American Nomads Page #9

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in and around the mountains. '

But a job is something

to quit in order to...

Yeah, it's an end to a means for sure. It makes

me enough money so I can take off for a few months.

But I have never had

any monetary goals,

I don't want to save enough money to

buy a brand-new car, that kind of thing.

As soon as I've got 1,000, I

don't have to work for three months.

What does he do for love?

He has short-term relationships with the young

women who come here to work in the summers.

These seasonal relationships...

There have been quite a few.

There have been some I would've

loved to have continued for ever,

but I'm not willing to give this up

and move to LA. Yeah.

At least in my life, it turns out

that love doesn't conquer all,

not even close.

But these relationships start really

quickly, because you don't have much time.

All those feelings, all the stuff,

it happens fast, and then...

it's gone.

And then comes heartbreak, maybe.

You must have had a few of them?

Quite a few of them.

So how do you deal with heartbreak?

I guess, just kind of embrace it.

I know when I get into something like that, it's

going to be gone soon, and that helps a lot too.

And anyone that I may be with

is fully aware

that I'm going to be here in my

tent, regardless of what may develop.

If they wanted to stay,

that'd be just fine sometimes.

Other times I'm glad the three

months is over, to be honest with you!

Yogi wants to take me through

this forest of giant Sequoia trees,

and up to the nearest peak.

So you've got lost up here before?

Um...

I like to say that I'm not lost, I just

don't always know where the trail is.

I know which canyon I'm in,

and it does get tricky sometimes.

'Out of nowhere,

a heavy mist comes in.

'If I was on my own, I'd be turning

around now, going back down towards safety,

'but Yogi seems

completely unconcerned.

'Then the mist

clears as suddenly as it came in,

'and we're standing on a very high,

exposed fin of rock,

'looking down at the clouds and the

valley floor, a vertical mile beneath us.

'If I fall off here, Yogi tells me,

'it will take a full minute

to reach the ground.

'This is the very last thing

I want to hear. '

I can't make it.

I get vertigo in places like this.

This is as far as I'm going to...

I start to wobble,

and... kind of clench up.

So this is as far

as I'm going to go.

This is still the front country

for me. Kind of the front yard.

I'm heading out to the

back yard, out that way.

I would love to join you,

I just don't have it in me.

YOGI CHUCKLES:

That's home for me. I actually count on

most people feeling the same way you do.

Keeps it good for me.

Keep the riffraff out!

I wouldn't call it

riffraff, but...

That's where I'm going.

How long would you go up there for?

How long are you going up there for?

Two weeks, usually.

First day is here, third day

I go over the great Western divide,

that wall out there, then the

bigger peaks are out beyond that.

So that's kind of

your front entrance?

Mm-hm. I've climbed all the higher

of the named peaks,

in this Great Western Divide,

up north, a long way,

and I've been working my way out

toward the far eastern side of the park.

So I've got about five days out,

five days back,

and two days to bag a peak or two

out there along the way.

Well, I wish you a fine adventure,

but you're on your own, partner.

I count on that. I count on that.

Thank you, Richard.

All right. Adios. Bye!

And he's gone.

Back into the frozen wilderness,

and absolutely delighted about it.

He's passionately in love

with these mountains.

A man at peace with himself,

a happy nomad.

And that's all, folks.

We've rambled around the

American Southwest for 6,000 miles,

and if you trace the journey on a

map, it looks like a daddy longlegs,

smashed up against a wall.

Conclusions? Don't jump to one.

People with bad upbringings

sometimes become wanderers,

and so do people

from good upbringings.

Loners wander, and so do couples.

Weak people take to the road,

and so do the strong.

People wander to find beauty, or because

God told them to travel with a tent,

or because tomorrow's rodeo

is in a different town.

But ultimately, people

wander in America because they can.

The space and possibility exists.

That nice young couple Derek and Amy

split up soon after we left them.

He went to Tennessee. She kept the

child, the dog and the school bus,

and found herself a new boyfriend

at the slabs.

Preacher Joe went on from Quartzsite,

Arizona to Lake Isabella, California,

where he caught himself

a 10-pound trout.

Right there.

That's a number one bait!

Praise the Lord!

Now he's moving north into Canada,

a fisher of men

and a fisher of fish.

Hi. Baby.

Hello?

Oh hey, what's going on?

Will and Tom the rodeo cowboys are still

driving 2-3,000 miles a week in Will's van.

So far this year they've won

42,000 between them.

Hey, darlin'.

Oh, we're pulling into

a gas station.

Ted is travelling harder than ever.

The longest road in North America

is the one to Panama,

and he's given himself two months

to drive down there and back.

Yogi is back up in the high Sierras,

communing with the wilderness,

reading a book

about Siberian tigers,

and listening to baseball

every night on a pocket radio.

Last I heard from Comfrey,

he was out on the rails.

I check his Facebook page

from time to time,

and it's been more than a month

since he updated it.

And me?

MACHINE BEEPS:

'Hi, this is Richard,

I'm not around right now.

'Leave a message and

I'll get back to you when I can. '

E-mail subtitling@bbc. co. uk

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