[resonant droning
supports guitar plucking]

♪

Wow! It's the first week
of March.

I can see my breath.

So the first thing
I'm gonna do

in the wagon now
is make a fire.

[crackling]

There's a lot
of just slack time

on the wagon,
where you write.

You light a lantern,
get the fire goin'...

and it just kinda
makes you think

about the passage
of time and--

and where you're headed, um.

On this trip,
we're in Oriental now,

and on most wagon trips,

I simply head out,

which is kind of hard
to explain to people,

but I always say,

it's a little bit
like the seagull.

The seagull doesn't file
a flight plan.

The seagull just leaves.

When the barometer
makes a certain twitch,

if it goes high,
maybe they fly out to sea.

It goes low,
they come inland,

and they might
go land on a field

that's being plowed
to look for worms

or critters to eat.

I work
by about the same whims.

OK, had a look.

See any?

Nah.

I'm not a white-cotton-
glove kinda guy.

Come on and visit.

Her name is Polly;
give her a slice of bread.

Yeah, just lay it flat
like that.

[voice-over]
The internal barometer

inside me has risen,
and it's just time to go.

(woman)
Well, good luck!

(woman #2)
Have a safe trip.

Thanks,
have a good week!

[voice-over]
But it's just like the bird--
like the fish.

Time to hitch up Polly
to the wagon and go!

[clopping]

[gentle guitar
and piano arrangement]

♪

When people see a guy
walkin' up the road,

it strikes
this iconic part of--

of all our hearts,
especially in the States

because that's like a sign
of Westward expansion,

the man, the mule,
and the wagon.

[electric guitar joins]

Check it out here;
we're ramblin'!

And so the--the reality
is a little bit different,

and as I was travelin'
up the highway...

Have a good 'un!

...with cars passin' me at 60
as I was going at 2,

every time one passed,
you'd get this "vooof,"

and it pushes
your wagon forward.

And it made me realize,
you know,

in the three
or four generations,

we've gone
from 2-mile-an-hour travel

to 60-mile-an-hour travel.

Being able to shed
that speed bubble...

it really lets you
look and see and smell

and hear things
that you ordinarily wouldn't.

You can smell the earth...

which I don't smell
when I'm in my pickup truck.

Just don't get
that sensory immersion.

Also don't get there as
quickly when I'm in the wagon.

[clopping]

[resonant guitar melody]

Many of us tend to be as--
as independent as possible.

We're kinda
self-centered creatures.

♪

To have a mule
to travel with,

it really
drags you out of that.

Because I need
to put the mule up

every night somewhere,
I meet all kinds of people.

(man)
Need that bucket
for anything?

I was gonna
get water.

I've visited Virgil
two or three times now.

Oh, I'm good--I--
I'm good, Virgil.

You can smell, like,
the sweat and the oils

and the dander
after they've worked.

It gives off

this just really rich,
horsey smell.

And she'll only roll
on one side at a time.

It's like clockwork.

I just love this part
of the day.

♪

Heh, and we'll shake--
excellent.

That's the ritual--
heh, heh...heh!

♪

As I travel,
I can pick up little pieces

of the community
I'm going through.

Virgil had given us
these pieces of wood,

and it becomes
part of my wagon,

part of my body.

Cooking with this wood,
and then you heat with it.

Virgil gave us some water.

So pretty soon,
you're becoming a sum total

of all of the parts
of the communities

that you're traveling through.

My traveling wagon life

is about other people's lives
coming into my life.

[droning supports guitar]

♪

It's really neat

to see that people
still have this generosity,

be able to give something
of themselves

to help another person along.

And so that's how
that transition starts,

you know, transitioning
into other people's yards,

their lives,
their stories, their thoughts.

[piano enters]

(man)
Got into commercial fishing.

That's what my father did.

That's all I wanted to do,
and that's all I've ever done.

