MovieChat Forums > On the Road (2012) Discussion > Question for americans about american wo...

Question for americans about american woods

posted 8 years ago by floreat
2 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen the film, I'm TRYING to read the book, but damn. Kerouac made me want to know more about real deep america, though..
So, this has nothing to do with the film: I would looove to know where, in the us, there are woods and mountains to climb - that forest/mountains/lumberjack environment thing. Where is it? Like Desolation Peak, from that other Kerouac's book.

Another thing: would it be easy to get on the road, in america? I mean, to meet people, work in farms and survive, like that kid from Into the Wild? Would it be safe?

Sorry never went out of europe and really curious about all this.

[–] dspear-624-498766 8 years ago

Yes, it's easy to be on the road if you're friendly. My partner did it for several years with her then-boyfriend. You just meet people and do odd jobs. You carry a backpack and sleeping bag, but sometimes, someone will let you "crash". Doing that is how I and my wife became close friends with them. I always considered them hobos rather than bums because they wandered by choice. It would not be safe for a woman alone, but they never had dangerous experiences. These days, I don't think hobos are too common.

The geography of the US is very varied. I've traveled 40 states by bus (not hobo), and it was wonderful. Each state is quite different from it's neighbors. It's mainly woods between San Francisco and Seattle. The prime mountain ranges (mainly wooded too) are the Rockies from Colorado to Montana and the Appalachians from above Maine to the North Carolina-Tennessee boarder. There are no ice fields, deserts, or jungles, but just about everything else.

[–] floreat 8 years ago

Ohh, that's interesting. Thanks!
It really is... here, in Portugal, we don't see "hobos" or "bums" so often, as well, but they wouldn't be so common back in the day neither - young people would work in farms/factories/harvesting, yes, but more as a family thing, or a friend of a friend thing - the job itself would be more official, and wouldn't come up so espontaneously (unless you were a really special person, i guess haha the world would probably smile at you, then)

This is too beautiful, thank you!