[train in motion]
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[train horn]
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[train horn]
Conor: I've never hopped on this train in the daylight.
[train in motion]
[easy-going guitar music]
Pat: He'll jump on trains, from here and
go all the way to California.
[distant train horn]
He'll do it with like 10 bucks in his pocket and
he'll make it there by himself and he doesn't like
staying in one spot, he likes to keep moving because
he feels like, that's what keeps him going in life rather
than just staying around and doing nothing.
He likes to be on the move.
Conor: Sorry it took so long man, here you go.
[guitar being jammed]
Man with American flag on his back: [unintelligible]
good for the body, good for the soul.
[slight laughter]
[guitar being played]
Sue: I knew he wanted to be a musician,
and so in my mind I was kind of guiding him towards college.
He was going to go to Southern Illinois and I don't know if
you know what happened right before
he went to Southern Illinois.
[guitar playing picks up]
[Conor starts playing The Nets by Roaming Bear]
Sue: I was pushing, pushing, pushing and the whole year
beforehand he kept saying: "No mom, that is not me
"I don't want to go to college."
And he actually did overdose, he tried to
kill himself, is was a call to say: "You're not listening,
"I have to be true to my own heart and soul."
[distant train horn]
[train in motion]
Conor: We'll hop another train in New Orleans and
maybe we'll hitchhike from Memphis, I don't really know.
Jennie: Yeah from Memphis we have no idea.
[train crossing alarm and train horn]
[loud train horn]
[train bell]
[train horn]
Jennie: We're leaving.
[gentle guitar music]
[train in motion]
Conor: The first time I traveled on my own,
I left the first week of November in 2008,
with 50 dollars and a backpack full of a bunch of junk
I really didn't need, probably like 60 pounds.
It all just made sense to me.
These guys are [golden].
Jennie: These people were not ready
for Katrina to hit them.
Fuck this place.
Conor: We went over to the school that I was
squatting at the last time I came here.
[several people shouting]
When I was staying there, there was maybe between five
and 10 of us each day staying there.
There weren't too many kids and we were all friends.
Matt: Long story short it is all different.
It's just fucked, it's all fucked.
Every single spot that I have been to,
recently, has been more blown up than anything.
It's that movie 'Into the Wild', it fucked everything up.
I'm not even kidding, it was a great book.
Scabby: In the 90's-
Matt: But that movie fucked everything up,
That was a bunch of 14 year old motherfuckers now
that are out here blowing up lines.
You know, you think we're a bunch of drunk punks
that just want to fight people in the street?
We prefer to be by train yards and eat some good-ass stew.
Curtis: I don't want to fucking stay in the house anymore.
Matt: Dude, check it all out man,
Curtis: Yeah, you know what, there's certain things
you haven't done in your life?
Do them, you know what I mean?
You only got one life to live,
especially if you're this young.
Conor: Did you ride trains here from...
Right now Scab and this other guy named Chris
said that they were going to show us.
Conor: Cool.
Curtis: So you know, my friends around the hood are like:
"Yo, isn't that dangerous?"
and I'm like yeah, but so is the hood so what the fuck?
[Conor, Matt and Curtis laugh]
Scabby: Hobo stew, the Mulligan stew.
The one tradition that we actually hold on to
from the original hobo brothers, is served.
[Matt]: Why are you guys listening to him?
Scabby: There's no point in bowls, there's no point in cups,
there's no point in separating things.
We spin everything, I mean...
Dude a bunch of fucking yuppies could show up right now,
I mean we will spin this pot with them.
There ya go.
[Conor]: Thank you, my man.
Matt: This is the home-bum at his natural habitat.
[Matt and Scabby laugh]
Scabby: I'm not a home-bum.
I never stay anywhere.
Matt: Yeah bullshit.
Conor: I didn't meet one sober street kid today, not one.
Being around them was painful now.
[fast guitar music]
The last couple of months before I decided to get sober...
they're all just madness.
It is really when I came down here last Halloween that
sparked the craziest days of my alcoholism and [raging].
[big band music playing]
[inaudible]
Jennie: I've never really thought of the future,
really stressed about it, I was always concerned
about what I'm going to do in the next few days.
I want to go everywhere, I want to see everything.
[general crowd mumbling]
Conor: Lately, I don't even want
to be traveling with a backpack.
You know, this is definitely not
something I want to do all the time.
I couldn't even imagine working a j o b
to pay for rent or something, maybe.
Jennie: People always worry about the future,
we don't have a future right now.
You don't have the past right now,
you have right now, now, you know, that's it.
[guitar being played]
Conor: I love the feeling of going home,
there's nothing like it.
[guitar being played]
Sue: Oh well, why don't you start there.
Where do you usually sleep when you're on the road.
that's my like favorite place to sleep.
Sue: As I told you when I invited you to the classroom,
they just really, really, wanted to meet you because you
intrigued them and they've got lots of questions for you.
Conor: Alright, oh, I'm supposed to be calling you guys.
You had your hand up first though.
Girl with blue hair band: When you go out hitchhiking
and you get in other people's cars,
do you ever get scared or like...?
Conor: Sometimes, I am scared yeah and I would not
suggest that any of you guys start hitchhiking.
Boy with black hair and gray shirt: Were you scared
the first time, when you hopped on a train?
