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You're sitting pretty in your forty ton rig;
chrome gleaming; the aircon at maximum cool. The
blacktop rumbles beneath you, a straight black
scar cutting across the prairie. Suddenly you
see something up ahead, emerging from the heat
haze at the side of the road...
Two guys thumbing a ride. But hold on. There's
something weird about them. A battered Union Jack
suitcase; drainpipes and winkle pickers, matching
blazers; and what's that on their heads? Straw
trilbys?! They look like a village green version
of the Leningrad Cowboys. But who the hell are
they? And what are they doing way out here on
the Interstate to Socorro?
Sometime DJ Austin Vince and his best mate Clive
Greenhough are inveterate travellers. In 1996
they led the Mondo Enduro round the world motorbike
expedition. Both TV naturals' , they shot the
whole thing on tape in the style of The Monkees.
In May 1998, they presented the thrills and spills
of that adventure for Discovery Europe in the
Aimimage production Easy Riders. Last summer they
packed their trusty DVC and headed west. Their
aim: to find the real America. How? By hitching.
In three months they covered every corner of
what is still the biggest undiscovered country
in the Western world: twenty four states; ten
thousand miles; one hundred and twenty four lifts.
Hitching is the best way to meet strangers,
says Clive. And they don' t come any stranger
than out here in Roadside USA: on the way they
meet an internet astrologer; a gangster on probation;
an actor on his way to shoot a Disney video called
Meet The Deetles; a born again Christian; a tub-thumping
lawyer ( 'You wanna see my gun? ') ; a lumber
packer; a geriatric nurse. All life is there.
' You guys were just too cute to pass by, ' cooes
a latter day Mrs Robinson over a foaming milkshake.
And what insights do they find? ' The best thing
about America is fast food - and crazy women,
' one patriot enthuses. 'As our Constitution says,
we hold these truths self-evident, that all men
are created equal, ' another asphalt scholar points
out. ' And that means you can do just about what
the f***k you like! ' And there' s more: gun control
... the erosion of Family Values ... conspiracy
theories ... a drug-dependent society... a violent
police force. We hear first hand the things that
American motorists think about as they take the
long ride home. '
Hitching is a very insincere form of transport,
' a weary Austin says at one point. ' On the outside
you' ve always got to project, to keep smiling.
While on the inside you might be seething.'
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