom drawers

still had all kinds

of feminine things in it.

So she called me outside

and we had a conversation

and she was taking

a human sexuality class

at the time.

She was working

on her master's degree.

Excuse me.

And I think

retrospectively she did that

because she had found out,

she was trying to learn

more information

about what was going on.

And so we went outside

and she said, "Well, listen,

I need to ask you

a couple of questions,

I, you know,

found these clothing.

Are you wearing these?"

And I said yes.

She asked me

if I was going out like this.

I lied and said, no.

- [Brian] Out of fear.

- Out of fear.

But she said, the one thing

that she said,

"I need you to understand

that I love you

and I'm always

going to love you."

[crowd cheering]

I say that my story is unique,

but the more that

I've talked to people,

I'm finding out that my story

is not all that unique

because I've been

married for 31 years

to the woman that you had,

that was-- that was--

that we had doing the set.

Desiree and I've been married.

We have three grown children.

We're raising our grandbaby.

We have a very

loving relationship.

Um, we've been together

for since college.

And as a matter of fact, I came

out to her as being who I am,

which, which to me,

I guess it started off

as just wearing women's clothes.

I didn't know much

about what that meant

or how that would transition

into anything else.

And I'm also a musician.

So I play guitar and sing

and some kind of way,

several years ago,

maybe about--

maybe a little

over 10 years ago,

I ended up being involved with,

well, I met my drag mother

and she wanted me

to do her show as Vanessa.

And I had never played

guitar and sang as Vanessa.

I'd always done it as Juan.

But she said, "No, no, no.

I want you to do it as Vanessa."

I said, well,

"I can't sing as a woman."

She says, "I don't care.

Come and do it."

And so I did it.

And it just, it took off.

It was, it was combining two

things that I love in my life,

which is that side

of me that is feminine

and that side of me

that is a musician.

And I combined them two

and it just-- it fit.

[pleasant guitar music]

I was lost in the art

Of a foreign nation

In a shop to escape the rain



Not to have a conversation

And that's the moment

you step in

To find some shelter too

Don't get a word you're

saying

But, girl...

- [Brian] Where are you from?

- Tucson, Arizona.

- [Brian] Really?

- Yeah.

[Brian] You came straight

to New Orleans?

No, no, no, no, no.

I was drifting around for years

- before I came to New Orleans.

- [Brian] Yeah.

Just like just living

the nomadic lifestyle,

you know, sleeping

under bridges and all that.

[Brian] What's your dream?

What do you,

what do you want to achieve?

What I want to achieve?

Just being a great showman

and a great friend

and building good communities,

you know,

because at the end of the day,

it's just like,

community is

what's most important.

And also I like, uh,

I thoroughly enjoy living

my dreams as a circus performer.

You know, this doesn't

get much better than that.

It's a, it's a classic dream,

you know?

Running away

to join the circus,

but reality is it's kind

of hard to join a circus.

So I decided

to become my own circus.

Instead of hiding it,

we started embracing it.

You hiding you

and not being yourself

is what makes it dirty.

She said, "Stop,

stop doing that. Be you."

[Brian] It's easy to get stuck

in the comfort of normality,

but in New Orleans,

the people I met

showed me the importance

of being unique

and chasing a path

that's true to who you are.

We tend to belong

to each other.

New Orleanians

belong to each other.

That's what's fun about this

spot is that at any given time,

you can come in here

and you can see people

of every nationality,

race, background,

all hanging out,

having a good time

and listening

to some good music.

And that's why New Orleans

sets such a great example.

And when people come here,

they get to feel that.

And hopefully

they take it home with them

and they put it in practice.

I just want to say that we had

an incredible experience

in New Orleans.

I love the spirit of this area,

I love the vibe,

I love the culture,

I love the people.

I would say that has been

my favorite city so far.

So we got a long way to go,

a lot of America to see,

but New Orleans, love it.

[upbeat acoustic guitar music]

[bed squeaking]

We're going to a karaoke bar

because I haven't been able to

sing karaoke this whole trip.

[Seth] And you met

some new friends.

[Brian] We met some new friends.

[indistinct chatter]

[man] We going to Rain?

[Seth] I hope there's

a lot of people there.

Is that--

you're going to sing Cher?

- Wow.

- [Brian] I like some Cher.

[Seth] We're going

to have a night.

[host] But be careful, she may

have a battle ax in her purse.

Well, I hope you're up next.

You're up, you're up, you're up.

Get up there.

[upbeat music]

I love you, I love your energy.

[woman] Cheers to that.

[Brian] Amidst

the fun side of Austin,

I learned that sometimes

focusing on our own happiness

blinds us to the broad

spectrums of reality.

Part of America's story is told

through our tale of two cities.

So like my body's sick,

I have something

in my body that's k*lling me.

[Brian] And no one's better able

to tell

the other side than Trey.

So I came from North Carolina

to visit my uncle in Killeen.

Uh, I came to Austin

thinking

that I was going to utilize

the resources

that they had here.

Uh, I heard all these wonderful

things about Austin,

about how you can

get a case made,

a case worker, how you can go

to these different places

to receive employment,

how you can get on your feet

and get an apartment

just so quick.

And I've been here for 20 years

of stuff on the streets.

- [Brian] 20 years?

- [Trey] 20 years.

[somber music]

You talked to me before

we started this interview

a little bit about like

the catch-22 of being homeless,

them fining people

for sleeping on the street.

Okay, they have a zero

tolerance for sit, lie, stand,

camping, any of that.

And they come through 6:30,

7 o'clock in the morning,

which they do their rounds early

as soon as shift changes.

They catch you asleep,

they catch you sitting down,

they catch you camping,

they'll wake you up

and the first thing they say is,

"Can I get your ID?"

They write you a $200 ticket.

You're a homeless person that

has received a $200 ticket.

You have no place to stay.

You have no employment.

You have nowhere

to take care of yourself.

What do I do? Like,

how can I get out of that life?

Like, how can I get off

the streets onto my feet?

It's impossible.

And people...

they judge me

because they look.

But they don't know.

A lot of homeless people

feel ignored by society.

Like, what do

you want people to know?

I want people to know

that I am a human.

Regardless if I have a house,

a physical house,

I am a human being.

When I am down, do not kick me.

Do not make me feel less

than a person, less than I am.

I don't want to hand out,

I want to hand up.

I don't want you to give me

things on the street,

but I want you to encourage me

and help me.

Little girls, they cry.

They cry.

"Daddy, when

you're going to come back?"

I'm stuck here.

It's like if you take a boulder

and put it on a seaship,

and the rain,

and the weight of the storm,

constantly hitting

it with the boulder,

from a boulder to a rock,

from a rock, to a grain of sand.