Conor: I wasn't scared, my heart was beating like
really fast but it was in a good way, I was so excited,
all my adrenaline started was pumping.
[Pedro]: Do you ever get like, lonely,
when you're just...?
Conor: Sometimes it really kicks in when you're a couple
1000 miles away from home and I, you know, want to be
with my mom, want to be with my friends and family and
it kicks in that, there's no way that I could possibly
come back here any time soon because I'm so far away that
I can't afford a ticket home, I'm just stuck.
Sue: [Pedro] has been begging me if he could go with you.
[the class laughs]
Girl with blue hair band: Would you ever take somebody
with you, like one of us [maybe]?
Conor: Do you have any plans, or any ideas of a plan?
Mikey: Not really, I mean I have like, yeah I guess,
a couple of ideas but like...
Conor: Then, where do you want to stop,
where do you want to go or who do you want to see?
[train bell and horn]
Mikey: Surprised me though that they have some shit here.
This is what I wanted to do for a long, long time.
When I was a little kid I used to think about, you know,
like damn hobos ride freight trains and I thought
that was like a pretty cool life.
I guess I fantasized about it.
Conor: I don't really know what he is about, you know,
I don't know if he like wants to go and travel
and just like, score all the free pot he can in California
and like fuck off at rainbow gathering
or if he wants to like...
I don't know if hopping trains is even something
that he is into, or hitchhiking, or if he just wants
to do it to get away from a bad situation
which could be a possibility too.
Do you make jewelry at all?
Mikey: Uh-huh.
Like, wire wrapping and things like that?
You can get like 20 or 30 of these from
one bullhorn, which costs like five bucks from a farm.
You cut it down [into these wraps].
People pay like 20 or 30 bucks for one of these,
and it takes like an hour, tops, to make it.
Perfect way to make money on the road.
Mikey: I haven't tried it yet, I like make hemp and stuff
but like my brother started making wraps like before he died
and I have a bunch of his silver and like stuff like that.
I've looked at it, you know, like watching him doing it.
I like understand how to do it but I haven't tried it yet.
[faint sounds of nature]
[Tom]: ...and that is a fact.
Mikey: I'm stuck in here, these people are like stuck,
they've like [set ground] and I'm going to break out of it.
[guitar plays]
Tammy: So what exactly are we discussing?
Tom: At age 10, when Michael was 10 and Matt was 13,
Matt had been down the city a couple of times and then
he asked if Mikey could go down.
[slow paced guitar music]
They went down to the city, take the train and
street skated the city.
Tammy: Come back with stories about giving his money
to the homeless guys and talking to them.
Tom: Michael always has big brother.
Tammy: Yeah, all the guys watched out for him.
Tom: Yeah he had his big brother always looking out.
Tammy: Uh-huh.
Tammy: That's Matt and Mike wrestling, that's Michael...
Tom: Yeah.
Tammy: Remember that little purple hat he always wore?
[skateboarding]
[skateboard clangs on metal bar]
Tammy: Michael has been struggling
for a long time, for years.
Tom: You know in any household there's an expectation and
over the course of the last couple of months Mike
[did] expect things differently or expect more or whatever
and things weren't changing.
Tammy: There are ways to live off the grid and I think
if you want to eat, you got to work.
If you want somewhere to live, you have to work.
You can't just being mooching off of everybody forever.
[Conor starts playing Minimum Wage Brigade by Roaming Bear]
Tom: That's clearly somebody I want my son to emulate...
[Tammy laughs]
Tom: Isn't it?
Tammy: No.
[Tom laughs]
[band is jamming]
Conor: Alright, so, I'm Roaming Bear and this is Ethan.
[applause and cheering]
It's good to be playing with him again.
So this first song is called Run and is
about running away from here, or there, or anywhere.
[the duo starts playing Run by Roaming Bear]
Mikey: I got three teeshirts, two packages of socks,
a pocket knife and utensils.
Olive leaf complex if anyone gets sick.
I got my pot.
For a little while it's like, I can't do this, like I'm
not going to do this being on film and everything like,
that was the big thing that I didn't
really feel to good about.
Like I said, I don't want to come back here, I want to just
get out and probably just like stay in California.
That's where I want to be.
I mean, for a little while at least.
Tammy: Ok, stop all of this.
Mikey: Don't cry in front of the cameras, bye.
Tammy: I love you.
Mikey: I love you too.
[train in motion]
Alright so which one do i get on,
the front or the back?
Conor: The front one.
And you want to get on as fast as you can.
I'm going to have to run and keep up
with the train the whole time.
I can't get on until you're on.
Mikey: Holy motherfucker!
Do I get up?
Conor: Yeah, up in it.
Mikey: Ultimately, we are free to do, what we want to do.
You know, you always have the ability to free your mind.
No matter what time of the day it is,
what time of the year it is or where you are at.
[train engine]
Conor: Oh shit.
We're in a train yard, man.
I don't like that.
Mikey: We're slowing down.
Conor: We're just stopped in the yard right now, waiting.
I don't see any workers out there though, so...
That's a plus.
Mikey: [Unintelligible]
[various strong train yard noises]
[frantic ticking]
Mikey: ...on the night train.
Conor: Yeah maybe...
Mikey: Yeah I kind of want to get the fuck out of here dude.
Conor: Let's just keep going man...
