Mississippi Stephen Fry in America


Mississippi

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The mighty Mississippi River is the theme of this part of my journey and I'll be following it from here

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at its sultry southernmost tip in Louisiana

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to its source in the snowy wastes of Minnesota on the Canadian border.

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Welcome to the Mardi Gras, Planet Earth, come on down to the best free party in the world!

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HE YELLS

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I'm in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana

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and today is Shrove Tuesday, which they call Mardi Gras,

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the French for Fat Tuesday and everyone is celebrating,

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not only the last chance to feast before Lent,

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but also the beginnings of the rebirth of this unique city

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after the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina.

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You might notice I'm wearing a sling, that's because

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I've broken my arm and ten bolts are holding the bones together.

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I shan't be felling any trees, but I'm hoping it will be healing as we go.

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Welcome aboard Pan Am flight 69.

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If there's a word that makes me shiver with revulsion, it's the word "fun".

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And here, human beings are having fun with the most capital of "f"s imaginable

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but actually, it is quite infectious and the spirit is good.

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One wonders how many of the revellers here

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are actually taking the religious point of view and will tomorrow foreswear meat and celebration.

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Not many, I suspect.

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It's a very extraordinary event.

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It combines so much that one associates with New Orleans,

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a slight hint of the macabre, which obsesses this torrid and steamy place,

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plus a general feeling that there is no tomorrow.

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While Mardi Gras is a resolutely Catholic festival,

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Catholicism, which came first with the Spanish and then the French colonists,

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is not really the defining faith of New Orleans.

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At the core of people's spiritual life here is the mysterious religion known as voodoo.

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Sallie Ann Glassman, a Jewish lady from Kennebunkport, Maine

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seems a rather unlikely voodoo high priestess.

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Voodoo is the backbone of this city that is

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an absolute part of the culture.

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It's in the rhythms you hear, filtering through all of New Orleans music.

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Voodoo recognises that there is a whole invisible realm around us.

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Between God and humanity are myriad intermediary ancestral spirits.

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They have maybe a different prospective on life.

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One of the things that you learn as you become a priest in voodoo is

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how to reach into that invisible realm and pull that potential out.

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In popular imagination, voodoo is more associated than anything else with sticking pins in effigies,

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with zombieism, with curses, with slaughtering cockerels and white chickens

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and blood, it's considered a very dark religion, isn't it?

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Well, it's completely erroneous.

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Voodoo is a mix of African traditions that came over with slavery into the New World.

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It encountered European Catholicism and native American practises and also masonry.

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So voodoo is really a gumbo of all of these different traditions.

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'I'm no more a believer in the power of voodoo than in the Virgin Mary,

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'but my arm is hurting and I recognise a good placebo when I see one.'

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I think that New Orleans, because of the presence of voodoo here,

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has a chance of surviving Katrina.

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-Really?

-Because voodoo was a religion

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that allowed people to endure what was truly unendurable,

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the conditions of slavery, and gave them the strength and the resilience

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and the creativity to survive whatever happened to them.

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In 2005, Hurricane Katrina screamed in and destroyed much of New Orleans

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when the levees, these high banks that hold back the Mississippi and the lakes around the city, broke.

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Nowhere felt the immediate and long term effects of the hurricane

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more than the predominantly black lower ninth ward,

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a district of New Orleans that lies below the main canal.

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90% of the houses were destroyed and three years on,

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practically nothing has been done to re-build the community.

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'I meet up with Isaiah, who was on his second tour of duty

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'with the US Marines in Iraq when the storm hit.'

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You know, when I came back home...

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I would have like these flashes in my mind, you know,

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cos I used to walk, I used to roam these streets.

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-My school's right back here.

-Yeah. So that's the school there?

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-Yeah, this is Alfred Lawless.

-Oh... Good Lord.

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Oh, there it is, senior high school.

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This is how Iraq is.

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-A bunch of torn down buildings.

-Yeah.

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Grass, you know, grown sky high.

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-The streets ridiculously undriveable, you know.

-Yeah, yeah.

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Desolate, quiet, you know, I feel like I'm on a patrol right now

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and then what made it worse was seeing the National Guard

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-riding around in their Humvees, you know.

-Oh, here?

-Yeah, here.

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-Yes, they still do.

-Right.

-They patrol around in Humvees

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and there's just no need for that escalation of force, because number one, nobody's here.

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If this was a middle-class white neighbourhood, I cannot believe it would be in this situation.

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-It would not be in this situation.

-No.

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I mean, I love the United States of America, you know.

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I love my country, but you look at the name - the United States of America -

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I mean, here, I hardly see unity, you know.

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I leave the French Quarter cleansed of its revelries, safe on its high ground,

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secure in its history and proud of its un-Americanness, to start my journey northwards,

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up the Mississippi, the river that runs through the heart of this great country.

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The sheer scale of the river is overwhelming.

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It disgorges half a million cubic feet per second and in places is more than a mile wide.

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Old Man River is also a great defining line.

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Americans often identify a place by its being east or west of the Mississippi.

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I'll be travelling more than a thousand miles along its banks,

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then through the mid-western plains to the Great Lakes

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and their big cities of Detroit and Chicago

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until I approach the river's source in Minnesota.

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Well, one thing you can say for certain about the State of Louisiana and that is it's always been

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pretty hard on its criminals and the State Penitentiary of Louisiana

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has a name that has struck fear into the heart of hardened lifers everywhere.

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Angola State Penitentiary it's called.

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It's probably the most notorious jail in America.

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It's a hopeless place, quite literally.

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Just about 90% of the prisoners have no hope of parole.

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They will end their lives in Angola.

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Angola Prison is popularly known as The Farm for good reason.

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Its 5,000 inmates, the majority in for murder,

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are spread out on its 18,000 acres to work the land

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and they're housed in a series of camps.

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Warden Burl Cain, who runs the prison, is a legendary figure in the American penal system.

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We're going to go into my prison here through all these gates.

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-You're not carrying any knives or guns?

-No, we're not.

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-OK, I'm going to keep you with me, so...

-Yes.

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We're going to be cooled here, but we're gonna not do all the searching.

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There's more human suffering on this land than probably anywhere in America.

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'When he came here 13 years ago, Angola was a cesspit of gangs, drugs and terrible violence.