It's the same thing

with human beings.

When you put them out here,

they put their head high,

and they go forward.

But then you have

all these things

that's constantly kicking you.

And you wonder why

they all come in at all.

Is there anything about life

in the future that scares you?

Do you have any fears?

The only fear that I have

is when I leave,

this suit,

this meat suit drops

and I ascend

to a higher level.

The only thing that bothers

me about not being here

is the fact that I won't be able

to see the ones I love.

It's not the fact of dying,

it's the fact

of not being able to see

the people every day

that you love,

that you hung around,

that were there, that

I've met for the last 10 years.

[Brian] On the surface,

we're all different.

But beneath,

we're all the same.

- Good meeting you.

- Nice meeting you.

[Brian] Just life's assorted

pawns of circumstance

placed in its complicated game.

[man] Too true

to be in The Truman Show,

so many will never truly know.

We're sitting in a vat

like The Matrix,

too thin for theatrics,

to depict green tricks

and graphics.

Only prepped up on the ones

that slept through nights

[indistinct],

what life really was,

just because someone's fool

would use such a tool

to eat instead

of seeds to sow.

What people need to know versus

more manipulation

with the intention

that needs to go,

slowly replacing

what needs to grow

with the soul's further

encapsulation.



[slow, twangy guitar music]

[indistinct chatter]

Looks good.

I love this kind of food.

We came from Austin,

we're headed up to Denver now.

I saw the shift from temp

from Austin to Lubbock,

it's like 20 degrees.

Is that normal?

Or is that just because there's

like a cold front or something?

As you get farther--

Yeah, west,

it's gonna get

flatter and flatter.

- What was your name again?

- Bill Long.

Bill Long.

I'm Brian Mulvey,

this is Seth Tucker.

[Seth] Hi, nice to meet you.

I can shake your hand there,

there you go.

[Bill] I moved

here back in 1980.

I love it here because there's,

you know,

people are easy

to get along with.

And it's like most

of rural Texas.

If your great-grandparents

weren't born and raised here,

you're an outsider.

- You ever watch Andy Griffith?

- Oh yeah.

In Mayberry?

That was my dad's

favorite show.

Okay, well this was an enlarged

version of Mayberry.

- Okay.

- Everybody knows everybody.

They know their parents,

their grandparents, their kids,

they know who's doing what,

who's doing who.

You got some headaches

or whatever, you need some help,

you just ask your family,

hey man, can you help me out?

"Yeah, sure, what you need?"

And you know,

they help each other out.

You think that's like

a very Texas type thing?

Yeah, definitely.

Definitely, definitely.

Part of like what I want

to talk about with people

on this project

is chapters of life.

For me, I'm going

through a transition,

leaving my life

behind in New York.

I want to find happiness.

So I want to be inspired

by people who share

what makes them happy

and have different views

of what brings them joy.

I'll tell you

what makes me happy,

being 5,000 feet

in the air in my airplane.

That makes me happy.

And pardon my French,

but that's the most fun

you can have

with your clothes on.

Hey, I don't doubt that.

But I did radio and television.

I was actually

a TV meteorologist

from KTRE-TV Channel 9

in Lufkin, Texas.

And I did that for the longest

time until I finally got--

when it gets to

the point where you wake up

in the morning going,

"Oh man,

I got to go do this again.

I just don't wanna do it."

It's time to do something else.

So that's

when I switched gears,

went into law enforcement

for the time.

Were you nervous

about making that transition?

Oh, listen, I was nervous

as a long-tailed cat

in a room full

of rocking chairs.

More and more, I miss being

behind the microphone.

And I loved it on the air.

Do you wish you stuck with it?

Do you have any regrets

about your career path?

No, I rode that horse

and put it up well.

That's-- I've run as far

as I could go.

But as far as living here,

I plan on being buried here.

Not anytime soon, I hope.

- Yeah.

- [laughing]

I mean, Brownwood,

Texas is home for me.

Yeah, it will be from now on.

We're the only state

that can fly the American flag

and the United States flag

together.

We can succeed

from the United States

if we can take care

of ourselves.

We've got the oil,

we can produce crops.

And whatever else.

We can take care of ourselves.

[Brian] Is that a common feeling

around here?

When we lost Trump,

that's downfall.

- Mm-hmm.

- And people around here

are definitely...

Discouraged?

Very, very discouraged.

As far as Mr. Trump goes,

I voted for him

and I supported him.

But I really got disappointed

there right before the change.

I remember the change

of office came over

with the situation

in Washington.

And I don't know that he had

anything to do with it,

but I know that it was

in support of him.

Would you say that you're

proud to be an American?

Definitely.

Definitely proud to be American.

That's, you know,

I fought the Vietnam w*r

and the Iraq w*r, both of them.

Oh, wow.

Well, thank you

for your service.

- You're welcome.

- So you're a Vietnam vet?

And [indistinct].

What do you guys

love most about America?

Just think about freedom.

That's what it's all about.

And people take it for granted.

A lot of people.

Yeah, they take it for granted.

People need to get out

and be heard.

I think everybody's

just politically exhausted.

- Yeah.

- And people are afraid

to get into those conversations.

America is a powerful

and complex word.

But what is this collection

of lives inside imaginary

lines?

What is America

supposed to mean?

Unity.

We all need to be

on the same page.

I live

in a neighborhood that has

some very conservative

neighbors.

But they know

that I do drag now,

and they wave at me when

I come in and when I leave.

And these are

the same people that vote

very differently than I do.

You know, we love our country.

Simple as that.

We don't like the way it's run,

but we do like the country.

If my dog gets out, they will

go and chase my dog down

and then take it home

and call me up and say,

"Hey, we got your dog.

It's been fed. It's bathed.

We painted his toenails.

It's ready for you.

Don't worry about coming home."

And that's what America is.

That you can believe

in different things.

And start believing

in ourselves again.

Start producing again.

Put people back to work.

Put people in their own homes.

Put an ear out there

and close your mouth

and open your ears for once.

Like the words

that are out there,

that's now helping a lot, man.

I think America needs

to open up their eyes,

open up their hearts,

um, and try to make a change

for everything

before it's too late.

[Brian] As we moved

further north through Texas,

we wanted to explore one

of those many American towns

you pass by on the highway

in the blink of an eye.

That you either

think nothing about...

Hello. How are you today?

- [clerk] Good, how are you?

- [Brian] Good.

Or you wonder

why people live there

and what that life is like.

We're out-of-towners.

We thought

we'd check out the place

and we're passing

through town, so.

It was recommended by multiple

locals that we visit

the site of Slaton's

historic charm,

the Harvey House.