[crickets chirping]
Mikey: I've wanted to ride trains and travel around
like that since I was like a really little kid.
But now I'm just like, being like introduced to the idea
about actually doing it.
It's like slowly giving me more knowledge about it before
I came on and it just like became a bigger part of my world.
The first time I met you was like, wow man you're like a
traveling man and now like that's like just kind of normal.
Conor: We're trying to make it to the West Coast.
Do you think these guys know what I'm talking about?
[guitar playing]
Conor: Alright, this is pretty much the trick here.
As you walk out with a gas can in one hand, CD in the other,
ask them if they'll spare a gallon of gas for a CD.
Mikey: First try, I think it's about like,
just confidence man.
Oh shit!
[guitar playing]
[car in motion]
Mitch: So, [unintelligible], get out here or if you want
I can actually take you out to Idaho Springs.
Mikey: I don't care.
Conor: You're going out that way?
Mitch: No, but I got nothing else to do tonight.
Mikey: We stopped in Idaho Springs and me and Bear
were about to walk to a gas station and fill up
water bottles when all of the sudden I just like notice
this guy talking to Conor and...
[Conor is talking inaudibly with the driver]
Conor: Do you think me and Mikey could grab a ride with you?
Driver: Yeah.
Conor: Cool.
Driver: Alright, [unintelligible]
Mikey: I just got to fill up some
water real quickly right there.
Driver: I got better water at my house than they got here.
[Mikey laughs]
Mikey: Alright, alright.
Conor: He saw our packs and asked if we had a place to stay
and apparently he takes in strays here quite often, he said.
He's let all kinds of traveling people
just come and use his campground.
Mikey: NO, fuck!
Conor: It feels like there's less random acts of kindness
like this in the suburbs because everyone is just
trying to survive, they're just trying to get by.
And out here, you know, you just got room to breathe.
Mikey: Zip-line take one, never before done in my life.
Aaaah, aaah!!
[guitar starts playing]
[thump]
[Mikey laughs]
That was pretty scary dude.
[guitar playing and streams of water flowing]
I want to eat this so bad.
Oh yeah dude did you see this last night?
Conor: Yeah, [unintelligible] the water.
Mikey: Yeah man.
See this, it even rhymes too!
[Conor snickers]
Somewhat.
[cars driving past]
Conor: I coughed up chunks of blood today.
That's why I know that I'm getting sick.
Mikey: Yeah.
Kinda good tasting...
It might make you like [gargling sounds] a little bit...
Super ORAC antioxidant.
William: I want to try some but
I'm kinda scared because of how Bear reacted to it.
Mikey: It says it supports a healthy immune system,
healthy joints, healthy blood pressure.
After that it took maybe like an hour of waiting.
Conor: A dude named Troy picked us up.
And then Helena, Helena was a super cutie, super fine cutie.
Helena if you see this, I could love you.
[Mikey laughs]
Yeah these kids took us to Newcastle and I asked
them right when we got out of the car if the cops were cool
there, if we could walk on the highway
without getting in trouble.
And sure enough, we had two chargers on our trail,
flashing lights and the cops came and hassled us.
In the past 24 hours we've been offered twice to get high
for free and neither of us had the urge to get high.
Mikey: Three times.
Conor: Three times, apparently.
Mikey: After I said no to them, I was thinking about it
for like the next 20 minutes, like man can I just finish
that because you just left it sitting there, you know.
But I was thinking, you know, like maybe I can go
a whole month being completely sober and just
enjoy the luxuries of consciousness.
[guitar and harmonica playing]
Conor: How's it going man?
Smags: Uhm, I don't even know what to say about him man.
Like, he came and visited me last year in California
which meant a lot to me because I was in a patient
rehabilitation center and this kid just hops on a train
and hitchhikes and does whatever he has to, to get out to
California and makes a point to stop and see me.
Conor: And I got kicked out of there,
for not being a sober person.
Mikey: Ayyy...
[guitar jam]
Conor: I've left sober on the road before
and I've always come back drunk.
I really realized that I needed to get sober when I
got two of my friends pregnant, two separate friends
in the same month.
I didn't even know about one of them until after she had
an abortion and then found out about the other pregnancy
while the girl was having a miscarriage.
That really made me realize that yeah there's
consequences to my actions.
Mikey: I mean the road is definitely a hard place
to be sober but if you have a good support system
on the road I think...
If you have a good support system anywhere I think you can
do anything you want really.
Conor: It's this right?
[unintelligible]
[Cameraman]: Bum life yeah.
Conor: Bum life.
Now if someone said this stuff might be set aside for
a pig farmer, because pigs will eat anything...
So, it's probably not all very good.
Some potatoes, these potatoes look pretty good.
You know what, cream puffs?
Nah-ah, not good.
Ugh.
The cream is anything but like cream and cheese.
No good, it has been sitting out in the sun all day.
This stuff has been here for awhile.
Oh, oh [snap peas] down here.
Mikey: Wow, imagine that!
Conor: Some fresh green beans
covered in chocolate and frosting.
Mikey: It's amazing, the flavor
combinations you'll find out here.
Conor: It's almost like shopping, kind of.
Got four papayas, a mango, half an avocado...
Mikey: I wanted to try a plantain,
but I didn't want to pay for one inside.
