VIDEO

The walk in a nutshell (as on the homepage), featuring the song “Whippoorwill” by Darlingside. For more on the band, see http://www.darlingside.com/. They’re trans-continental, globe-trotting adventurers in their own right, currently based in Boston. The song is from their 2014 release Woodstock.

Here’s the trip from end to end, feature-style:

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The more in-depth clips below cover the walk from start to finish in segments organized around the interviews, sometimes including archival footage related to the places or systems in question.

I begin my journey by speaking with Burr Stewart about air travel in Seattle.

Interview with Jim Toomey and Ron Foraker, heads of the Port of Pasco and the Tri-Cities Airport, during my long shakedown run across central Washington. Archival footage: Wings Over Hanford from the Prelinger Archives, along with The Atom and You and Five Decades of Hanford Plutonium Production from the US Department of Energy.

Interview with telephone technician Mark Wing on the way across Oregon into Idaho. Includes historical footage from the Prelinger Archives (Long Distance and Of Many Voices) and a note on John Barry.

Interview with Deb Bitton of Mystic Saddle Ranch in Stanley, Idaho.

From Stanley to Darlington via the Lost River Range.

Interviews with Idaho Falls TV weatherman Steve Cannon and Rigby museum curator Glena Smith following a windy crossing of the Snake River Plain.

Over the Rockies to Salt Lake City. Along the way, I hike into the Tetons, visit a historic railway station, and face worsening equipment, weather, and relationship problems.

A conversation about railroads with Dan Harbeke and John Haering of Union Pacific in Salt Lake City.

Interviews with Thompson highway maintenance manager AJ Rogers and Moab economic development specialist Ken Davey, in a brief halcyon spell on the Colorado Plateau in eastern Utah. It also seemed like a reasonable place to sing a duet with a geologist. Includes historical footage from the Prelinger Archives (Gold!, Copper Mining and Smelting, and Desert Empire).

From Moab to Cortez, Colorado, through a winter storm on the edge of the Colorado Plateau.

Interview with Tom Yoder of KSJD Radio in Cortez.

A conversation about the outskirts of the Internet with Jeff Gavlinski of Durango, Colorado.

A conversation with postman Aaron Vigil on the run over the continental divide into New Mexico. Includes footage from Freedom Highway and Mailman (Prelinger Archives).

Interview with air ambulance crew Tyler Wilkins and Fred Ruebush in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, after several days in the desert. Includes home movie footage from the Prelinger Archives.