And the purpose

of the Harvey Houses

were for people to be able

to have food on the railways.

And they were built

about every hundred miles or so

because you couldn't

have food on the train.

[upbeat, folksy music]

This is Barry Wicker.

- Hey, Barry.

- How are we doing?

- [Seth] Good.

- Good, how are you?

[guide] Barry is from Slaton

and knows Slaton.

And actually one

of his cousins was one

of the Harvey House girls.

The Harvey girls

were young ladies.

They were told,

"Go west, young ladies."

Which is where a lot of them

met their future husbands,

they were railroaders.

And they had to be

prim and proper.

When they came in, this is

what they told the customers.

If you put your cup upside

down, you wanted coffee.

This is the uniform

they would wear.

That's my dad's cousin

right there.

Are you guys familiar

with Judy Garland?

[Brian] Yeah, absolutely.

She made a movie called

The Harvey Girls.

That's what

she was saying, yeah.

We have this, so they can

watch that on this TV.

[guide] Do y'all know

what that is?

[Brian] I'm going

to take a picture of that

because I--

now I gotta watch it.

I'm going to take a picture

of it so I can remember.

[guide] We do have

the DVD as well.

[Brian] Yeah.

[Barry] When I was like

10, 11 years old,

can you imagine me

being on a train?

Going down these tracks

and seeing the countryside

like I've never seen before.

Riding a train.

And even to this day,

it would still be the same.

That's one of the greatest

memories of my life.

And you talked about getting in

the caboose and riding up top.

Yes. So it's very--

this place is very meaningful

to a lot of us.

Trust me.

And even those people there,

our townsfolk,

they love this place.

I don't guess this town's

ever going to go away.

You know, we've been

here 109 years.

What's going to make everybody

and anybody get up and leave,

we're here.

Texas is an Indian

word meaning Tejas,

meaning friendship.

And that's the state motto

of Texas, is friendship.

That's where that supposedly,

that's where that came from,

- Caddo Indians.

- [Brian] Yeah. We certainly--

Y'all go look

that up and see

if that's what

I'm telling is right.

That's what I'm certainly told.

- [Brian] I like that version.

- Yeah, I do too.

Well, thanks again.

I appreciate it.

- Bye. Be safe.

- Take care.

[Seth] Take care, yeah.

- Nice to see y'all.

- [Seth] Yep, take care.

- [bell ringing]

- [horn honking]

[Brian] I drove the long roads

of rural Texas,

admiring the sense of pride

felt

in small communities.

That's northern Texas.

The nothingness.

Beauty and the nothingness.

But I was eager

for the beautiful change

of scenery I had.

Where the river takes us

far away from home

Time to ponder

In the fields around me

Where there's nothing but the

breeze and the great unknown

So this was built.

It wasn't naturally formed.

[Seth] Their reaction.

Perfect.

It's pretty far.

That's more

than the rocky stuff.

[Seth] But I'd

like to watch you try it.

What do you think?

I don't know.

I don't want to--

Maybe a half.

[Seth] How are you feeling?

I'm nervous.

I would love to--

Thankfully, you won't be

recording me throwing up

at the top of it.

Leave your worries

And your suitcase

All you don't need

[Seth] He's looking

pretty good right here.

So don't throw your hopes

Down a wishing well

I don't think I'll ever

physically recover from this.

- [Seth] No.

- It's that Denver air,

it's just too thin.

And I also never

do any cardio exercise too.

So that's probably part of it.

But I think it's mostly

the Denver air.

12, 13...



Pathetic.

I mean, I'm kind of embarrassed

to even be here with him.

So I'm going to act

like I'm not with him.

I'm going to blame the slippage

at the first couple

of steps there.

Oh, really? I didn't have

any issues with that.

Yeah, we can take that one out.

Well, that'll

be heavily edited.

We are going

to the Flatiron mountains.

Like jagged edges

sticking out of the ground.

So when

the tectonic plates back--

the tectonic plates

[indistinct],

so when they push

against each other,

we'll see push up above it.

- And that's basically what--

- Then it went...

- Yeah, kind of.

- Mr. Yotzko taught us that.

And you were paying attention.

Mr. Yotzko.

Well, I would love to know

where some

of those teachers are.

Mr. Bedor I really liked.

Wonder what he's up to now.

I don't know.

I got cut from the soccer team

in seventh grade.

- He was the coach.

- Yeah.

And he asked me

if I wanted to stay on

and be a manager for the team.

And he said, if you want

to be the manager,

you get to play

in the last game of the season.

So, um, stayed on the team.

I think even before the end,

because I was still allowed to

practice and stuff with him,

I got a lot better.

So I actually played in the last

few games of the season.

- Nice.

- So then in eighth grade, uh,

cuts were coming up again

and I wasn't sure.

I was like,

it might be on the bubble again.

Like, I'm waiting in study hall.

And he comes in.

He's like, "Can I--" he said

to the study hall teacher.

He's like, "Can I steal

Brian Mulvey for a second?"

She's like, sure.

And I'm like, f*ck,

I'm getting cut again.

And he's like, "So I'm

going to take you with me.

We're going to pull this kid,

Travis, so-and-so out of class.

"And you and I are going

to talk to him because he's

"going to get cut from

the team."

He's like,

"I want you to talk to him

"because 25 guys make

the team-- or whatever it was.

"And you were the 26th

last year.

"And he's the 26th this year."

So I remember going to that

classroom, the seventh grader,

and he goes, "Hey, is Travis

in here? "Can we steal him?"

And this kid, I could

just see the look in his eyes.

He just seemed so nervous.

- Yeah.

- So I pull him out.

And Mr. Bedor talks to me.

He's like, "You know,

Mulvey was the 26th guy

"last year,

the 26th guy this year.

"I'm going to have Brian

talk to you why you should stay

on and be a manager,

what the reward is for it.

So I talk to him, was like,

"Yeah, it's fun.

"You get to play in the last

gam, ya-dee-ya-da."

So he agreed to do it.

Then fast forward,

last game of the season,

game is tied up.

Comes down to a wild

winning penalty kick

to see who wins the game.

Mr. Bernard puts him

in to kick it and goes in,

kicks it, wins the game for us.

And everyone goes nuts,

cheering for him and everything.

Damn, that's crazy.

Well, if he's ever

watching this movie, I can tell

him that that definitely

had an impact on me.

I mean, sh*t, I'm 32 now.

I was 12 then, 20 years later,

- that's stuff you remember.

- Yeah.

[singer vocalizing]

[upbeat indie music]

Yeah, but I didn't

bring a towel.

Do you have an extra towel?