Conor: I don't know, I don't even, I got to get like
permission to talk about this right, quick, because you know
it's their spot and I won't fuck it up for them so...
Cameraman: Go ahead, sure.
[Conor talks with female anarchists]
Female anarchist: So, mostly it's that we're a sober space,
so no drugs and alcohol.
[unintelligible]
Because it makes certain people really uncomfortable.
And they won't be able to rely on a safe space.
[unintelligible]
Mikey: I slept on that little couch, the really nice one.
[Mikey laughs]
Today is food not bombs, big vegan potluck.
[Spanish conversations in the background]
Hey, hey, hey!
[Conor starts playing Let It Fall by Roaming Bear]
Hell yeah, getting down!
Conor: Thank you man.
So what I'm saying in short,
my pack and my guitar is just way too much to bring.
I think we should we hitch, it'd be way safer.
Mikey: You want to hitch all the way to Seattle?
Conor: Yeah, that's about as far this from Denver here,
just a little bit further.
Nice to meet you.
Guy in green cap: Nice to meet you too dude, good luck man.
Conor: Hopefully we get a ride quick, out of Salt Lake City.
[bird chirping]
Mikey: We walked from the house.
Conor: Got one ride up to Route 15 and 94 split
and then a cop came and kicked us off the highway.
Mikey: And he's like, you should just hike up the hill
right here and go up this street right here and
we're walking along this bridge...
Conor: And there's a train slowing down right beneath it.
Mikey: I got on the front of it and Conor
was trying to get on the back of it.
Conor: I was running with it for a second, I tried to pull
myself up and my foot totally missed the bottom rung.
And I just went tumbling.
Mikey: I jumped off, and it fucking hurt real badly like...
Conor: I thought he might've gotten his leg chopped off
or something because it looked like
he rolled down into the train.
Mikey: I landed right by the train and almost got fucking
ran over by the train, it was really scary.
Conor: And then, another train just
starts rolling up next to us.
Mikey: We found one that they call Cadillac grainer...
Conor: Which is like the best kind of grainer you can hop on
because it's got two compartments on the porch
where we can each have like our own little space
that we're completely hidden.
Mikey: And then within like maybe 20 minutes on it
Conor: We started to see the Salt Lake on both sides of us.
Mikey: There's no road that goes over it, there's
train tracks but you're like right in the middle of it.
Conor: Great Salt Lake!
Mikey: Hang on tight man, hang on tight.
The sun was setting, as we were going over it,
it was like...
that I've seen in a long time.
I don't remember, you know, feeling that amazing.
Tripping, or doing any other drugs, or seeing anything,
skating huge hills or whatever like,
I felt like so high and like...
Words don't really explain it you know.
[Conor starts playing Wasting Time by Roaming Bear]
Conor: I eat nothing but fruit,
I feel like a goddamn hippie.
Mikey: Uh-huh.
Conor: Feel like a granola muncher.
Jamila: I have a pickup truck.
It's got room in the back.
It's actually got room for two people, kind of.
Conor: Awesome.
Jamila: Ok, yeah [unintelligible].
Voiceover: Bye bye and have safe travels.
Mikey: I don't like being on a camera.
Jamila: Yeah.
Mikey: I'm used to it being around now but like at first
especially I was like pretty nervous about it.
Like of course I like to travel but just being like
a part of a movie or anything like that was almost enough
to make me say that I don't want come and do this.
Jamila: So the way that you guys are traveling is just
by finding rides and by freight trains or?
Conor: Yeah, I call freight trains the Anarchist Amtrack.
Jamila: Yeah, I've always wanted to do that.
Never had the opportunity.
Mikey: Every day there is like so much happening.
I'm so happy right now.
Conor: My real name is Conor.
Jamila: So why do you call yourself Bear?
Conor: Uhm, well, initially I had a huge fascination with
Owsley Stanley, you know the sound-man for the Grateful Dead
they called him Bear.
It's kind of like out of admiration for Owsley
and then I was like in the psych ward and I picked up
a magazine and read like this real awesome
article on Owsley while I was in there and I'm like,
wow, Bear, like I could see being a bear.
[Conor laughs]
Jamila: So what were you in the psych ward for?
Conor: Uhm, overdosing.
[Conor laughs awkwardly]
Jamila: Oh yeah, in what way?
Conor: Uhm, Tylenol that's in Vicodin and I took 200 Vicodin
and it wasn't even the Vicodin that got me, I didn't realize
there was so much Tylenol in Vicodin.
Those people in the psych ward are fucked up though.
Conor: I got shot up with tranquilizers against my will
twice to the point where they just tackled me and pulled my
pants down and shot me in the butt with a tranquilizer.
And you know why that happened?
Because I was walking around backwards singing
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.
[everyone laughs]
Jamila: I guess they can't take a joke?
Conor: Yeah they were not having it.
And they like tackled me and were like:
"You can either take this medicine or we're going to give
"you this medicine, I hope you calm down mister Gerard."
[Mikey laughs]
And I'm like I'm not going take your drugs, like I'm in here
for drugs and now you're telling me to try and take drugs
that are even better than the drugs
I was taking to get me in here.
Like this is pretty fucked up!
But now I'm seven months sober, from everything, so.
Jamila: Congratulations.
[knock on the door]
[kids shouting]
Val: Come on in.
