State of America Part 2 The Travel Show

I'm on a coast-to-coast trek across the south of the USA, exploring the

places that have grown up along the Sunset Limited train line. My

journey started in the unique port city of New Orleans and continued

across from Louisiana to Texas, and one of America's most distinctive

national parks. Welcome to the border! This week, as I continue my

journey along the rail route, get off the beaten track, I find out how

long we came to the end of the world -- how close we came. Three, two,

one, release. You and I have just started something we can't stop. And

discover a wonderland conjured from the imagination of a groundbreaking

artist. I literally microwaved a microwave while it was Mark waving.

I am the only one in human history who has pulled off this a rent --

microwaving. This is an Americana, but not as we know it.

In the middle of the West Texas desert, you can walk for miles and

miles before you come across anything resembling a Homestead. Or

civilisation. This is one of the most remote areas in the country.

And then you come across this. I have to be honest, that is the last

thing I imagined I would see in the middle of the desert. You can't

actually buy anything here. It is an artwork. But that doesn't mean

people to come from miles to see it. Like these two, who have given eight

hours from Dallas. I figured is a really interesting social commentary

on branding, and I think it is ironic to have it in the middle of

the desert. And the fake Prada boutique is just a foretaste. We are

on the outskirts of an unusual oasis of art in the once anonymous ranch

town of Marfa, which began life as a row rootstock. And Marfa's

transformation is largely down to the arrival in the 1970s of a

leading artist from New York, the late Donald Judd -- row weight stop.

With this space and freedom, he created one of the largest

installations of contemporary art. This artist from New York City at

the height of his career left New York, thought it was a harsh

environment that did not support artists or they are, what he created

here has inspired this whole other group of artists, writers,

filmmakers, musicians to come and have a life you. -- here. Artists

live and work at the museum. They have a studio space. Jenny was one

of those budding creative pilgrims. So impressed by Judd's work, she

moved to Marfa with a young family. Then there are these concrete

blocks, John's first works here, which were met with amusement by

many locals -- died. Some of them look like cattle pens, and although

there was scepticism at first, the local people who have come and with

that these pieces now have a sense of the loveliness towards them. --

belovedness. Back in the town's main drag, I

decide to get a local's point of view. This used to be a mechanic

shop, and blacksmith shop, and now it is a big Art Gallery and studio.

But as I quickly discover, this saloon bar owner is not your average

Joe. This self-proclaimed cowboy out of the box is a bit of a southern

dude. And he knows it. Do you want a beer? I would love a beer, thank

you. Tommy, what is the story of this town? You have been here more

than 30 years. -- tell me. How has it changed? Marfa was just a small

town. It was kind of dying. There were more mom-and-pop shops back

then. And the thing that changed this town was what? Art change the

time. You can say it saved the time. Marfa never would have had New York

or Asian food or things like that, it wouldn't have as nice hotels. --

save the town. Initially, it was a culture clash, and the locals were

not too keen on the Newbury. They butted heads, they didn't like it,

they were prejudiced against one another, another have learnt to

coexist and it is getting better and better and will continue to get

better and better -- keen on the new order.

And there seems to be a bit of a Marfa effect. This man is now a

feature film actor and model. What kind of roles are you playing? All I

can play is myself. I'm not an actor. I display myself really well.

And he seems to be having a ball doing just that --I just play

myself. Every weekend there is somebody from a different culture or

continent, everywhere from South America, Asia, Australia, Africa,

Europe will stop just everybody comes here. I get my culture fix

without ever having to leave home. I think you can finish this game off

in a second. Where did the BlackBerry? -- like Bob

-- black go? You were very polite. I didn't even realise I put the black

down. Time to leave the moat expenses of Texas behind and get to

the west to the Arizona desert, following the train route. --

promote expenses. Here we are,s Arizona, one of those place names I

have heard so often and never thought I would visit -- Tucson. It

owes its existence to the try line, which transformed the isolated

frontier post it to a major urban centre. And they are proud of their

rail history here. Is that a bell? Can I ring that? Go-ahead. Wow. That

is a slice of history just in that noise. That sound is beautiful. But

there is more to this area than meets the eye.