[gentle inspiring music]

The week spent

traveling from rural

Texas through Colorado,

Utah, and onto the Northwest.

I took in the diverse beauty

of America's landscape,

thinking

of the generations before

us who moved through it too.

And how so many aspects

of life and civilization change

through the passage of time,

while so many stay the same.

I thought of how

our land is not just the page

in

which we tell the story,

nor the stage of the show.

It's the reader.

It's the audience.

It's the infinite motionless

rest of dirt and stone,

laying witness

to the ways we walk,

the roads we ride on,

the rivers we have to cross,

holding our stories

secret through sun and snow.

It's silent,

like a stranger we

all wish to know.



What you gotta do is

a little squirt of Blue Plate,

real mayonnaise,

none of that fake sh*t.

[Seth] I mean, mayonnaise is

pretty fake in itself, I think.

This is the realest

mayonnaise you can get.

I feel like I'm making cat food.

[Seth] I mean, honestly,

this looks exactly like

what you'd get in

the store anyway, so.

[Brian] Yeah, thank you.

And that is how you make

a Southwest chicken wrap.

- [Seth] [indistinct]

- Yeah.

As the snow melted and we

passed

through the gray skies,

we finally reached

the pinnacle of the Northwest.

[typing]

- [city din]

- [indistinct singing]

I need to go find a fish.

[mellow electronic music]



So I mean, you definitely caught

our attention walking by with

the flag and the outfit here,

but what inspired you?

Talk about what you're doing.

Uh, what inspired me to

ride is I was...

I was in a coma on life support

for a year and a half.

I had eaten teriyaki steak,

I got food poisoning.

They gave me the-- Um,

they gave me the wrong shot.

I started

having violent grand mal

seizures in the emergency room.

So when I came out of all of it,

I had to go through

full rehabilitation.

My father

flipped the TV channel,

saw the Tour

de France for the first time.

And apparently,

if you do your homework,

you'll see how Greg LeMond had

returned

back from a hunting accident.

I was like,

wait a minute, if he can

do it and return, so can I.

Um, our veterans were,

they were dying at, um,

a desert storm in Kuwait.

And I was like, you know what?

I want to be able

to honor our veterans

and military families.

And it was a higher

purpose than what--

for me, it was a higher purpose.

As a person

who my father served,

I wanted to

be able to honor them.

How much more of my life

am I able to give to be able to

provide for them so help lift

a load off of their shoulders?

- [Brian] Yeah.

- They're like-- they really

don't get the help

because of the system.

The whole political side,

I don't get into that.

I'm like, leave

that with you guys over there.

This is what I'm supposed

to do is help bridge that gap.

[gentle piano music]

So for example, if you served,

you had a brother that served,

you need to get on the road

and you didn't have a bike.

You see me, "Okay,

hey, here's my card.

"I really need

to get on the road.

"I'm having

a really difficult time.

"I don't know where to start."

I would contact either Trek,

Specialized.

I contact my sponsors.

Um, Dynatech in Europe.

And I would be able to,

within three weeks to a month,

I'd be able

to get you sponsored.

You wouldn't have to worry

about no money or anything.

Here, boom, here's the bike.

If you need help on the road,

don't have any gear,

contact me again.

I'm gonna get ahold of my

guys or I would go out, put 17,

19 hours on the trainer,

raise the money, boom,

I would get you everything

you needed to get you going.

Road advocacy, I would teach

you everything there is to know.

That's my job is to give my

life to you, to lift a load off

your shoulders so you can be

able to enjoy life for a change.

And I have people

that come up and say,

"Just your consistency

alone has shown us that nothing

"is impossible, that yes,

I can make it another day."

I've had drug addicts

come up and say, "Okay,

"I don't know what else to do.

Because of you, bro.

"I need help." And I'm able

to help get them treatment.

- [street din]

- [indistinct chatter]

[Brian] So what is-- what

is it you're taking there?

[person with drug addiction]

It's fentanyl.

They make them

look like painkillers.

They make them

look like they're...

My addiction is not as bad as

a lot of people out here.

A lot of people are

doing like 20 of these a day.

I do maybe

five to seven, you know?

Because I don't really-- I don't

really steal as much,

you know what I mean?

I'm not as much of a thief.

[Seth]

So what do you think, man?

So are you, uh, are you kind

of like on this block?

Do you kind of control things?

- [man] Control things?

- Yeah, or do you like, so...

[man] I talk to myself.

I-- I talk--

I talk to myself, bro.

- [Seth] Hey, hey man.

- [thudding]

[ambient music]

[Brian]

In the heart of Seattle's

international district,

a continued spike in

homelessness and crime has

funneled into the area

since the pandemic, along with

its rising racial stigma

and attacks on Asian

businesses.

As a restaurant owner,

we were already struggle

once the pandemic hit.

[Brian] Seattle's power holders

have ignored the problem as

evidenced by the sight of not

a single police guard

patrolling

one of the city's

most dangerous streets.

You know,

I have been waiting for

two years to see if, um,

if things get better around

Little Saigon,

but nothing has been

changed or improved at all.

The city office,

you know, they promise

certain things, "Hey,

we'll make this area safer."

For the first month,

there was a lot of police

presence over there,

but once they leave,

you know,

they start coming back again.

We lost at

least 50% of our dine-in.

Usually on the weekend,

we're-- we're busy,

we're full and

we have a waiting list,

but now we hardly see,

like, half capacity

because people are afraid.

They come in and they tell us,

"Hey, we're regular customers."

They would say,

"I would love to come

"down here,

but I don't feel safe."

You know, they come in

here to eat and they ask me,

would their car

be okay out there?

And to be honest,

my car and my staff car

has been broken

into almost monthly.

We invested quite a bit

of money and we've been in

this area for seven years.

And when you just pick

up and go and have to build

something brand new

and start your client

base in another area,

it's difficult.

So where they managed to

kick the cans down the road,

I believe this is

the most convenient

area because the I.D.

doesn't have a strong voice.

[Brian] To see America is to

see both every way it's

meant to be

and the many ways it is.

How long have

you been hooked on this for?

[person with drug addiction]

Well, painkillers all together,

I was like 19.

- [Brian] So how old are you now?

- 38.

[Brian] Living in our own

lanes of life,

face towards all the things

we want to see,

from the things

we look away from.

[Alvin] To raise that flag,

it lets you know that you're

not overlooked.

I may not know you,

but I know you.

I may not see you,

but I see you.

I may not hear you,

but I hear you.

[Seth] So what does

the American dream mean to

you coming to

Vietnam and coming here?

The American dream is,

you know, having my freedom

and building a business from

scratch where I can feel safe.

That's my dream.