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PRISONERS SHOUT

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'Today, it's become a model of how a prison can work, one he's proud to show off.'

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We just passed death row back there too. That other place.

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-Is death row down there?

-Yep.

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We have a coffin maker that makes coffins.

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We almost bury more people than we release.

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# Well, I'm tired and so weary

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# But I mustn't go alone... #

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Burl Cain's vision for the prisoner's rehabilitation is

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a curious mix of Christian morality,

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good ol' boy paternalism and stern liberalism.

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We've gotta live life here and we've gotta have hope where there's no hope and we found morality and religion.

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We don't care what religion, we just look for morality, immoral people are criminals in life.

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The moral are not criminals. They don't rape, pilfer and steal.

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Immoral is what is the criminals, so if we can train an inmate to be moral, we've rehabilitated them.

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Every inmate here has a job. That gives them meaning and purpose in life.

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You think that a prisoner who murdered somebody

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did this and it's his way to give back and say I'm sorry.

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You know, and I'm asking forgiveness for what I did so horrible.

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-Yes.

-This man is not going to be prone to commit the violence he did in the past.

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-And you'd do it for nothing, wouldn't ya?

-Yes, sir.

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I'm bragging about you, hear that? LAUGHTER

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-That's a paediatric.

-Oh, right.

-Uh-huh.

-Yeah.

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-That why I build them strong.

-Yeah.

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-I test ride them to make sure.

-Right. Do you really?

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-If I can fit in that.

-Yeah, not that, you'd probably have trouble.

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-I've been Angola now for ten years.

-Ten years?

-Yeah.

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Do you mind me asking what you did to be here?

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-Yeah, I'm on a drugs charge.

-A drugs charge?

-Yeah.

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-Yeah. But you're off drugs now, are you?

-Yeah.

-You're clean?

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-Yeah, I'm clean, clean, sure.

-Is it a clean prison here?

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Huh, yeah. Pretty much, you know.

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There's a field line coming to work, see how the line is marching?

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-And they're going out, they have a guard walking in front.

-Oh, my, my.

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And we raise everything we eat. We don't open a can.

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-Cos I don't do chain gangs, that's why I have the Correction Officer with the gun.

-Yeah.

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And if they run away, we're going to shoot a warning shot and the next shot we're going to shoot to wound.

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You shoot the gun. You know, I don't just, make the noise.

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But if they don't shoot, then the other inmates will all try to climb the fence. So shoot the gun.

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-I have 88 on death row.

-88.

-They don't go out to work.

-No.

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I would be afraid they would try to run away, to commit suicide by making us shoot them.

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There's repercussions if you aren't good.

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You'll lose some privileges you really don't want to lose.

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'Driving through his mini-state, it may seem security is pretty lax,

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'but Warden Burl soon sets me straight.'

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There's 18,000 acres here. This is as large as Manhattan Island, so it's hard to get away from us.

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You gotta run a long way before you get onto somebody else's land.

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See where the wild hog route right there on the southern levy, on the ridge is wild hogs.

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-You've got wild hogs here?

-Wild hogs are dangerous.

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If you go into woods, they know if they run in the wood they gotta go through the rattlesnakes.

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We have the panther and we have the bear and we have the wild hogs.

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-We see alligators here.

-Really?

-A lot of alligators.

-Another thing to stop you escaping.

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Alligators are my guards. They all know they are here, so I have too many guards.

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DOG BARKS

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Alligators like to eat dogs, so when we run a blood hound we don't want them chasing the dog.

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We have the finest bloodhounds in the country. We can find you.

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Shall we set the soundman or maybe the director actually, JP,

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Shall we send him to the woods and get him chased?

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-I'd love to see that.

-If he runs, I promise you we'll have him back.

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-He has a strong smell.

-We could follow him to England.

-I could!

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I escape the seductive if sometimes indecipherable southern drawl of Warden Burl,

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who seems to have stepped out of a Tennessee Williams play and leaving Louisiana,

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drive to the old cotton town of Natchez, the architectural jewel in the State of Mississippi.

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This is the town of Natchez,

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one of the great well-preserved southern towns.

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Filled with antebellum homes, pre-Civil War houses.

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Got rich on cotton and slavery.

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This journey is taking me up the great highway that goes all the way

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more or less alongside the Mississippi from New Orleans to Chicago, Route 61.

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More or less in the middle of it, one finds...this place -

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Clarksdale, Mississippi.

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It styles itself the home of the blues.

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So many of the great blues musicians were born here and around here.

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One of those magical and inexplicable places, rather like, I don't know, Salzburg.

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Why should Mozart and Schubert and Haydn all come from a small town in Austria?

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Why shouldn't perhaps the most influential music form of the 20th century

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come from this frankly rather desolate dirt-poor place, Clarksdale, Mississippi?

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It seems like the middle of nowhere.

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Maybe all it has left to live on is the former glory of its music.

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But there is someone who wants to glory in this past.

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Ground Zero is Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman's club.

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-I thought when I went to school that a delta...

-Remember that you're talking to a 70-year-old, I mean..

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-You're the wisest man in the Universe, we all know that.

-Oh!

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You played God twice, you've got to be wiser.

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They called it the Delta, because although it is an alluvium plain...

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-Right.

-..the Mississippi River used to flood regularly.

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-This whole area?

-This whole area.

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So there is all of this alluvium soil here.

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-It's extraordinarily rich.

-Yes.

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So that's why they call it Delta.

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Cotton was king of the Delta for many, many, many, many, many years.

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Of course now, we have machines that could do the work of a thousand men in a day.

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-So you've a huge population out of work?

-A huge population out of work, huge.

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I mean, the point for you is that we have to forget, not forget the past, that's nonsense...

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-We can't forget that...

-No, what I mean is we no longer talk about...

-We transcend it.

-Good word.

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We don't talk in terms of black and white, of oppressed and oppressor.

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We have to start thinking about Americans, about State Citizens, everyone...

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-You sound like Barack Obama, you know?

-Well, yes.

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-I guess his time may have come, you know.

-Was that a subtle segue?

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-Something motivated you to...

-Come back?

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-Yes. To come back.

-Yeah.

-Was it a sense of putting something back into a community?

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No, it wasn't at all, if I'm going to be honest about it.