This is a typical Arizona landscape, Masters at an mountain ranges. --

fast desert. But what it is less famous for is what could change the

course of history, and it is right and need my feet. An

intercontinental ballistic missile complex, one of only two in the

world open to the public. Now decommissioned, but for two decades,

capable of delivering a nine megaton nuclear warhead to targets more than

10,000 climate is away. -- kilometres. That is 650 times more

powerful than the bomb dropped on here seem -- Hiroshima. When we get

to the bottom, we will be about 35 feet underground, what is considered

level two. Yvonne was a crew commander in the 1980s. If you take

a seat there. I will sort of let you be in charge. She took me through a

simulation of what would have happened if the president had

ordered a strike. After a complex series of checks and verifications,

it all comes down to two people turning a key. Three, two, one,

turned to the right, for, three, two, one, release. You and I have

just started something we can't stop. There is no big oops button

down here. It is quite chilling already. As you were talking about

this and as the sirens and alarms go off. You just saw and heard

everything that the crew would have seen and heard if they had ever been

ordered to launch their missile. It is really kind of silent. Three,

two, one, give it a turn. Why do you let people in to witness the

simulation? What is the purpose? This site is a National historic

Landmark, a gnat designation is given only to historic sites that

have so influenced the American psyche as to have had an impact --

and that designation, on almost everyone in the United States. There

is no way to bring that was back, there is no distract package. It is

that feeling on your gut when you are going to the launch sequence. It

is chilling. Cold War sites can drive the necessity for peace home

almost better than anything else. -- distract package. Yvonne leads me to

the complex to get a look at the missile itself will stop this is the

nerve centre of the missile site. Right, so we will inside the launch

dock. When we go in, what your head. OK. We will be stemming directly

underneath the missile here -- standing. That's incredible. It is

so, so high up. 103 feet. You can feel its power in a scary kind of

way. And have you ever talked to a

counterpart of yours who was doing the same thing on the Soviet Union

side? Yes, I've actually had the opportunity to meet one former

Soviet crew member, he came with his son to tour the museum. They brought

him into my office, just a really nice guy. As he was shaking my hand

he said, thanks for not launching! I couldn't think of anything to say

but, thank you for not launching! It was just... We were both so grateful

to have the opportunity to meet each other. And in peace. And you are two

human beings who personally could have easily lead to... Either one of

us. The destruction of the world. Either one of us.

And on that apocalyptic note, I continue my exploration west where

the nightmare scenario of Titan mutates into fantasy. Crossing the

Arizona border into the Californian desert and where the Hollywood dream

for a select few became a reality, palm springs, the home of classic

Americana. Hello, Ken. Welcome to Palm Springs. Thank you so much.

Sheltered from the elements by these enormous mountains, the town of Palm

Springs became a desert playground for the rich and famous in the 40s,

50s and sixties. You couldn't go anywhere in Hollywood without people

photographing you and wanting your autograph... Ken was part of this

exclusive world at zero and a luxury resort catering for Hollywood's

millionaire celebrities. Everyone in the film industry would come here

because they had privacy by and large, they built homes here, they

bought homes here, and so that's where we got the movie colony and we

had everybody from Bob Hope to Sinatra. Elizabeth Taylor, all those

people, they were all super nice. You met Elizabeth Taylor? Oh, yeah,

Elizabeth Taylor was a sweetheart. And Barbara Streisand. By the mid-

60s palm springs had more pools per capita than anywhere else in the

world. But over the years as more people were drawn to the glamour,

Palm Springs lost its cachet and a new generation of dream makers took

over. And none so original as Ken's son. You're going to see when you

come to our car it will be pretty apparent. Pretty apparent, will it?

Here it is. Wow. Look at that. That is astonishing!

Welcome to the wacky world of Kenny Ingram Junior.