[gentle guitar music]

[Brian] Since we were

starting to approach

warmer weather again

and money was running tight,

it was time to start

sleeping in our cars again.

I feel grimy.

This is how I shower.

We got wet wipes.

When I was staying--

I didn't actually stay

in this parking lot last night.

I got kicked out.

But when I was in

the mall parking lot,

there was security

patrolling and me being

uh, ignorant, was thinking,

oh, that's makes me feel good.

They're going to handle any

like riffraff in the parking lot

and stuff, until they tap

on your window and you realize,

oh sh*t, I'm the riffraff

that they're taking care of.

Humbling experience.

It really is humbling the way

people look at you when they

can

see that you're

living out of your car.

But this was my home

now and I was going

to make it

as comfortable as possible.

I mean, it's not going to

be like sleeping in a Motel 6,

but I think

it'll get the job done.

[Seth]

It's actually going to be like

- sleeping in a Motel 6.

- [Brian] Yeah, probably.

- Okay. Okay.

- [Seth] Okay.

- It's complete. Okay.

- [Brian] Yeah, this is nice.

- It works, huh?

- Yeah, well, look how much--

come and look

at this thing here.

- So not much space here.

- [Seth] Okay.

But I mean,

I'm fully stretched out.

This is my home.

Welcome to my home.

I'm laying here in

the back of my Toyota Corolla.

I can see the stars

right outside this window

and right outside that window

and the ocean

is right by my side.

And who would have

thought that this car,

which previously was just

what would get me to work,

get me home, just get me

through mundane activities

has now been taking me

on this whole adventure

and has also become my home.

It feels really good

to have maximized the space

and now be in it.

And I'm very happy right now.

I see you did find a good spot.

You can see the Milky Way.

It's beautiful.

And it's like this all

the way down the coast, man.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

[Brian] All right,

close my door.

Keep the heat

in and good night to you.

- I'll see you in the morning.

- Okay, sounds good, sir.

- [Brian] All right.

- Good night.

[mellow electronic music]

[Brian] I'm coming

over to the coffee shop.

Uh, double espresso latte, please.

- Is that on the menu?

- Black?

[Brian] Any seating,

outdoor seating, inside seating?

Wherever the hell you want, man.

[waves splashing]

5,500 miles, I think

it's been over the past month.

And there's been,

you know, certainly like gloomy

kind of dark days,

just kind of sitting alone

in the car,

driving, thinking.

This trip, this project,

is it all going to be worth it?

Um, and I think now being

here makes me feel a sense

of peace that makes me

understand why we're doing this.



Crossing the entire

country and staring out

at the Pacific Ocean,

I felt incredibly humbled

by all the people we met

and miles we traveled

and realized how lucky

I am to have taken

this adventure

I may never take again.



How many times

have you done this?

Nope, there's my key,

I see it.

Uh, maybe like three times.

[Brian] And you've

found success with a wedge

and a wire every time?

- No, it's usually AAA.

- [Brian chuckles]

[Brian] Have you found success

at all with a wedge and a wire?

I've never had a wedge

and a wire, so I don't know.

[Brian] Have you ever found

success without AAA?

No.

I've locked myself out

of my car several times.

I saw this at the hardware

store and I was like,

- you know, this will work.

- [Brian] That will save you.

So I leave it

in the back of my car.

- [Brian] Brian.

- Hey, how's it going?

- What's your name?

- Dave.

[Brian] Dave,

and you're a car thief?

- Professionally?

- [all laughing]

- No, I'm a contractor.

- [Brian] Yeah, yeah.

[Bill] I came here when I was

21 for the first time

and then I had to go back

to Florida to finish

my education and came

back out here when I was 27.

I'm a surgeon.

The joke I tell people

is when I was--

when I was thinking about what

I wanted to do with my life,

I wanted to become a surfer.

So I looked up

in the yellow pages

for surf schools and

if you look at alphabetically,

right underneath

surfing is surgery, so.

[laughter, overlapping chatter]

How would you like talk about

the personality of this area?

It's kind of a mixed bag.

It's an old fishing town.

It was formerly

the capital of California.

So it's very important

in California history.

You know,

so you've got kind of like

a really, you know,

unique fabric of the community.

There's people

that have lots of means live

in really wealthy areas.

Their second or third homes.

Then you've got people that grew

up here with little means.

[gentle guitar music]

[Bill] California

has a lot going for it.

It has a history of

people coming here and making

their way and, you know,

coming with nothing

and winding up with something.

I mean, relative to most people,

I haven't had

a great deal of adversity.

I have to say, you know,

and I'm always amazed by people

who are, you know,

who, in spite of adversity,

really come along

and have a remarkable life.

Maybe it's because of that.

Maybe it's in spite of it.

[Brian] Would you say

that you've achieved

happiness in life,

being here?

Or is that a loaded question?

I'm happy to be here.

Happiness in life,

I've managed to

make all the wrong

decisions for happiness.

Marriage and divorce,

those are the biggest ones,

you know, and those are things

I've learned

something from that.

Fortunately-- Unfortunately,

I made the same

bad decision again,

and then after many

years got out of that.

So, and this time it was

kind of an opportunity to think

- about things differently.

- [Brian] Mm-hmm.

Did you have dreams

when you were younger?

Have you lived those

dreams or have your dreams

transformed

as you've gotten older?

Uh, I feel like I'm living

the dream now, you know.

I'm where I wanna be

and I've got everything

I need and I've got food.

I can drive around,

I can go surf.

What else do you need, right?

Yeah, this is what makes me

happy as much as anything else.

It's just being

out here doing this.



"There was the Pacific,

a few more foothills away,

blue and vast and with

a great wall of white advancing

from the legendary potato patch

where Frisco fogs are born.

Another hour,

it would come steaming through

the Golden Gate to shroud

the romantic city in white."

And now we've been

on the road for,

I mean, a little over a month.

And, uh, have barely

scratched the surface.

Traveling around the whole

country, I mean...

I feel like there's

never enough time to do

all the things that

we wanna do.

I mean like landmarks

and stuff like that, I mean,

it's beautiful but

you can see all these

things in pictures

and you can see videos online.

I mean, nothing is

as good as seeing in person

but actually getting to know

the people and feeling it is

much more valuable

than you can do online.

Which was the whole

goal originally of this

project and I feel

like we've done that

in a certain sense

but never as much as you wish.



Between all the experiences

we've had so far

I've spent countless hours

alone behind the steering wheel

anxiously trying to figure out

what my life will be

once this trip is over.

[Seth] You know,

you've talked about your anxiety

a few times where do

you think that stems from?

[seals barking in the distance]

I think it's been

more serious as of late

since the breakup

and leaving my job.