In the summer, we'd fish
off the Massachusetts coast,

and in the fall of the year,

we'd come back down,
work in New Jersey,

and then come down
to Hampton, Virginia,

and then on back to Carolina.

Back when I started doing it,

you worked on boats;
you built your own nets.

(Bernie)
So tell me just about life

on those shrimp boats
'cause it musta been hard.

(Virgil)
You had no conveniences,
no bathroom, shower.

You'd lay in your bunks,
and dem bunks

'bout 36 inches wide
or what have you,

and sometime,
you'd wake up,

and it'd be right wet
where you'd sweated in there.

Well, about like
you and this--

and your mule
and buggy.

(Bernie)
Yeah, but you see,

I think I've got it made,
though, Virgil.

The uncooperative mule--
come, come!

Come on, mule!

[sighing]

It's kinda fun to--
to see as the trip progresses,

and gradually,
over time,

a trip will develop its--
its own flavor,

its own rhythm,
its own identity.

You just have
to step out and go.

You just have to start,

and it's impossible
to predict that magic.

(Virgil)
You oughta get
good mule mileage today.

You're gonna have
a "tail wind."

(Bernie)
Yeah--hah, hah!

I'm glad I've not
got to go with him.

See you
next year!

What a sight.

Wish him well on his travels.

[electric guitar leads]

[whooshing]

♪

[whooshing]

♪

[wind blowing]

(Bernie)
We've got probably a 25-knot--

a low front
comin' through on us.

It's blowing so hard
from the back

that the wagon
is pushing Polly,

the mule,
up the highway.

So it's just
pretty remarkable conditions

to see
in eastern North Carolina.

Hooh--
well, hello!

Y'all gettin'
along all right?

Yeah, we're
out ramblin'!

Yeah, I'm tellin' ya, it's
a-blowin' a gale out here.

Yes, it is!

Y'all be careful.

(Bernie)
When you see a day like that,

that's when you're glad
that you've got,

you know,
a little woodstove...

and a good,
solid-headed mule.

[contemplative piano
and bass score]

♪

I go with a mule
and a wagon.

I'm forced to go through
pretty much all conditions.

Damn dog--
there's always one!

Come on,
yo

u damn mutts!

I mean, I've been through
downtown Chattanooga

and was told,

"No, it's
a terrible place to go.

Don't go there
with a mule."

No problem at all.

I don't shy away
from that.

I don't shy away
from other people's fears

'cause that's someone--

that's what someone else
is afraid of.

Four, five generations ago,

people traveled through
extraordinary weathers.

They didn't have
good foul-weather gear.

They just did it.

I think we've lost
this kind of rhythmic capacity

just to grind away,
one foot after the next.

You have to become the mule.

The mule doesn't complain.

The mule
doesn't know it's wet.

The mule doesn't know
it's cold.

The mule just walks.

I guess I get a charge
out of doing it,

so I just walk like Polly.

♪

That's all fine to say
how tough you are

and how game you are,
but at the end of the day,

you want a place
to take a break,

lay down,
and just tune out.

[easy guitar arrangement]

And most of that night,
just the wind--

it just kept blowing.

It's just blowing itself out.

[wind blowing]

[trickling]

Then it goes away,

and it's a beautiful day--
a blue sky.

[creaking]

[clattering]

[droning strings lead
slow guitar arrangement]

So this is winter;
the field's dormant,

the potato rows
resting between harvest.

The soil is black
and loose and crusted

with veneer
of dormant stalks and weeds.

This is agricultural limbo.

♪

(man)
My father-in-law
lives up the road

and said,
"What in the world's goin' on

"down there
at your old grain bins?

There's a man, a mule,
and a covered wagon."

You don't get
that call a lot,

so I hopped in the truck--
come check it out.

Look at the little woodstove;
you've got it made.

Hey, climb in
and look at it!

I've seen one
of them woodstoves

in a van
just like that.

I built this one out
of, like, a box beam.

I've traveled
through this
country a lot,

but I've never been
inside a granary.