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Er, it was a realisation of where my peace was in life.

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Every time I came,

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there was a sense that I got of peace.

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-Yeah.

-Quietude.

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A little envious of Morgan's quietude,

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I head into the state of Arkansas and a taste of the river

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as I pursue my ambitious goal of visiting every state.

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Essentially, of course, all the water

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of central continental United States drains into this river, doesn't it?

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Everything in between Appalachia and the Rockies

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and all the way up into the Canadian prairies.

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John Ruskey understands the allure of the Mississippi, and runs courses in river craft for urban kids.

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It'll sure humble you.

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I was born in the Rocky Mountains and I've never been anywhere that I've felt the power of God.

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-More than here?

-Than here.

-Really?

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I've climbed fourteeners, I've been the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up.

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Nowhere else.

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Hmm, it's interesting and it seems so gentle now.

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It's a real Old Man River kind of feel.

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It just keeps rolling along.

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'John is very much in the tradition of Mark Twin's great literary creation, Huckleberry Finn,

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'whose adventures travelling the steamboats

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'encapsulates a particularly American sense of restless freedom.'

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Huck Finn. What is it about Huck Finn that seems to capture

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-the American imagination, almost more than any other book?

-Yeah.

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We have such a rootless and restless attitude in this country.

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-We love looking at the horizon, seeing what's beyond.

-Yeah.

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There's always something at the end of the rainbow, keep travelling, keep going forward.

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Anyone who goes to the edge of the river is always looking downstream wondering where the river goes.

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Every time I'm away, I'm always thinking about the Mississippi River.

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-Really?

-Mm-hm.

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-Although it's a place you move along, Mississippi is your home, is it?

-Seems like, yeah, yeah.

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You can go anywhere on the last thousand miles of the river, the lower Mississippi,

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and you feel the same thing, it's these places, big open spaces.

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Here we are and... almost nobody passes us.

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We've been here, out on the river for some hours now, getting here and eating and preparing food.

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-Yeah.

-And it's completely peaceful. In some ways, they are frightened of the river.

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People are terrified of the river, yeah. And the closer that you live to the river,

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the people that live just over the levee there are the ones who are most scared of it.

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-But with good reason.

-With good reason.

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300 miles further upstream, the city of St Louis, Missouri.

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It's where the Mississippi River meets the Missouri River

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linking over 5,000 miles of river that unite the Rockies,

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the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains.

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Although I've only driven a few hundred miles north, it's suddenly turned very cold.

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I'm driving to an area that was once the transport hub of the country.

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'The long abandoned stock yards were also the home for many, many years of my guide William.'

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One of the most unimaginable things about being homeless here is just simply the temperature.

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-Today, we're minus five or something and it gets a lot colder than that, doesn't it?

-Well, yeah, you know.

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When I was staying in abandoned buildings,

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the inside temperatures were a lot colder than the outside temperature.

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It's about 20 degrees colder inside.

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-How did you keep warm?

-Blankets and a whole lot of clothes.

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How many years were you homeless for, William?

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-25.

-25 years!

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Practically half of my life.

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In this building, particularly, you had about,

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oh, I guess about 25 people living here.

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And you had different agencies that would come through here

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-and bring you food, bring you the oil for the kerosene heaters.

-Right.

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You know, you didn't really want for nothing.

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-That's why you almost didn't want to leave.

-Yeah.

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It was just like your own apartment, but you just didn't wanna leave. THEY LAUGH

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The River Front Hilton.

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The River Front Hilton. That's what we called it.

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There was so many people living here, it was just like a hotel.

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-A fire, how wonderful.

-Yep.

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Hi, hello.

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-Hello.

-Hey. How y'all doing today?

-I'm Stephen.

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-Harry.

-Harry. How do you do?

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-How long have you been together?

-Three years.

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-Wow. And is this where you...?

-Three years too long.

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LAUGHTER

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-You've got a house.

-You might say it's a house.

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-We've got two bedrooms.

-Yeah.

-This is where you live at.

0:24:150:24:19

This is where you are going to make your home at.

0:24:190:24:22

-It must so hard.

-No, it's not that bad.

0:24:220:24:25

-No?

-It's not too bad.

-I was thinking I couldn't survive a day here.

0:24:250:24:29

-Do you remember the day you hit that dude in his mouth?

-Yep.

0:24:290:24:32

For calling her a homeless crackhead whore.

0:24:320:24:35

I bounced him off the cobblestones and into a dumpster and off my knee

0:24:350:24:39

and I said that ain't gonna happen. You don't disrespect anybody.

0:24:390:24:43

-That's like my little sister.

-Yeah.

-He's like my brother-in-law.

0:24:430:24:46

We chose to live like this!

0:24:460:24:49

So you don't share the American dream if the American dream means

0:24:500:24:54

getting your own house and yard and your own mortgage

0:24:540:24:57

-and you know, seven TVs and...

-Been there and done that.

0:24:570:25:01

Panhandlers, hobos and bums are very much part of American history and folklore.

0:25:010:25:07

That sense of freedom that the sheer vastness of the country can evoke perhaps makes the American dream

0:25:070:25:13

less about 2.4 children and a house in the burbs than the lure of the open road.

0:25:130:25:18

We're in Iowa, the great mid-western state which

0:25:290:25:32

is the birthplace of John Wayne and James Tiberius Kirk,

0:25:320:25:37

Captain of the United States ship Enterprise.

0:25:370:25:41

But I've come here to go to a remarkable city which has its own currency

0:25:410:25:47

and uses as its constitution, apparently,

0:25:470:25:50

the Constitution of the Universe in order to guarantee perfect order.

0:25:500:25:55

Intriguing, isn't it?

0:25:550:25:57

It's certainly pretty orderly so far.

0:26:000:26:04

A lot of harmony about, I notice, and very little negative energy which is highly pleasing

0:26:040:26:10

because I hate negative energy, it sets me in a roar. I can't bear it.

0:26:100:26:14

I'm very positive at the moment.

0:26:140:26:17

I've got this feeling... holistic...natural energy.

0:26:190:26:26

It's the only word I can use.

0:26:260:26:29

This place is turning me into a babbling merchant of drivel.