You know,

some people find a freedom

in that and excitement in it.

I wish I did, I try to.

A lot of people get

stuck whether it's stuck

in a place

that they are in whether

it's in a relationship

that there's comfort

in it it's scary to break out

of that and face the unknown.

Every script ever written

every screenplay I indicate when

the ideas came from somewhere

somebody isn't admitting.

[Brian] Being on the west coast

and getting close to the end of

our journey I thought about 10

years ago on the road trip with

my father and me moving

out west to chase a dream.

I thought about

the yearning to achieve success

and make my parents proud.

And I thought about where

and who I am now and of losing

and leaving a life that would

have been good enough,

to my fear of getting lost,

chasing a life that

could be great.

I want to make movies.

I want my screenplays to

become movies.

That's what I feel like

would make me happy.

I think I'm good

enough but am I good enough?

Is it going to work out?

And can I make money?

I don't know.

The thing that calms that fear

the most is failure, man.

You learn from

it and then you realize

that that fear isn't

really that scary.

- Yeah.

- You know? The more--

The more I continually learn

the more confident I am

in-- in whatever endeavor

and then I know that if I really

truly chase whatever it is I'm

after, if I really want

it bad enough I can get it.

Well I think about,

say I were to have a son.

What if my son said to

me like, "Dad, what did you...

"is this what you dreamed

"or is this what

you wanted to achieve?"

And if-- what if I had

to explain to him, "No, I wanted

to be a screenwriter

I wanted to make movies."

"Well what happened?"

How would I answer

that question to my son

and just say I gave up?

Because I don't want

them to then have a dream

and think that it's okay

not to go all in on it.

My dad is al-- was and

still is always the one that...

[sniffling]

like, I look up to,

like, I want to be like him.

He's successful, he's always

worked hard to chase his dreams

and he's achieved them,

like, I admire that.

[gentle inspiring music]

[Seth] Do you really truly

feel like you can do that?

You can achieve that?

I don't know.

I mean... [sniffling]

I guess I'm--

I am my own person, like,

of course like, I know it's--

everyone is who they are.

...out of the normal

comfort zone to try something

that you very well, just

like anything, you can fail at.

Well should we keep driving?

[Seth] Yeah.

Overall, finding the happiness

in life you are ahead

because you really

are chasing what you want.



- [Seth] Over there.

- I don't know.

- [Seth] Right now nobody knows.

- [chuckling]

I don't know, I think maybe

they use it for military stuff.

I know they use some of

those islands for a purpose.

Oh really?

I'll have to look it up.

And then over to

the right they're going to

be the rest

of the Channel Islands.

San Nicolas Island...

Look at the sunset.

[Seth] Yeah, pretty nice.

[indistinct chatter]

"I thought and looked

everywhere as I looked

"everywhere in the little

world below and before me was

"the great raw bulge and

bulk of my American continent.

"Somewhere far across

gloomy crazy New York was

"throwing up its cloud

of dust and brown steam."

I mean, I don't--

I think I would only

live here if I had to.

It would have to be

because of an opportunity.

[Seth] But do you think, like,

no matter where you pick,

ultimately,

I mean, it seems like the first

six months, maybe even longer,

is still going to be hard

because you're not

going to know anybody.

And you know

like you said you like

you know, hanging out

with friends going places.

- Yeah.

- And if you kind of lack

that part of it

especially, you know,

at the beginning and not

knowing-- you know, like,

there's a lot of uncertainty.

I think I, um,

I'm most afraid of being lonely.

That's why I'm-- even

everywhere we've been

even the places I liked,

nothing has been something

that I fall in love

with because I'm afraid of

that transition when

you move there being lonely.

It'd be one thing

if I was 23 but being in

your 30s it's like well, how

hard-- how hard is it going to

be to make friends or

meet people, like, you know,

find a-- get

into a relationship.

It just seems very daunting.

"There was something brown

and holy about the east and

"California's white like

wash lines and empty headed.

"At least that's

what I thought then."

[gentle guitar music]

[Seth] You're going

to climb all the way up there?

Ah, we could just go-- we don't

have to go all the way up.

[Seth] It's like

a McDonald's play place.

Don't you want to

stand up in victory?

[Brian] No, I--

All right this is

a little behind the scenes

shots of Seth,

my photographer,

taking some nice model photos of

me sitting on top of a boulder.



The day that like,

all the lockdown

restrictions came in,

I moved into my van.

So you've been living

in this since March 2020?

Yeah since COVID.

My stepdad, he works at

a steel company and so I painted

steel beams there for like

three months to save up

the money to start

moving onto the road.

When I was

in high school I always like

thought of the idea, like

it was always entertaining to me

because I just watched

like YouTube videos

like ski bums and dirt bags and

I was like this is how you live.

- That's the life I want.

- Yeah.

I don't-- I can't think

of any place I'd rather be.

I think it's changed the way

I interact with people because

like when I first moved

into the van it was at the start

of COVID and for like a month

I didn't talk to almost anybody.

And so I would go out

like climbing alone but

it just, like-- I don't know,

it just changed everything

and then when I found friends

and like it's developed me

into the person I am today.

[Brian] Yeah so you don't think

that you're gonna get burnout

from this traveling,

like, nomad lifestyle?

No. I don't know how you could.

Like, I've definitely

been depressed in places

and like lonely in places

but then you just like

drive to another place.



We just passed Tucson,

Arizona on our way to Tombstone,

Arizona where we're

finally going to meet

Laurie which

I'm very excited about.

A little over a month before

starting this trip I posted

on various travel groups asking

if any strangers starting

a new chapter in life wanted to

go somewhere meaningful to

them.

One response from Laurie

struck me the most.

We developed

a friendship as we talked

over the next few weeks

and I learned

that after suffering

the loss of multiple loved ones

over the past two years,

she and her husband Keith

decided to sell their farm

in Iowa and commit to a life

of traveling and selling

Christmas trees

all over the country.

So have you guys had

anything to eat for lunch or?

No. Seth doesn't eat until

- later in the day.

- [Seth] Yeah I usually eat

- after I go for a run.

- You eat later in the day?

We should go to Big Nose Gates

and have lunch.

- Yeah.

- Do you want to?

I think

that would be a good idea.

- That sounds good.

- Go to Big Nose Gates

and then go on a hike

after that?

Yeah. I'm not gonna

go hiking on an empty stomach.

- No, no.

- No, no, no.

If you've never been

to Big Nose Gates you gotta

- go to Big Nose Gates.

- I don't think they've been

- to Tombstone.

- [Brian] No never.

No kidding? Oh.

[live country music plays]

[Brian]

The real Wyatt Earp, huh?