Conor: Hey you guys need to meet my new friend Mike.
That old friend Mike wasn't as cool as this friend Mike.
Emmie: Oh hi!
Conor: This is the new Mike.
Mikey: You're Ally?
Ally: Yeah, hi.
Val: We have extra pizza.
Conor: Awesome.
Val: Guys have a seat and make yourself at home.
Val: [unintelligible], who wants a fork?
Emmie: I have a fork!
Val: What stories of adventure do you have for us?
Conor: So many, we hopped a train out Ogden, Utah yesterday.
We we're going to hitchhike up to Seattle...
Val: That's what I thought you were gonna go, Seattle.
Conor: Yeah, but then we saw the train and accidentally
ditched the camera crew for like 48 hours.
[Val laughs]
Val: Well last time when Conor got here, he had scabies.
So he had to stay in the yard,
we had a little covered tarp area.
[Conor laughs]
The last time when they got here, it was in
the middle of the night or something because it was so...
Conor: Yeah, it was like three AM...
Val: And Emmie woke us up and said: "There's two homeless
"guys sleeping in the back yard
"and one of them looks like Conor."
[Val laughs]
It is Conor!
Ally: Hello!
Emmie: Hello!
Ally: Knock-knock.
Emmie: Knock-knock.
Ally: Aarrrrgh!
Emmie: Aarrrrgh!
[Ally and Emmie babble in the background]
Val: Oh they just love having company.
Are you willing to do some swimming with them?
Conor: Oh yeah.
Val: Oh good because it is a school night
so I have to get them into bed by around eight.
Conor: As soon as I finish this, I'd love to go swimming.
Val: Uhm you guys, do you want to put on your swimsuits?
Because Conor said he would go swimming with you.
Conor: I'm going to put on my swimsuit.
Emmie: YES!
Val: Ally if you're going to swim, you got to
get your swimsuit on now because it's a school night.
[Conor makes anticipating sounds]
[Emmie and Ally playfully scream]
[Conor screams]
Val: As much as he's on the road he's a family guy.
[Emmie chokes]
Conor: Are you alright?
Emmie: Yes.
Conor: You're not supposed to drink it.
You're supposed to hold your breath under water.
Emmie: I know.
Conor: Those goggles don't work when they are full of water.
Val: Both Ally and Emmie had [unintelligible] so
neither of them were supposed to live.
Emmie was on oxygen until she was two.
She couldn't even hold her head up
really until she was three.
She didn't start talking until she was four and
Emmie also has developmental issues and so it's hard
being a mom and trying to figure out Emmie's going to fare
when she's an adult and we're not there to take care of her
but the one sort of grounding point that I have is that
Conor has told me since the day they were born, you know,
that I don't need to worry and that he's going to be there
for them and, so Conor's my guy.
Ally: Aah!
Val: Your eyeballs are like stuck to it, I heard suction.
Ally: Really, you heard-
My eyeballs are stuck to it?
Val: Yes, I bet they are stuck to the inside of the glass.
Oh my god, they are!
Ally: Really?
Val: [laughingly] No.
Ally: Are those fake eyeballs?
Emmie: No.
Val: Go on in, dad is going to bring you your meds ok?
Jamila: It was nice meeting you.
Conor: Nice to meet you, thanks for the ride.
It was awesome talking.
Heya, I want a hug from you too.
Mikey: Ok.
Good night, thank you so much.
[birds chirping]
Voiceover: He has weird earrings!
Conor: These kids picked on me when I went here and
they're picking on me even now.
[Unintelligible].
[birds chirping]
Mikey: Two years ago, I learned that there's this place
like in my mind kind of like my idea of paradise.
Olympic National Park.
That, there's a rain forest in our country.
Well, what I'm trying to say is like I think it's
supposed to happen that, you know, that we're you know
supposed to all go see this incredibly beautiful place.
Conor: And you're on Route 99, which is like the most
beautiful road to take across the five.
Mikey: Right on.
Conor: We'll probably stay in San Francisco today
and tonight so Mikey can skate and stuff.
[guitar plays]
Conor: GAAAAAAH!
Whoooo!
Mikey: I'm ready to go man!
[metro in motion]
Mikey: Oooh...
[various cars honk]
[cello music]
Mikey: I don't know but right now I'm kind of feeling like,
there's like no way out, you know.
Like I don't want to go back and work my job and be doing
the same thing, living in the town where I was living in.
Like that's, that's not good either, but being a bum
that obviously sucks too.
I don't know it's just...
I like to think that there's an in-between,
where there can be like a nice community of people.
This is like where it gets real.
Actually like, what are you going to do
when you're on the streets
Instead of like, oh we have, you know, two kids that
are just like hitchhiking around
seeing beautiful things everyday, you know.
Storekeeper: They should be able to
heat that up for you next door, is that ok?
Mikey: Like down there?
Storekeeper: Yes.
Mikey: Ok, alright.
Storekeeper: Thank you, do you want a receipt?
Mikey: No, that's ok.
[cars driving speedily]
[phone ringing]
[Ron]: Hello?
Mikey: Hey man, it's Mikey again.
[Ron]: [Unintelligible].
Mikey: We're at the lookout point, and we're just chilling
at the bathrooms right now, just figuring everything out.
[Ron]: Yeah, it's all good,
I mean we're going to be smoking pot.