An artist whose work is now your ring sightseers away from Frank

Sinatra's old house around the corner to see this fantastic all

creation instead. Luring. What to you is more interesting, this place

or Frank Sinatra's house? This place. Kenny Ingram Junior is a real

artist. Ken senior likens his son's work to Michelangelo and has become

his proud patron. Do you know what these mean, do they mean anything to

you? Everyone of them means that Kenny has created a unique sculpture

out of material that would be in landfill. Yeah. He's used tons and

tons of material that would be in a landfill, he is recycled and made it

into great works of art. -- has recycled. Where is Kenny? He's out

here. Kenny? ! Wears Kenny? He's behind you. -- where is. Here he is.

That's the man. This is astonishing, your father has told us a little bit

about what's going on here, but can you take me on a full tour? Yeah,

absolutely. Fantastic. You've made everyone of these pieces. Yeah, each

one I've made myself. Over how many years? I've been working on my art

for at least the last four decades since I've been living and

breathing. Really? Yeah, I was born an artist. On these four acres of

land Kenny has used 1000 tons of recycled stuff to create 350 works

of art. So far. Here's the hockey pod. What that made of?

Refrigerators. Here's a Bo bear, made an air conditioner.

Astonishing. What are the reindeer made of? Everything, basically

everything is made of everything. Yeah. That is the what Barney? This

is the Mongolian Easter Barney's Version bar thrown. This is one of

the world's only two microwaved Michael Wright -- Mongolian Easter

Bunny's mobile thrown. -- microwave. I'm the only person to have ever

achieved this. Can I asked a silly question, why? Why not? It say why

not world and a wide world. These are the kind of things I do with my

art -- why world. This why not attitude runs throughout Kenny's

world. It tells me he will make art out of any unwanted item. It's a

mind-boggling spectacle. A mishmash of household items painted in

bubblegum colours and a whole host of themes, some religious. Kenny

converted to Islam while at college. This is the gorilla bot, look out

behind the gorilla but. Has this thing grew and grew and grew, and

it's very tall, you are overlooking your neighbours' houses and lawns,

what do they think? They love it. This neighbour over here bought one

of my microwave things for $59. He gratefully displays it in his living

room and brags about it. They are all fans, everyone of your

neighbours fans of your work? They love my work. Just about the entire

town of Palm Springs knows about it. People come from Germany, Japan, the

United Arab Emirates, France, India, they come here just to see this.

Where do you think this fits in all of you fit into contemporary

America? I don't know where it could fit in, I don't think it fits in

anywhere really to speak of. How we got man on the moon and how we get

men on Mars or people on Mars isn't going to happen how things fit in

with other things, is going to happen by things never been done

before is how it's going to happen. -- it's. At Christmas the whole

place is lit up and Kenny has big plans for the future too. He wants

to build a 300 acre theme park based on his designs. He reckons once

investors and engineers are on board he could have it built in ten years.

In the meantime we'll have to settle for a ride on this. I actually

physically can't get in! Of course you can fit in there, you're not

that big. I'm not that big at all. Do you think grown up is should be

riding around in these too? Absolutely, there is no excuse not

to. Kenny, there's only one problem. What's that? Were on this thing and

there's no one to turn it off, does that mean we're on this for ever? In

theory that could happen. Time to leave this garden of dreams

behind and head westward to America's so-called city of dreams,

Los Angeles. It's the final stop on the Sunset

Limited train ride, which I followed here all the way from New Orleans.

They call this one of the last great railway stations in the US and it

marks one end of a line that created the hugely important artery carrying

cargo and passenger traffic from coast-to-coast. And I tell you what,

it's absolutely beautiful. Like a church!

And this is one reason why so many people make the trip to the

Californian coastline. It's beautiful weather and beaches. This

is it! Finally, the Pacific Ocean. New Orleans seems an eternity away.

So, with 2000 miles under my belt, having travelled coast to coast, I

kind of realise it's difficult to talk about a single shared American

dream when this country has become so diverse.

Travelling off the well worn tourist trail, I've discovered such

different communities, each with an Independent spirit, colourful

history and an unique story to tell. All of which goes towards what it

means to be a modern American.