Monday, December 31, 2007

I Have Just Got to See This!

First off, you have to realize one of my favorite films is David Lynch's The Straight Story, which is about an elderly man, Alvin Straight, played by Richard Farnsworth (the brother in Anne of Green Gables on TV). Straight, who lived in northwestern Iowa, decided he wanted to see his brother, who lived across the Mississippi River in an out-of-the-way house in Wisconsin. He couldn't drive a car any more, so he fixed up a riding lawnmower with a trailer and headed out.

Secondly, you have to understand I love maps and seeing new places in this country (I'd like to see places in other countries, but I've only made it to the Maritimes and a couple of places in Ontario, both in Canada, of course). My 9,000-mile trip in September 1998 covered a big loop in the eastern 2/3s of the country, mostly off the interstates unless there were few other choices.

10 mph is a bit different from The Straight Story. It's about a guy who decides to ride a Segway from Seattle to Boston. It's a crazy idea, of course. Totally impractical. And yet, what a neat way to see the country. It took 100 days. I would love to do something like that.

Both movies are available on Amazon. If you're interested in buying either one, do me a small favor. Instead of going directly to Amazon's website, use the search box at the top right of this page. Enter Amazon that way, and I'll get a small commission, which won't cost you anything extra. Here's the ASIN numbers for the movies, which Amazon uses to identify their stuff, and you can cut and paste them into the search box:

10 mph: B000OVLMLG
The Straight Story: B00004Z4SD

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