Mikey: Alright, well we can't really do that but...
[Ron]: You still smoke pot, right?
Mikey: [laughingly] No, we're like doing this soberly...
[Ron]: Whatever, [unintelligible].
I'll see you guys, in like 45 minutes to an hour.
Mikey: Alright, yeah, we'll call you.
Mikey: Yeah, we left on Monday of last week.
Ron: And that was your intent, it was to just hitchhike
across country, just-
Mikey: Yeah.
Ron: Put a thumb out, and see what you can get?
A road-scholarship is what you're getting.
[Ron laughs]
You're a road scholar, in my opinion.
You're much more brave than I could ever be.
I mean, I love my creature comforts...
Mikey: Yeah.
Ron: I love my bed-
Ron: I love my television-
Mikey: Yeah, I do too.
Ron: I love my car.
Mike: I also don't get like, fuck it,
I'm pushing it all away, like I just want to like,
hang from trees with a loincloth on and reject everything.
Do you know what I mean?
Mikey: I have a job, you know, back at home.
I could abandon it and just stay up eating trash.
Ron: Millions of people in this world, in this country,
do that on a daily basis and they worry about
where there next meal is coming from.
I go to the city all the time,
I keep a pocket full of change,
and the first person to ask me for money,
I give him my whole pocket, that's yours.
Anybody that asks me after, doesn't get shit.
Mike: No way man, they got to perform a service for me.
Ron: Fucking Hacky Sack.
Mike: If it makes me laugh, if you can do anything in front
of me and I'm like, oh yeah ok, or it's just like
oh, I'm sitting on my ass like give me change.
It's like come on man, where's the sales pitch?
Come on, give me something to work with, you know!
Ron: Give me a stone so I can go to sleep.
I got to go work for the man tomorrow.
Mike: [That's what I don't know.]
[Ron laughs]
Ron: That old mighty dollar.
[lighter]
Mikey: If we are in a documentary we might as well
be realistic about it, like ok, I accepted to be in
a documentary, like, what's it all about, why did I
strangely, maybe sort like of reluctantly agreed to do this?
Well I have something to say also.
And all this analysis of things just like,
it needs to end, at least for me to have peace of mind,
you know, because like you guys said like,
do you want us to stop?
Like kind of like yeah, you know I don't want this, clearly.
And most people don't want that at all, that stress and
that intense like examination from other people.
[metal music]
[Isaac is drowned out by the music]
Mikey: [Unintelligible].
Isaac: Hey, hey, you guys want to hit this?
Mikey and Conor: No, no!
Isaac: [Unintelligible].
Conor: I'm sorry man.
Isaac: [You never ask somebody].
[everyone laughs]
[Isaac turns the metal music even louder]
[[Mikey] shouts something at the other car]
Conor: Oh that's cool, thanks a lot brother.
Isaac: Happy doing it man, safe trips!
Conor: Thank you man
Mikey: Thanks a lot man!
Bina: First [year] that I'm trying to do.
It actually is my first time on the West Coast ever.
Conor: Oh fuck yeah.
Bina: Yeah.
Conor: Where are you guys from?
Bina: I'm from State College, Pennsylvania,
like right in the middle and he's from Delaware.
Sam: Yeah.
Bina: Do you guys want to burn one?
We have some, and we were just about to smoke probably
and give our hitchhiking for the day, it's getting dark.
Conor: I'm personally good, I'm not smoking right now but...
Yeah, I'm good for now.
Bina: That's alright.
Sam: That's a sweet bag dude.
Conor: Thank you, I found this puppy up in the [U P].
Sam: It's awesome, that's super cool.
Conor: You guys are going to give up hitchhiking?
Sam: We should.
Bina: Yeah we got pretty much nothing but time to go
where we are going.
I'm trying to get up to Humboldt county.
Mikey: Are we on the 101?
Bina: No, the 101 is right up there.
[cars driving past]
Conor: How about right here, right down under here?
Mikey: Just right here?
Conor: Yeah, it's not too [unintelligible].
Are these berries?
Oh hell yeah, there's a lot over here.
These berries are everywhere.
Mikey: Oh these are some good ones dude.
Conor: Ah, garbage and berries,
garbage and berries for dinner.
Garbage and berries for breakfast.
Life doesn't get much better than garbage and berries.
[plane flies over]
You want some corn Mikey?
I've got an orange.
You like the oranges, Mikey?
[Mikey mumbles]
Conor: You like the oranges?
Mikey: [muttering] Ah yeah, ohhhh.
[Conor laughs]
Conor: I bet they imported this corn from Illinois.
How much money do you have Mikey?
Mikey: 20 dollars.
Conor: You're going to need like all that money for...
Transportation fees.
[Mikey laughs]
Mikey: Really?
Conor: Yeah.
Mikey: I'm taking the bus, that's seven dollars right?
Conor: About that, and then we got to take a ferry.
[guitar playing]
Mikey: There's like little tiny chunks of hemp seed
from being in that bag though.
Smells like pineapple.
I think that was what it was.
Conor: That is not good.
Tastes rotten.
All day I've been struggling with,
[harmonica is being played]
whether or not, or if I could possibly justify smoking weed.
My problem is with alcohol, it's not with weed.
It's just a matter of that will lead to me somehow
rationalizing doing other drugs and drinking again.