0:26:310:26:37

Maharishi Vedic City is the world centre for transcendental meditation,

0:26:440:26:50

an ancient form of yoga interpreted by the modern Maharishi, who taught The Beatles.

0:26:500:26:54

By activating alpha brainwaves, inner harmony is promoted.

0:27:050:27:10

The practitioners believe that TM, as it's often called,

0:27:100:27:13

is the answer to both one's personal and all the world's problems. Golly.

0:27:130:27:19

Hard to tell what's going on behind closed eyes.

0:27:190:27:24

Perhaps illumination will be found with Dr Fred Travis,

0:27:240:27:28

who's head of the Research Institute here

0:27:280:27:30

at the so-called capital of the global country of world peace.

0:27:300:27:35

My alpha waves are to be tested. As well as my credulity.

0:27:370:27:41

There's my brain. Hey, look at them. Oh, my Lord.

0:27:500:27:54

Oh, dear me. There's certainly something very unpleasant. I'll have to calm down.

0:27:540:27:59

It just turns into a horrible, horrible mess, doesn't it?

0:27:590:28:03

I do apologise. All right.

0:28:030:28:05

So this is you doing the task.

0:28:050:28:09

-So what we can see here is there's a little bit more alpha activity.

-There certainly is.

0:28:090:28:14

Big high peak. Alpha is more the relaxed wakefulness.

0:28:140:28:18

This seems such a sane and an excellent project

0:28:180:28:21

for people in search of enlightenment and happiness,

0:28:210:28:24

no-ones going to quibble that that's an important and valid quest.

0:28:240:28:29

And then, we bang into this idea of yogic flying and you think, "Oh, hello, what's going on here?"

0:28:290:28:35

People hopping about in bedrooms.

0:28:350:28:38

Looking as if they might be rising off the ground but not really.

0:28:380:28:42

Claims which may attract some people, but will turn others like me completely off.

0:28:420:28:47

The reason for yogic flying isn't to hop around.

0:28:470:28:50

It's not the way to go to the grocery store, you know?

0:28:500:28:54

-Yes.

-If you go to a very fundamental level of the mind, you can ultimately move the body.

0:28:540:28:59

So if you look at what's happening in people's brains during yogic flying,

0:28:590:29:03

just before they take off, there is a huge change.

0:29:030:29:06

Do you know what motivated the Maharishi to come to Iowa?

0:29:060:29:09

Er, the college was for sale.

0:29:110:29:13

I'm not sure what I think of this, but I do know that Americans seem to be more open than most

0:29:130:29:19

to anything that might bring about self-improvement and there is something wonderful

0:29:190:29:24

about the incongruity of yogic flying over the wintry Iowan cornfields.

0:29:240:29:30

But I have no time and even less inclination to try it out.

0:29:300:29:34

To the North East lies Chicago, but first, I must make a detour

0:29:380:29:42

through Indiana and Ohio, to Michigan.

0:29:420:29:45

What to do in Indiana?

0:29:470:29:49

Well, I've always wanted to ride

0:29:490:29:51

in one of these classic big red fire trucks, and in Elkhart, Indiana,

0:29:510:29:55

I fulfil that dream, riding up front with fire chief Mike Compton.

0:29:550:30:00

I'm going to get a taste of what the choking reality is.

0:30:000:30:04

It's a hard job to get these days. We had 240 applicants for eight jobs.

0:30:040:30:10

I know when I got hired I got a three-day training in the basics.

0:30:100:30:13

I was told, "Follow that guy with the grey hair, keep your mouth shut and do as you're told."

0:30:130:30:17

-I spoke to a fireman once and he said, "Oh, yeah, we all love a good blaze."

-And we do.

0:30:220:30:28

-Yeah.

-It's kinda funny that if you take an engineer,

0:30:280:30:32

he wants to prevent a building from collapsing.

0:30:320:30:36

You take a fireman, he doesn't always want to prevent a fire, he wants to have a fire.

0:30:360:30:41

And that's why you need to weed out the psychologically weird ones who are just a bit too fond of a fire.

0:30:450:30:51

I can't see anything.

0:31:010:31:04

To be a fireman in the States is to be an authentic American hero,

0:31:070:31:12

untainted by corruption, politics and ambition.

0:31:120:31:15

After 9/ll, the job became even more glorified and even more desirable.

0:31:150:31:21

Oh, my,

0:31:270:31:29

oh, my, that's awful.

0:31:290:31:31

That's just hell.

0:31:310:31:33

There's nothing to describe it. You can't see, you can't orientate yourself in any direction.

0:31:330:31:37

I do not understand how anybody would voluntarily go into a building like that because

0:31:370:31:42

now that I've experienced it, I never want to go anywhere near anything like it again.

0:31:420:31:47

Oh, the stench.

0:31:490:31:52

The nearly rolling farmland of Ohio.

0:32:000:32:03

A lot of states have had songs written about them, Georgia, Texas, California.

0:32:030:32:08

They're usually rather romantic and optimistic.

0:32:080:32:11

There's a great song written about Ohio.

0:32:110:32:13

It's very melancholy and it memorialises...

0:32:130:32:16

a sort of turning point in American history, really, when the '60s dream went bad.

0:32:180:32:23

Some students at a University in this state,

0:32:230:32:25

the town of Kent, part of the State University known as Kent State,

0:32:250:32:30

were demonstrating against the Vietnam War, the invasion of Cambodia,

0:32:300:32:34

and in came the National Guard, a kind of soldiery of the American Army,

0:32:340:32:41

and they shot 13 of them.

0:32:410:32:44

Nine were very seriously injured, four killed.

0:32:440:32:46

Young students demonstrating on a campus in a university,

0:32:460:32:51

shot dead by soldiers of their own country,

0:32:510:32:55

and it happened in this innocent-looking farm state.

0:32:550:32:59

The great Neil Young wrote a wonderful song about it.

0:33:020:33:07

# Gotta get down to it Soldiers are cutting us down

0:33:100:33:15

# Should have been done long ago

0:33:150:33:20

# What if you knew her And found her dead on the ground

0:33:200:33:27

# How can you run when you know? #

0:33:270:33:31

We've seen over half the States of America so far.

0:33:530:33:58

We've seen mountains and hills and rivers and beautiful cities.

