John Waters on hitchhiking across America

'Carsick' by John Waters
'Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America' by John Waters
Book cover courtesy of publisher

Filmmaker John Waters hitchhiked from Baltimore to San Francisco over the course of nine days.

"I wanted an adventure," the 68-year-old director told Vulture. "Because my life is so controlled and planned."

Before the trip, he imagined dramatic and fascinating situations he would encounter while holding signs along highways on his trip across the country.

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Once in the car, there was the challenge of making conversation for many, many miles. "It is intimate; it's their little stage, their little apartment," he explains. "And they set the rules, but you have to listen to know what those rules are. And it's always about talking -- nobody picks up a hitchhiker to sit in silence."

Waters met all sorts of folks: a band from Brooklyn heading to Indiana; a couple on their way to vacation in Colorado; a young Republican representative from a small town in Maryland, who, after giving Waters a ride to Ohio, drove across the country days later to pick him up again.

Waters wrote about the trip in his new book "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America." He joins The Daily Circuit to talk about his adventure.

http://youtu.be/DJ_mLcurr60