I can already see like how this would all unfold in my head,
all the rationalization processes and...
Mikey: I don't drink at all like...
I usually [light one up], I like to do it so...
I kind of forgot what I was trying to make a point about
earlier but, oh yeah, uhm...
[car in motion]
Conor: You know certain people can smoke weed
and they go throughout their day in a normal fashion.
Some people, get high and go to Mars.
[birds faintly chirping]
I'm glad these people picked us up.
[Conor yawns]
[engine starting]
[car doors close one after another]
[radio is playing]
Zach: We're driving through Laytonville, California.
It looked like they were singing and playing the harmonica
which made them a little bit more appealing and actually I
thought their bright colors that they were wearing too also
made it pretty obvious that they were friendly folks.
Monica: Yeah.
Zach: Mike seems like he's having his mind
pried open pretty dramatically.
You know, it's hard living.
Monica: Yeah
you're spending a lot of time on sleeping next to
railroad tracks or whatever and I can definitely understand
the interest in taking the edge off a little bit.
Bear stayed sober-
Monica: Yeah Bear stayed sober.
Zach: But we gave them a [nudge] thinking they both
wanted it and Mikey enjoyed it.
[Zach and Monica laugh]
Monica: Yeah.
Zach: It's funny, there was a shift too in the conversation
when that happened, a little bit of disconnect
as far as our communication with Mikey afterwards.
Ganja makes you really self-conscious.
Monica: Yeah, and I think that's probably
where it's stemming from.
Zach: A little bit and if they're going to do it
it's probably better [herb] or something else than
alcohol, you know, because that's just going to send them
tripping a downwards spiral and you see people who
live this lifestyle that have taken that road and
they're not shining as bright as these two guys are.
[reggae music starts playing]
[reggae singer sings to the music]
[chafing and filing]
[car door closes]
Conor: Looking for [ganja]?
[Conor snickers]
Mikey: I'm not going to get a ride with this guy, you know,
I'll try to go somewhere else
probably with some different people.
I have something like urgent that I need to tell you.
I'm in a place where I, like, meet good people and
I like what's going on but I don't feel right about why
I'm there you know, do you know what I mean?
When I get picked up by someone I don't want to tell them
like hitchhiking, I don't want to tell them like oh yeah
this is what I'm doing, there's some people following me
right now like, if I don't want to tell them that that's
what I'm doing then why should I keep doing it and going
along with it, you know?
Like it's clear to me that this is not what I should
be doing because it feels funny and really strange.
I realize that I made a decision that I
didn't fully understand, wasn't really sure of.
Arcata.
What I'm really feeling is that I don't feel comfortable
being in this situation that I'm in and I have the ability
to change it for the better and
so that's what I'm going to do.
No, I don't need to think about it anymore, like I said
I realize what is going on and that I don't want to
have this continue to go, so.
That's why I'm trying to leave here.
I don't want to stay here but I'm going to leave here.
Look it's these guys, Sam and Bina.
Conor: Mikey decided that he's done with all of this,
he doesn't want to be photographed or anything anymore
so he's just going home.
Bina: Where is his home?
[dog barking]
Conor: [In Chicago], around there, suburbs of Chicago.
Mikey, did you brush your teeth today?
Mikey: No.
Conor: After you were eating plenty,
you didn't brush your teeth today?
Mikey: No way.
Conor: Mikey!
Didn't even know this place is [cool], I'm fucking glad
it is our last night in Arcata.
I was over Arcata right when we got dropped off.
[sleeping bag zipper]
Right when I saw that field full of hippies and reggae music
I was done with it.
[birds chirping]
[telephone rings]
Fuck it's cold!
Conor: [Fuck yonder].
Voiceover: [Unintelligible].
Mikey: I mean, it's me that's letting it get to me but,
it just feels like that's not what I would
normally want to do with my life.
And I feel fake, or I'm not here for the right reasons.
And I've just gotten more uncomfortable with it,
the more that I've been around it.
It's kind of helped me like wake up and realize,
I don't have it so bad.
I don't know, I really don't know what the answer is.
Thank you.
Mikey: Yeah, thank you so much man, good luck.
Conor: Thanks.
Mikey: Hope it gets better, and better, and better.
Hello.
Conor: I guess I should say something special here but
I'm just going to start walking north instead.
[cars driving past]
It's ok.
Look at this thing.
Maybe he'll be my new road dog.
Bald driver: They drill for oil fields back there,
they took all the big ones and the easy ones first.
Conor: At first it was awesome travelling with Mike,
nice to have someone to bullshit with on the on-ramp,
when there's nothing to do or say.
Someone to just joke around with, but it's easier to travel
on my onesome than with Mike.
[cars driving past]
Right now I'm running to some solitude,
some creative time, some serious woods time.
[ferry in motion]
[birds chirping]
Dan: We went into the rain forest a couple of times...
Conor: You've been to all of this today?
Dan: No no no it's-
Conor: Oh you just got here today?
Dan and Nancy: Yes.
Conor: Gotcha.
Dan: Now it's been about six weeks so far for us doing this.
Conor: So you're doing this the right way.
Dan: We think so, we take about five months every year
and go traveling.
We've camped in a couple ghost towns at night,
just us and the ghosts and nothing else around.
That's cool.