0:34:030:34:08

We're here in Detroit, Michigan,

0:34:080:34:12

a motor town, Motown, where evidence is all around us

0:34:120:34:16

of the industry that changed the world.

0:34:160:34:18

Water from the Great Lakes, iron ore from the plains,

0:34:220:34:26

coal from the Appalachians and workers from the south and east made Detroit

0:34:260:34:31

the industrial furnace of America.

0:34:310:34:33

Henry Ford, who started his business here in Dearborn, on the outskirts of Detroit,

0:34:420:34:47

could be said to have invented modern America and defined millions of people's lives.

0:34:470:34:52

His famous dictum that history is more or less bunk is somewhat at odds with the village

0:34:520:34:56

he created next to his factory,

0:34:560:34:59

a village full of history pillaged from every corner of the planet.

0:34:590:35:03

But people are ever-complicated and contradictory,

0:35:030:35:06

which the best machines are not.

0:35:060:35:09

The Model T he built here on the first ever mass-production line

0:35:090:35:12

is still considered the most successful car ever made.

0:35:120:35:16

Simple, effective, elegant, cheap enough to be bought by Ford's own workers -

0:35:160:35:21

the Tin Lizzie quite simply transformed the world.

0:35:210:35:24

But Ford was not alone in the car business here, and Detroit is home

0:35:260:35:31

to the largest car company of all, and Ford's bitterest rival -

0:35:310:35:36

General Motors, makers of the Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac brands.

0:35:360:35:41

In the stylish tech centre, built by that modernist master Aero Saarinen,

0:35:440:35:49

I meet up with John Manoogian, designer for the latest incarnation of the Cadillac.

0:35:490:35:53

When I first saw the 1963 Corvette Stingray, I rode my bicycle

0:35:590:36:05

into town that day to the Chevrolet dealer and they had a silver Stingray

0:36:050:36:10

sitting right in the showroom.

0:36:100:36:12

I said, "That's it. I have to be where they designed that car."

0:36:120:36:15

-You really wanted this job, didn't you?

-I could taste it.

0:36:150:36:18

My father worked for 50 years at the Ford Motor Company.

0:36:210:36:25

When it came time for me to quit my job at Ford and come

0:36:250:36:28

to General Motors, he was absolutely flabbergasted.

0:36:280:36:31

He said, "Why would you ever want to do that?"

0:36:310:36:34

So it's a bit like someone from a very strict Catholic family bringing home a Protestant girl.

0:36:340:36:38

Actually in some ways, it was probably worse than that.

0:36:380:36:41

Now, you've designed a Cadillac...?

0:36:430:36:46

-Yes.

-Did you ever dream that...

-My life is complete.

0:36:460:36:49

If you were to gaze into your crystal ball,

0:36:540:36:57

what would you see motoring being like in another 20 years, say?

0:36:570:37:02

I would expect to see smaller cars, probably different power plants.

0:37:020:37:08

This country being the way it is, laid out as big as it is,

0:37:080:37:13

there's going to be a large segment of the population that says, "I have to have a car."

0:37:130:37:18

America needs cars - for the foreseeable future, there's no alternative.

0:37:210:37:25

Hell, I'm using one because it's the only way to see the country,

0:37:250:37:29

save those moments when I can get a bird's eye view. And what a view.

0:37:290:37:35

Chicago, Illinois. The Windy City, second city to New York.

0:37:350:37:39

A hard-working, wealthy metropolis,

0:37:390:37:41

built on the shores of Lake Michigan and a magnificent hymn to modernism.

0:37:410:37:46

Chicago is also home to its very own style of the blues.

0:38:010:38:04

And Buddy Guy is their God.

0:38:110:38:13

# I'm just tryin' to ease... My weary mind... #

0:38:130:38:20

From Jimi Hendrix to the Stones, to Eric Clapton, they've all worshipped at the frets of his guitar.

0:38:200:38:24

# If you see me get kind of drunk

0:38:260:38:28

# Plee-ea-ase don't pay me no mind... #

0:38:330:38:38

But the blues are a dying art form.

0:38:430:38:46

Buddy Guy takes me down memory lane,

0:38:460:38:49

to the once-thriving working-class south side of the city.

0:38:490:38:53

This is the place, the most famous blues club on the south side of Chicago.

0:38:530:39:00

At this vacant lot here, another one called

0:39:000:39:03

The Juke Box Lounge, that's where I stole my first guitar from, right here.

0:39:030:39:07

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Good God, and it's now just wasteland?

-Just wasteland.

0:39:070:39:10

With ice on it.

0:39:100:39:11

So I used to live around the corner.

0:39:130:39:16

I'd leave home to go to Pepper's Lounge but I never made it because every time I would pass a joint

0:39:160:39:22

like that I could hear the music playing and I said, "Wow, this sounds so good,

0:39:220:39:26

"I've got to go see who this is."

0:39:260:39:28

When I walk up on this side of the street, the same thing.

0:39:280:39:30

That side, this side. They had blues clubs, I mean everywhere.

0:39:300:39:34

I don't normally come down this way no more cos I hate that flashback.

0:39:380:39:42

Yeah, it upsets you?

0:39:420:39:44

Oh, yeah, you know, sometimes you feel like crying because what happened?

0:39:440:39:49

Because people were having so much fun, I mean 24/7.

0:39:490:39:53

It saddens me because those days are never coming back.

0:39:560:39:59

Some people laugh at the blues, say it's always about being miserable.

0:40:020:40:06

What do you think they're about?

0:40:060:40:08

When you hear BB King singing, "I've got a sweet little angel,

0:40:080:40:11

"I love the way she spreads her wings", that is not miserable.

0:40:110:40:15

Entertainment has always been a big part of this city

0:40:170:40:21

and while the blues clubs may have passed away,

0:40:210:40:23

one institution that has gone from strength to strength, is comedy theatre Second City.

0:40:230:40:28

Comedy improvisation could be said to have come of age at this institution.

0:40:300:40:34

For half a century some of the greatest and most famous comedians in the world

0:40:340:40:38

have started their careers here.

0:40:380:40:41

Er...

0:40:410:40:42

Your girlfriend's in there right now.

0:40:450:40:47

-Oh, great, I haven't seen her in a while.

-Whoa, whoa.

0:40:470:40:50

Erm, er... How can I tell this?

