November 18, 2004

Standing up for America: 20somethings trek cross-country on a Segway scooter "There was no mad dash in the home stretch of a 100-day journey across the country - just the same pokey 10 mph, and all the better to get a good glimpse of what you are passing by. The journey of a lifetime and a trip in search of a documentary film wound its way slowly through Natick and Needham yesterday, eventually winding up in Boston more than three months after it began in Seattle. Five 20somethings -- traversing the country while one rode a Segway motorized two-wheel scooter tailed by an SUV -- decided to leave the stuffy corporate world and hit the road for a glimpse of the American landscape. "We wanted to inspire people by telling a positive story of America," said Hunter Weeks, 27."

"Independently funded by a few small sponsors and the five college grads, the trip was inspired by the road trips of Charles Kuralt and Jack Kerouac. Two of the participants lived in Newton Centre for several months and one lived in Natick for half a year. "We wanted to see the country as it is now because it is always changing," Weeks said. The group's main rider, Josh Caldwell, 27, partnered with Weeks for the project. The two plan to head back to Denver, Colo., to edit the hours of film footage for a documentary they hope to enter in film festivals next year, with the overall goal of seeing their work on the big screen. For Gannon Weeks, 27, - Hunter's twin sister - Tuesday's glide through Natick was seeing some familiar scenery. She lived here for six months in 2002 after being laid off from a high tech job in the post Sept. 11, 2001, economic slide. The trip also was a needed respite for Gannon Weeks. "I've been able to step back and evaluate what I'm doing with my life and getting out of that corporate environment," she said. The trip changed her perspective, she said, enough so that she could pursue a career as an artist without feeling like she should conform to a traditional work force. "I'll have the courage and drive to push for what I know I'll be doing," she said. The other two members of the trip are Rose Kontak, who joined the group in Toledo, Ohio, and Alon Waisman, a student from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz., and native of Nashua, N.H. Waisman's school is sponsoring his trip. Hunter Weeks joked that the group was using technology, in this case the innovative Segway device, to slow them down. "The Segway caught people's attention but it also helped us slow down and meet all sorts of people," Hunter said. The project's Web site, www.10mph.com, contains hundreds of photographs from across the country and details the people the group has met and stayed with during the trip."

posted by waitingtoderail 20 years ago
  • I saw these guys in Toledo at a Michael Moore rally. They didn't come off as the greatest of public speakers, but then they got typical "opening band" lousy sound. (Gloria Steinem spoke next!) They formed a slightly surreal part of the evening.
  • Why the segway? Why not a pushbike?
  • You are driving a $4000 vehicle followed by a $20,000+ vehicle that gets horrible gas milage when in the highest gear. Must be nice to be a group of "20somethings" and be able to afford to do that. As a "30something" I wouldn't know. My real car cost less than $4000. But I will tell you something, most days of the week I do something even more cutting edge, its called walking! Sounds like these folks ought to try it sometime if they really want to get to know people...
  • jccalhoun: it's a car-based SUV. A minivan with a long hood. For their purpose, it hardly gets better than that. Plus, they probably owned it before they went on trek, so they're saving the cost of building a new minivan.
  • Turns out it's a cherokeeh. Depending on the engine in it (4 or 6), it might get noticably better or slightly worse than a Toyota Sienna.
  • ...on a sedgeway scooter... 'Tis a poor way to cross a continent.
  • gannon? you mean the bad guy at the end of the zelda game has a segway? sheesh. had the same thought as you on the funding jccalhoun - wish i had the money to take a 100-day vacation and travel across country. what are these kids doing for cash that i'm not?
  • Why does this remind me so much of the Dot-com-we'll -all-live-on-free-swag-and-our-9-figure-salaries-coding-HTML Era? Am I the only one? Yes, I realize the Segway post-dates the dot-com era, but even so.
  • You are definitely not. The first thing I thought of was that it's like a remake of David Lynch's The Straight Story acted entirely by dot-com wankers. All going to truck stops and Midwestern houses talking gruffly about the Cluetrain Manifesto when locals ask what's with the long face
  • It's the Segway. The Segway reminds me nothing so much as an Aeron chair (which I always want to call an Enron chair -- hmmm) with a motor. A whole lot of bitter in this thread. Why?
  • Maybe jealousy? They'll probably rake in a bunch of money from the film (hell, if eating McDonald's for a month could make for a good movie, why couldn't this?), plus, the whole idea of escaping from the mundaneness of most of our jobs to do something nutty appeals to some basic urge....
  • For me it isn't jealousy but irritation from the smugness and pretentiousness of claiming to see America and getting to know yourself better when in reality it is all a publicity stunt to make a movie. If they just said, "We are going to go around on a Segway and make a movie about it" that would be fine. But they aren't they are trying to say it is some grand gesture when it isn't. That's why I can't stand these kinds of things.
  • Well, it beats sitting in a cube. Which I'll be doing tomorrow morning at 8 AM.
  • I'm not bitter, that was just the first thing I thought of when I read that, that's all. It's a Segway, Segways are funny, like little Hindenburgs that don't hurt people.