[Dan laughs enthusiastically]
Conor: You we'd be sitting, hitchhiking, just laughing
telling jokes, telling stories, that was the first week.
And then the second week we'd be hitchhiking and Mikey
would be trying to wrap up the whole world
into one perfect little bundle which is an impossible task
and it just never worked.
There's definitely a lot of things I, like,
wanted to say to Mike that I didn't say and want to take
the role of telling him what's right and wrong.
I wanted him to figure that out for himself but
the whole time I was traveling with him there was
definitely a lot I felt like I should tell him, you know.
Check it out Mikey, I made it to the Olympic National Park.
I'm going to fuck off from these guys for a little while.
Go on my own walk to talk to you, Mikey.
Because apparently according to these guys you took
the shape of this camera now so, if I want to talk to you
I got to talk to this piece of plastic and
glass and metal and foam.
It's weird, never thought you'd take the shape of
something that you hated so much but since you did,
you're in the shape of a camera.
Alright.
[Conor laughs]
It's beautiful out here man.
It's a shame it had to end where it did because
we were so close to getting were we wanted to go you know.
Sometimes you just got to follow your gut instinct and
if that is not being on camera, well then fuck the camera.
This place is like the best place to walk barefoot
because there is just this moss everywhere and it is
super soft on your toes.
This tree it's branches look like your hair, almost.
[Conor snickers]
I don't know what exactly your plans are, you know,
now that you're back in the suburbs.
But you know, my advice for you like I said before
would just be to keep your nose clean, you know.
[Unintelligible] is cool, but it's not like this you know.
If you ever feel like life is getting overwhelming and
things are too crazy?
Just remember that there's always places like this
waiting for you.
So, if you need to change, change there.
[Conor starts playing guitar]
He doesn't want to be portrayed where he is now
because he doesn't know where he is now.
You know if you caught Mikey in a couple of months
after he started painting on his empty canvas
and he had a good grasp of who he was, he might've felt
a lot more comfortable about being on the cameras.
But if you caught me when I was in Mikey's shoes,
I would've done the same thing, I would've ran.
[Conor starts playing Log Cabin Thoughts by Roaming Bear]
The only people I'm really looking to travel with
for [one piece at a time] at this point would be musicians.
Or it would be nice to find a lady to travel with
or make music with me but if I can't
find that I'd settle for a band.
And the ladies will come later!
[Conor laughs]
[Log Cabin Thoughts by Roaming Bear is being played]
Pat: Yeah, yeah we're by 3H.
I don't really know the full thing but I think
he might've caught something while he was on the road.
And he's just coming home because of that kind of.
Conor: I don't know if I have something different than
a Staph infection but I mean like my blisters and stuff
are going away but I still am getting fevers and headaches
and like nauseous and dizzy every day.
So, I didn't want to have to hitchhike and hop freight more.
Pat: Just in case something bad ever does happen he always
has the option to come home.
I think he likes coming home too because
he does miss his family and stuff like that so,
I think it's all around good
Conor: How's it going man?
Pat: Good, good to see you.
Conor: Good seeing you.
I talked to Mikey's mom for like 10 minutes a couple of days
ago, she asked me if Mikey seemed to have fun.
I said he did at first.
[Conor laughs]
[birds chirping]
I live here five days a week now, for the time being.
Sunday night through Friday night,
I get 48 hours off on the weekend.
Some about 15 weeks ago I started working here for
my grandpa as his caregiver.
It's not very hard work per se but it's hard to be at work
that long and not really be doing what I want to do.
Steve: He's always available.
Never grumbles, always smiling.
He's told me some of his experiences on the trains
and cars where he maybe gets complimentary rides, somewhere.
I would definitely say it shaped him a little.
You can't be exposed to that many different
situations, environments, other personalities along the road
of life and wouldn't be swayed a little bit by it.
Conor: I don't think I do a good job of fighting it off.
I think it's always there, I mean it's just that
anxiety that I have to bear I guess.
That as long as I'm going to be here doing
monotonous things, living a normal life I'm going to
be desiring to do something more exciting.
So, that feeling doesn't go away.
Music helps me forget it temporarily but it doesn't cure it.
[guitar playing]
Tom: He was determined to go forward with going out
with Conor and said wait a minute
this isn't what I want to do.
Tammy: He has realized he doesn't want to be a bum
living on the road, he said he used to think that
that's what he did want to do.
He realized that's absolutely not what he wants to do.
[Mikey sighs]
Mikey: So what have I been doing, growing food.
Tammy: He found a guy that is one of the most well-known
farmers in the country that do permaculture.
Do you want to visit him?
Here's Michael, of course.
[Tammy laughs]
Some of us walk on our feet, others do things differently.
He's healed a lot, he's dealt with Matt's death a lot more
then he had when he was here.
He was very unhappy here, and this is not the kind of life
that makes sense to him.
Mikey: I do not work for money, ever.
I don't have money.
I'm not scared at all, of that.
Tammy: Will he ever come back here?
To live, I would be surprised if he did.
Mikey: Two years it has been.
Yeah, I was searching for a lot of things.
And I still search.
Thanks Conor, for doing what you're doing and
inspiring all these people.
It's getting dark so I'm going to get down from this tree.
Thank you all for watching, this is just a message
from the Underground News Network.
[Guitar based song plays]