0:40:500:40:52

She's, er...

0:40:540:40:57

Er, lost her clothes.

0:40:570:40:59

Woah.

0:40:590:41:01

-Maybe I should wait out here for five minutes.

-Whoa.

0:41:010:41:04

All right two minutes.

0:41:040:41:05

'Oh, dear. What I was most dreading. My turn.'

0:41:100:41:14

Will you be offended if I said that you seem to be

0:41:140:41:17

in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?

0:41:170:41:20

Oh, that makes my boy and girl parts go a little twangy.

0:41:210:41:27

You are radiantly lovely.

0:41:270:41:29

You do know that, don't you?

0:41:290:41:31

What is the sexiest word that comes to you brain right now when you look into my eyes?

0:41:330:41:39

Erm, strabismus.

0:41:390:41:41

'The Wiener Circle is an institution amongst Chicago's acting fraternity.

0:41:430:41:48

'Having recovered from the trauma of last night, I am to be initiated.'

0:41:480:41:53

Yeah, I'll have a big wiener.

0:41:530:41:56

-Yes.

-Three big wieners.

0:41:560:41:59

No, definitely no hot pepper, I'm completely homosexual when it comes to hot peppers.

0:41:590:42:05

Authentic Chicago experience.

0:42:050:42:07

Improvise your way out of that.

0:42:070:42:11

Ah.

0:42:110:42:13

Mmm.

0:42:130:42:16

It is...

0:42:170:42:19

surprisingly delicious.

0:42:190:42:21

Now listen. Second City.

0:42:220:42:24

The end of the rainbow for you if you had comedy ambitions?

0:42:240:42:27

-The first time I saw the show I wanted to on the stage so bad.

-Really?

-Yeah.

0:42:270:42:31

You get hired and you go inside and they show you there's a tape closet

0:42:310:42:35

-with the tapes of all the shows that they've ever done and the scripts from all those shows.

-It's amazing.

0:42:350:42:40

And they open it up and you look at the cast list and you're looking at

0:42:400:42:44

Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner in one show, you know.

0:42:440:42:48

Dan Castellaneta, used to work here, Homer Simpson.

0:42:480:42:51

-Homer Simpson?

-The legendary Homer Simpson.

0:42:510:42:53

If from the vantage point of my elderly position of a 50-year-old,

0:42:530:42:59

if I can offer any advice it is never too late.

0:42:590:43:01

-The idea that the door closes and roped off, I'm already 30, nothing's happened.

-Right.

0:43:010:43:07

It's complete nonsense. Actually, almost the reverse is true.

0:43:070:43:11

-Yeah, yeah.

-A lot of stars, George Clooney,

0:43:110:43:13

that guy Hugh, the one in House, whatever his name is.

0:43:130:43:17

Yeah. He's terrible, right?

0:43:170:43:19

He had to wait until his late forties before...

0:43:190:43:22

Why do you think it grew up here in Chicago?

0:43:220:43:24

Is there something about this place?

0:43:240:43:26

The city just happened to be hungry for it.

0:43:260:43:29

It's called the Windy City because in the 19th century

0:43:290:43:32

they said that the politicians in Chicago were full of hot air.

0:43:320:43:36

-Oh, it's windy in that sense?

-Yeah.

-The windy person is...

0:43:360:43:39

-Like blowhards.

-Windbags, yeah. Blowhards as you call them. Exactly.

0:43:390:43:43

They also had the reputation of being the second city.

0:43:430:43:46

They were second to New York, all the time.

0:43:460:43:48

It's always had that chip on its shoulder

0:43:480:43:50

but since it's such a working class town it doesn't mind having a chip.

0:43:500:43:54

It's always working, it never rests.

0:43:540:43:56

There's yet another sector of the entertainment industry in Chicago

0:44:010:44:05

but in a different, how shall I put it, mould.

0:44:050:44:08

Oh, my Lord!

0:44:240:44:26

That's incredible.

0:44:280:44:29

-It's real copper.

-Real copper. It's so beautiful.

0:44:290:44:32

OK?

0:44:320:44:33

Oh, here's the big one.

0:44:330:44:34

-The big one.

-Gold.

0:44:340:44:38

-Oh.

-OK?

-Yeah.

0:44:380:44:40

Oh!

0:44:430:44:44

Gold, Mr Bond.

0:44:440:44:46

I love its softness, I love its beauty,

0:44:470:44:49

I love its colour, but most of all I love its value.

0:44:490:44:52

It's the real thing, it's an Oscar.

0:44:560:44:58

Well, I never did get my Oscar but I got this instead.

0:45:190:45:23

One of the greatest sights on the planet.

0:45:230:45:26

The Sears Tower for a long time could proudly call itself the tallest building in the world,

0:45:300:45:35

but the economic shifts of the last decades have moved that dubious accolade to the Far East

0:45:350:45:40

but who's counting when you have this?

0:45:400:45:43

Leaving Illinois on my way to Minnesota,

0:46:050:46:08

I head into State number 30, Wisconsin.

0:46:080:46:11

So, here we are in Wisconsin.

0:46:110:46:17

I think I ought to tell you,

0:46:170:46:19

which you may not be able to tell yourselves,

0:46:190:46:22

is that it really is very cold.

0:46:220:46:24

It's exceptionally cold.

0:46:240:46:27

A few hours ago it was -25 degrees Centigrade,

0:46:270:46:31

which is jolly cold in anybody's currency and I have proof of it

0:46:310:46:36

because I have a bottle of water which I had last night,

0:46:360:46:38

left in the cab and as you may be able to see, that is one solid,

0:46:380:46:44

completely frozen bottle of water.

0:46:470:46:50

It's very pretty though.

0:46:520:46:54

It's very Scandinavian around here.

0:46:560:46:58

Svenson Motors and things.

0:47:000:47:02

Uff da Mart,

0:47:020:47:04

Sorenson's Auto Sales.

0:47:040:47:07

For most Americans Wisconsin means cheese,

0:47:130:47:18

most of it disgustingly bland and fit only for melting over burgers.

0:47:180:47:22

But Brenda Jensen is a rarity.

0:47:220:47:23

She makes organic ewe's milk cheese.