I look pretty good

for my age though.

That's what the Arizona

sun does to you.

Hey, I might as well

stay here then.

What do you think,

do I look like a cowboy?

- Yeah, a little big on my head.

- No. No. [chuckling]

[indistinct chatter]

I talked to a fellow

that had lived here

all his life and I said,

"There's so much history

and so much diverse history.

So he said,

"There's, you know, you may run

"into something that's

Spanish here might go over

"there and

there's something Indian."

[Laurie] And the history,

you can feel it.

I mean you can

just feel the history.

[Keith] ...when you stand in

places, it's really something.

This is

possibly the amphitheater.

You know, the chiefs,

we're among the chiefs up here,

talking to your Braves.

Wow. You gotta really

project I wonder how well

the sound carries.

Be a great place

for a concert too.

- Right.

- [Keith] Oh, man,

you could set

up a band right here.

A light show and have everybody

gather right down there.

And get seating on the top

of those rocks down there.

- Yeah.

- That's the $100 seats.

- Yeah, expensive.

Think of the power you feel

when you just look down...

- [Laurie] At your Braves.

- [Brian] At your Braves.

See, all those families

and tribes and all together

they probably

filled this whole valley.

[Brian] The rock formations

we stood on were the base

of operations for the

Chiricahua

Apache chief, Cochise.

One of the most

skilled battle leaders

defending Chiricahua

lands from the American

military

during the Apache

wars of the mid-1800s.

He was like the last

major criminal.

He was a tough guy.

And he put some

hurt on the military.

So they wanted

him almost at any cost.

They wanted to capture him.

And so he ran up into this stuff

and they couldn't get him out.

So they sent the tough guys.

They were the buffalo soldiers.

So they were

the bad boys of the bunch.

They were the bad

boys of the military.

And they had them come

out here and try to get Cochise.

And they never could get him.

So he-- somewhere up

in there are his bones.

And they buried--

the family buried him up there.

And they never told

anybody where he was at.

Because they knew

they'd go after him.

So they never said

anything about where he was at.

And he's--

they've never found him.

And if history teachers

could teach what they want to

it'd be the white

man overcame all of them.

And overcame Cochise.

And there's

already some people said

that they studied the history

and Cochise went down here to

council-- the bottom council

area, and surrendered to

the generals.

We never did. That's a lie.

He never surrendered.



There's one here and there's one

over there, I think.

"The pictures you see were

made hundreds of years ago.

"They have faded with

time and are now very fragile.

"These red and orange

pictographs are reminiscent of

"designs used by prehistoric

"Magolan? Magoan? ...peoples

roughly 1,000 years ago.

"Some may have been

added in early historic

"times by Apache visitors.

"The boulder formation

around you has served as

"a shelter by many

who passed through this area.

This beats

sleeping in the Corolla.

- I would rather sleep in here.

- [Seth] Yeah, for sure.

"The grinding mortars

on the large granitic

"boulder to your left and

the two within the shelter area

"were used with a pestle for

grinding nuts and seeds."

The Indians

were seriously active out

here raiding

the gold and silver shipments.

And then the Mexicans

and the cowboys

- and everybody here...

- Wow, yeah.

- You're right in the hotspot--

- Supposedly there's a treasure

up there in the Dragoons, yeah.

- [Keith] ...where it is.

- [Brian] That means there's

probably a treasure behind that.

That's how

they were locking it in.

[Keith] Gotta get that out then

you gotta crawl in that hole.

- [Brian] Blow that rock up.

- [Keith laughing]

- [Seth] You never know, Brian.

- [Keith] I know-- I know...

Like a little piggy bank.

...pretty much

for a fact that there is

still treasure out here.

But where do you find it?

Those boys were tricky.

I used to take her out on

these crazy climbs I'd go on.

I'd say, "Where the heck's

your sense of adventure?

And her answer

is always the same,

"I married you didn't I?"

[gentle guitar music]

You know it's been a hard six,

seven years for us.

- Losing his parents and...

- We lost parents and family.

Brother and friends

and then our daughter.

And you know it's been,

it's been tough.

And now it's time

for us to do for us.

- [Brian] Mm-hmm.

- Do something for ourselves.

We've done a lot

of service to other people

and it's time

to take our time now.



Our daughter Alicia

was addicted to meth.

And got off of it and

went from that to alcohol.

You know and that's

what a lot of them do.

They'll go from that meth to

alcohol thinking it's...

- They're just replacing.

- ...it's not as bad but

they're just replacing it.

How old was

Alicia when she passed?

She was 39 when she passed.

[Keith] She was such

a kind-hearted person

that she would take

these unfortunate kids that

had been thrown off, you know,

and didn't have

anything or anywhere to go.

And some of them didn't have

skills to get a job or anything.

She would take them in

and let them stay with her.

And she would get them

out there help them get a job.

I mean she was awesome.

But she just

had that serious problem

that she couldn't get through.

Alicia accepted anybody.

Yeah she'd accept anybody.

And she tried to quit sometimes.

We really worked

with her and she tried.

But it just--

she just couldn't stop.

Do you practice every day?

No.

I'm sad to say I don't.

I should.

I've been so wrapped

up in my emotions and...

- Yeah.

- ...everything for the past few

months that I just...

It just has...

It's not an escape at all?

No, it is starting to be now.

- Yeah.

- But I don't know, it was just

hard for me to even get it out

for a while, I don't know why.



Son of a g*n

[indistinct lyrics]

On the bayou

- Yee-haw!

- Woo!

That was awesome.

When you said earlier

when I asked if you sing

karaoke and you said no,

I thought maybe

you were afraid to sing.

And I wasn't expecting

you to have such a good voice.

- Thank you. I appreciate that.

- That was awesome.

[Keith] Country sushi.

[laughing]

[Brian] That's good stuff.

The closer

to the far west you get

the more lunatic

friends you encounter.

- [Seth, Laurie laughing]

- Yeah. That's true.

You're not publishing

anything I said, are you?

[laughing]

We'll cut all of this off.

Remember he said he

didn't want to talk?

- I know I was surprised by that.

- Do you remember?

I met an Amish guy.

They were up doing

our roof on our house one day.

And this-- the old guy

was on the ground watching

the young guys do

the work up on the roof.

You know, he would trim

the pieces and send them up.

And about a half

a mile away there's a river

bed down south of the farm.

About a half a mile away.

A lot of trees you know.

And we had had that F5

tornado come through in '08.

And it just took

a section of those trees right

out and crossed over the river.

Just took a section

of those trees right out.

And so I'm

telling that little guy

you know he wanted to know

how long it lived and stuff,

you know, and I said,

"See that spot there where

"there's no

trees by the river there?"

He said, "Yeah, I see it."

I said, "That's where

the tornado came through."

"Really?"

He says, "Did you watch it?"

And I said, "Yeah I stood

up here and took pictures."

As I chased

all the women and kids in

the basement

and I stayed out took pictures.

He said, "Really?

Were you scared?

And I said,

"No, really, I wasn't.

"It gave me a little

jolt when the thing head

"this way and

it covered up the road.

"And then it went

back the other way."

But I said, "Then

I got a little twinged.

But I said,

"I wasn't really scared."

He says, "How come?"

And I says, "Well,

we believe that, you know,

"we have a certain

amount of days each of us

"individually

and they're all different."

I said, "If it's our day to go,"

I said, "It won't take

that tornado to get us."

Anything could get

us if it's our day to go.

But I said,

"If it's not our day to go

"that tornado can't k*ll us."

He says, "I believe

the same way you guys do."

And he says, "I've

been out here with you.

- [laughing]

- [Brian] Wow.

So you know we accept

the fact that we're going

to go and we don't know when.

So let's do what we can

and while we do, enjoy it.

See what we can of the world.

Has that helped

you guys cope with Alicia?

Oh yeah.

And we're, you know,

we know where we're going.

I know where

my mom and dad went.

I pray Alicia's up

there with Mom and Dad and

with my mom and dad.

But I definitely think

that our faith has helped keep

us going through all

the last six, seven years,

all the things

that have happened.

It takes-- Uh...

you feel the sadness

but it takes out the anguish.

I guess you'd

call it the extreme

you know, the extreme

pain of the loss.

You don't feel that so

much because you know you'll

be with them again.

It's just a matter of time.

I was holding

Keith's hand when he passed--

Keith's dad's hand

when he passed away.

And it was just like,

took his last breath and

it was just such

a release and it was peaceful.

And for at

least a week afterwards

every night when I went to

bed I heard the angels singing.

I felt like there

were no voices but it was

the most

beautiful angelic music.

You know, no words but just...

Yeah, I don't

know how to explain it.

We're not people

that that really go

for a lot of that.

We're pretty realistic.

- You know, we're realists.

- We're black and white.

I mean, we're not--

there's no gray area with us.

And that's-- you know,

if it isn't real we don't...

You're not going to

imagine things out of thin air.

- Right.

- If it happens you recognize--

And those things

happen and it just,

it's crazy because you know

it really attests to the fact

- that there is something else.

- Yeah.

Alicia came to me in

a dream and she was right

there and she was

saying, "Mom! Mom! Mom!"

And it was like I could

feel her breath on my face

and it was just so real.

And I woke up and I was

just in tears for the whole day.

Every now and then you think,

you know, what is it?

It was just... Ooh.

It was just like

she was there.

It just, uh, it just tells me

more that there, it is real.

You know this is reality,

not something that is

just a religion that

somebody came up with.

It's not just somebody's theory.

It's-- it's really there.

[melancholy music]

[Laurie] From beginning to end.



[sighing]

Well I think she'd be

happy with-- with this spot and

you said it represents her.

- Oh most definitely.

- Yeah.

Beautiful and... grand.

- Mm-hmm.

- You know.

All right, well, are you ready?

I'm ready.

Let's do this.



[music fades]

Fly free, my girl.

[sobbing]

[gentle piano music]



[Brian]

Looking at Laurie and Keith was

witnessing the emotional

intersection

of sadness and peace.

And I thought of

the long painful road of

loss they've had to

drive down to find it.

Before we went

our separate ways, we shared

a heartfelt goodbye

and they continued on

to the next chapter of

a life: to live for them.



[Seth] Well I guess

this is the grand finale huh?

Yep, I guess so.

Asking Seth to film

this project became so

much more than Seth

filming this project.

I couldn't have asked

for a better travel partner.

This is it.

This is the beginning.

- Dang, it is, dude.

- Yeah.

And although life's changed

a lot since our days running

track and cross-country

together almost 20 years ago.

'Cause I really looked

up to you back then.

I do still look up to him.

[gentle guitar music]

- Yeah, dude.

- [Brian] It's been fun.

Dude, it's been a wild ride.

- It has. Thank you.

- I mean, yeah.

- Hey, genuinely, thank you.

- Thank you, dude.

All my other trips, you know,

they're solo but this

is the first trip ever,

in my life,

that I think I've taken,

you know, or taken with somebody

- for over a month.

- [Brian] And who would have

thought it

would be Brian Mulvey.

Yeah, I mean, there's no chance.

If you had asked me a few

months ago like, "Oh yeah

you're gonna be stuck with

Brian Mulvey for over a month."

- I wouldn't have believed it.

- [Brian laughing]

But here we are.

[Brian] Now it's time for him to

drive back to South Carolina

and

for me to go

wherever I was going to go.

Every time I'm on the road

it's a blast and I think going

along with somebody has really

been pretty amazing this time.

- Yeah.

- Give me a hug.

You heading that way?

Yeha, I think so.

Where are you going?

So after 10,000

miles and 40 days

what did I learn?

As we were leaving

Horseshoe Bend I saw something

that reflected my favorite

realization from this journey.

Hi, Laurie, [indistinct].

- [Laurie] Alicia.

- Alicia.

[Brian] It's the power that lies

in the brief human interactions

and the impact

they can have on someone.

[gentle guitar music]

When I think of America,

it's the significance in all

of us sharing this

insignificant sliver of

time together searching

for ways to make it matter.

If we could all, in America,

stop listening to our

politicians tell us what we

should think and what we should

believe, I think that

we could all

get to a closer

neighborhood.

We got to get

back to being neighbors.

Brothers and sisters

[indistinct].

And then you realize, "Okay,

we're more alike

than we are different."



[Brian] I finally realized

we're not just measured by

our successes and failures

and not defined by our labels.

Or else every person

I passed by would have been

just a drag queen,

just a police officer,

just a homeless man,

just a surgeon.

Just an old friend

you never reconnected with.

A lot of times

it almost works out to

be a bit of a facade

that we think we have to

put on to guard ourselves

and we take the time just to be

human beings, we find out,

hey, we're all human beings.

[Brian] When you look at

the highway from far above

it's the veins of

America connecting us all

together as one,

writing our story,

and every great chapter

begins the moment we decide

which way we go next.

["Undertow" by Nick Kinswell]

Can't touch the bottom

Set into a tumble

Waves that shake me out

Out of my skin

Never been so easy

Losing my direction

My bearings have me

south of home

I've been wrong before

I was wading in the undertow



Set adrift with

feather-weight-like bones

Unaware of where my

heart would flow

I was wading in the undertow