0:47:230:47:26

She has 150 sheep herself,

0:47:260:47:28

but she still needs more milk as her successful business expands.

0:47:280:47:32

Brenda's desire for unadulterated milk leads her to equally unadulterated Amish neighbours.

0:47:350:47:41

The Amish are a Christian Sect who don't believe in mechanical devices,

0:47:430:47:47

so don't use cars, tractors, phones or shavers.

0:47:470:47:50

They also don't like being filmed but take it from me,

0:47:500:47:53

they're very friendly, sweet and not in the least solemn or disapproving.

0:47:530:47:57

Come on girls, come on, come on.

0:48:020:48:05

Yeah.

0:48:050:48:07

Here they go.

0:48:070:48:08

-They're very keen to be milked, aren't they?

-Oh, yes.

0:48:090:48:11

-We've got all these udders presenting to us.

-We do. Yes, yes.

0:48:140:48:18

OK darling, I'm going to have a go.

0:48:180:48:20

Excuse me. Oh, Lord.

0:48:200:48:22

Hang on.

0:48:220:48:24

You've got...

0:48:250:48:26

Come on, look. Ow.

0:48:260:48:27

Oops, that's one.

0:48:270:48:30

Where's the other one? Oh. Get up.

0:48:300:48:32

-Bloody hell. There it goes.

-Push it right up.

0:48:320:48:35

There it goes. There's the milk.

0:48:350:48:38

Oh my, and that flows up into one of these pipes.

0:48:380:48:41

They certainly like to present their lady parts, don't they?

0:48:410:48:45

-They do.

-There's no mistaking. Obviously attractive to a ram.

0:48:450:48:49

So many things going on there.

0:48:510:48:54

Folds and puckers and oozings.

0:48:540:48:59

-Oh, what's going on?

-They've recently had babies, you know.

0:49:000:49:04

So they're a little stretched at the moment, darlings, aren't you?

0:49:040:49:08

A little slack.

0:49:100:49:11

Take your finger.

0:49:140:49:15

-Oh, my goodness.

-And...

-Ooh.

0:49:150:49:17

Yeah, just take a break like that.

0:49:170:49:19

-Like a milk jelly.

-You can tell this is ready.

0:49:190:49:22

Wisconsin. Is it thought of as very much a capital of good dairy farming?

0:49:220:49:29

Oh, yes, very much so. Wisconsin is cheese.

0:49:290:49:32

I have to say, without wishing to be offensive about America,

0:49:320:49:36

but one of the most notable things about America

0:49:360:49:39

is that cheese, generally, is appalling.

0:49:390:49:42

-Mmm.

-It's shocking. You go to even quite a good restaurant and...

0:49:420:49:46

-Oh, sure.

-They don't serve it,

0:49:460:49:48

and the cheese they melt and put on things is just...

0:49:480:49:52

-It's orange and some of it comes out of a can.

-Yeah.

0:49:520:49:56

-And spray-on cheese, it exists, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

0:49:560:49:59

So is this like a new movement in America?

0:49:590:50:02

It is, it really is.

0:50:020:50:04

Artisanal farmstead, natural.

0:50:040:50:06

Artisanal, that's a good word.

0:50:060:50:08

It is, and very handcrafted.

0:50:080:50:11

By mid-Western standards, my next destination,

0:50:130:50:16

the twin city conurbation of Minneapolis St Paul,

0:50:160:50:20

is bang next door, being only a couple of hours drive away.

0:50:200:50:24

The Mississippi. There she is again look, almost frozen solid.

0:50:240:50:29

We've hardly left her for 2,500 miles since we met at the mouth

0:50:290:50:34

in Louisiana and now ten states later,

0:50:340:50:38

we've traced her almost to her source further upstate in Minnesota.

0:50:380:50:42

It's even colder up here than it was in Wisconsin,

0:50:420:50:45

so there's barely a soul on the streets.

0:50:450:50:48

In fact, almost no-one ever braves the air in wintertime

0:50:480:50:51

and to get from building to building they have covered catwalks between the buildings called skyways.

0:50:510:50:57

It's those practical Scandiwegians again.

0:50:570:51:00

PEOPLE SPEAK ASIAN LANGUAGE

0:51:000:51:02

But hark, that's not Swedish I hear,

0:51:020:51:05

it's Hmong,

0:51:070:51:09

and how odd to be among the Hmong so far from their ancestral homelands,

0:51:090:51:14

which were in the opium-growing hills of Laos and Vietnam.

0:51:140:51:17

These are the latest and probably most incongruous

0:51:170:51:21

in a long line of immigrants to Minnesota.

0:51:210:51:23

The Hmong fought alongside America during the Vietnam War

0:51:240:51:27

and after that war was lost, most of the Hmong refugees who fled to the US

0:51:270:51:32

were re-settled here in Minneapolis.

0:51:320:51:34

Today they number some 40,000 and are the largest Hmong community

0:51:340:51:38

outside South East Asia with their own State Senator, Mrs Mee Moua.

0:51:380:51:43

We came from a village life where people are out and about

0:51:430:51:48

and teeming and people walking the streets and you're always bumping into people.

0:51:480:51:53

To come into this environment, in the middle of January,

0:51:530:51:56

where you don't see human beings for months and months and months,

0:51:560:52:00

and the only people you see are your family.

0:52:000:52:02

You look outside and don't see anybody. It's like a ghost town.

0:52:020:52:05

Soon after the Hmong were moved here,

0:52:050:52:08

there was an unusually high number of deaths among their menfolk.

0:52:080:52:12

Senator Mee explains.

0:52:120:52:14

Many, many Hmong men would go to sleep and just die in their sleep.

0:52:140:52:19

They just switched themselves off, almost? They stopped wanting to live?

0:52:190:52:23

-It's a kind of suicide.

-Yeah, the light just went out

0:52:230:52:27

and the irony is that I have talked to men who have come back.

0:52:270:52:33

They would dream that they had wings

0:52:360:52:39

and that they were flying, you know, across the oceans.

0:52:390:52:43

And they would see the fields and the mountains of Laos.

0:52:450:52:49

You know, to go back to the land of their ancestors.

0:52:500:52:53

So these people who woke up,

0:52:560:52:59

woke up because their wives heard them kind of struggling,

0:52:590:53:05

otherwise he was already in Laos.

0:53:050:53:08

We started to have Hmong grocery stores,

0:53:110:53:14

we had Hmong loan offices and bankers at the local banks.

0:53:140:53:19

We had enough people who were versatile in English to be at the law offices and at hospitals.

0:53:190:53:24

That has really helped to minimise their sense of helplessness.

0:53:240:53:29

So we could have a sense of community.

0:53:290:53:31

Leaving the now happier Hmong to their adopted homeland,

0:53:310:53:35

I join up with Tim Lesmeister

0:53:350:53:37

for a spot of more traditional Minnesotan activity.

0:53:370:53:40

Wow. That was fun.

0:53:480:53:51

That was a good ride.

0:53:530:53:55

Whoa.

0:53:550:53:58

Quite icy on the ice!

0:53:580:54:00

Right here where we're standing

0:54:000:54:02

there's literally thousands of fish below us, ready to be caught.

0:54:020:54:06

Wahey!

0:54:160:54:17

How thick is that sheet of ice, do you think?

0:54:170:54:20

-It's 24 or 26 inches right in there.

-Over two foot.

0:54:200:54:24

I usually bring nothing but bad luck to these kinds of enterprise,

0:54:240:54:27

but let's see if we can catch something.

0:54:270:54:29

You're putting a television camera down there?

0:54:310:54:34

I'm putting a camera down here, yes.

0:54:340:54:36

And we'll set it up so we can actually watch our lure,

0:54:360:54:39

and we'll watch the fish actually swim up.

0:54:390:54:42

There's two of them now.

0:54:450:54:47

Oh, it's a nice fish too.

0:54:470:54:48

OK, come on. OK, here he comes, here he comes.

0:54:480:54:51

I think he's going to take it. He's really on top of this one.

0:54:510:54:54

-Oh, he swam away.

-Oh, no.

0:54:560:54:58

I'm not ringing the dinner bell for them yet.

0:54:580:55:01

So what made Tim and his ancestors settle in this icy land?

0:55:010:55:06

The Scandinavians actually came over here looking for a new life,

0:55:060:55:12

but when they got to Minnesota, they said, "This is just like home, let's stay here."

0:55:120:55:18

And the people in Minnesota tend to be a little quirky.

0:55:180:55:21

I suppose you have to be if you're going to be crazy enough to live this far north.

0:55:210:55:26

Come on, fishy.

0:55:270:55:29

These fish are really negative.

0:55:290:55:31

They're toying with us, they know that we want one so bad. If we didn't want a fish...

0:55:310:55:36

-Yeah, let's not want one.

-If we didn't want a fish, we would catch a fish.

0:55:360:55:39

Actually it would be rather a bore if they bit.

0:55:390:55:43

I'd have to turn the reel and bring them up

0:55:430:55:45

so I'd much rather you just go away please, bother someone else.

0:55:450:55:49

-That's right.

-See how this reverse psychology works.

0:55:490:55:52

Ooh, big bass, big bass.

0:55:520:55:55

-Bass.

-Big bass, big bass.

0:55:550:55:57

Ooh, that would be good.

0:55:570:55:59

Big bass. Come on, come on.

0:55:590:56:01

Oh, get in there.

0:56:030:56:05

-Hurray.

-It's a sunfish. Hey, that's a nice one.

0:56:050:56:08

-What is he?

-That is a sunfish.

0:56:080:56:10

-He's beautiful.

-Yeah, he's a beautiful fish.

0:56:100:56:13

Cold. He's ready frozen, virtually.

0:56:130:56:15

-Probably the biggest fish ever caught here, would you say?

-No.

0:56:150:56:18

-Come on, yes it is.

-No.

0:56:180:56:19

Oops, oh, dear.

0:56:190:56:22

-It's the first fish I've caught since I was about ten years old.

-This is?

0:56:220:56:26

I don't want you to think I'm scared of this fish.

0:56:280:56:31

Oh, this is a nice one.

0:56:320:56:35

-This is a serious fish.

-That's bending.

0:56:350:56:38

This is really bending the rod.

0:56:380:56:40

Ooh, yeah, it's a biggie.

0:56:400:56:42

He's up to the hole, he's up, he's up.

0:56:440:56:46

Oh, I say!

0:56:460:56:48

Bravo!

0:56:480:56:50

-That's a pike, isn't it?

-That is a pike.

0:56:500:56:53

Yeah. He's absolutely beautiful.

0:56:530:56:56

That is a beautiful fish.

0:56:560:56:58

I would go so far as to say that is bigger than the fish I just caught.

0:56:580:57:02

I think it is. I genuinely think that's bigger than my fish.

0:57:020:57:05

I'm guessing it was pretty close, pretty close.

0:57:050:57:08

Actually mine goes from there to there, yours goes...

0:57:080:57:12

Yeah, yours is just bigger, well done.

0:57:120:57:14

-That's a nice big fish, there it goes.

-Off she goes. Wonderful.

0:57:150:57:19

I like to see them put back.

0:57:190:57:21

That is really good.

0:57:210:57:23

These are the spoils.

0:57:230:57:25

-Pitting our wits against the mighty sunfish.

-This is brilliant.

0:57:250:57:29

It's been quite a journey from the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans,

0:57:310:57:34

where the River Mississippi empties itself

0:57:340:57:37

in warm, steamy, torrid Louisiana,

0:57:370:57:40

right here to fresh, chilly Minnesota,

0:57:400:57:42

which is the state where the Mississippi begins.

0:57:420:57:46

We've followed music and food.

0:57:460:57:49

CRACKING NOISES

0:57:490:57:52

That's...slightly worrying.

0:57:520:57:55

-That's just ice cracking.

-Oh, that's all right,

0:57:550:57:58

I thought it was a leaf rustling. If it's only ice cracking... Get out of here!!

0:57:580:58:02

And so we did.

0:58:030:58:05

Next week, I shall be travelling

0:58:050:58:07

from the glaciers of Montana on the Canadian border,

0:58:070:58:09

right down through the High Prairies and Rocky Mountains,

0:58:090:58:13

to the arid deserts of Texas on the border with Mexico.

0:58:130:58:16

Subtitles by Red Bee Media

0:58:370:58:39

E-mail [email protected]

0:58:390:58:41

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