(man)
Lemme hold the door
so it won't knock.

So it's pretty simple.

(Bernie)
What year do you think
this one's put up?

(man)
Probably the '60s.

The door keeps swingin' open,

and I came up
to shut the door,

and it sorta swung open,
and a bobcat ran outta there--

a big bobcat!

I was like, "whoa!"

(Bernie)
Hah, hah...hah!

[creaking and clopping]

[gentle guitar
and piano arrangement]

♪

♪

Two or three years ago,
I was comin' up the road

with Polly into Aurora,
and I see this guy.

He was walking
so energetically,

it looked like
he was running.

He said,
"Come on, got a place to stay?

"No?
Come on.

Stay with us."

♪

[guitar strumming]

And it turns out
he's just an amazing musician.

♪

heh, heh, heh

So play me another.

Let's see,
last time we visited,

you played
"The Fishin' Song."

Oh,
"The Fishin' Song!"

Oh, yeah!

♪ Pullin' the net ♪

♪ All my days ♪

♪ It seems
to suit my life ♪

♪ Draggin' along the bottom ♪

♪ With not much catch
in sight ♪

♪ Well, I don't know
much else to do ♪

♪ Pullin'
and a-joggin' ♪

♪ All I ask for
is just enough ♪

♪ To keep me off
the bottom ♪

[yawning]

♪ Woo-hoo ♪

[electric guitar
leads droning]

♪

[whirring]

To give you a sense
of how far we've traveled

in the last three days,
we left Oriental,

came to Bayboro.

Then we went to Hobucken
and ended up in Aurora,

and that's
right at 40 miles.

One of the things
that fascinates me

about traveling is...

Step in there
with him, yeah.

...kinda this invisible magnet
that just sucks people in.

So he went
from where--

where'd you come from
with the mule?

And these are people
who took time

out of their speeding days...

Yeah, I'm bringin' y'all
precipitation, man!

...that actually
stopped their vehicles

and walked over
and visited...

Drivin' him down
the highway.

Oh, yeah.

[voice-over]
...and added something
to our day.

Don't let the
bobcat getcha--
hah, hah...hah!

(Bernie)
I think,
when I show up in a wagon,

people are like,
"He's doin' it!

He's running away
like we dream of doin'."

I think
a lot of 'em think,

"I'd be happy
if I could do that."

Having said that,
I have very few volunteers

that come along--
hah, hah...hah!

[acoustic guitar
leads droning]

So our actions--
it's incredible.

We've all seen it.

They--they impact
other people.

There's a chain reaction
to that.

It's just so hard
to ever predict

how you'll affect somebody.

(woman)
Polly the penguin
loves to play.

She slips
and slides every day.

(Bernie)
If you wanna see
a kid freak out,

show, you know,
him or her a mule.

(female teacher)
That's where Polly
likes to go.

[teacher gasping]

I see somethin'
out the window.

(kids)
Polly! Polly!

(Bernie)
If they'd been a boat,
they'da capsized it

'cause they all ran
to that side of the room.

(woman)
Oh, it's Bernie and Polly?

(kids)
Polly!

I felt like one
of the Beatles.

One, two, three.

(kids)
HI, POLLY!

(Bernie)
Wow, well done.

[applause and laughter]

The question is,
do I live in the wagon?

I do live in the wagon
when I'm traveling.

So there's
a little woodstove there

so you can, like,
cook in there

and sleep in there.

So I live there on the road,
and when I'm not traveling,

I have a home, yeah,
up in the mountains.

[gentle guitar
and piano arrangement]

I think
my sense of adventure

has just been
chemically ingrained.

I think it's just
the way my brain is wired.

I'm sure a neurologist
could analyze it.

A behavioral psychotherapist

could tell you
what all's going on,

but there
is this connection, this--

this visceral feel
to the land

that you are tapped into

as you walk across it
with a mule,

and I would mourn
not being able to do that.

♪

[resonating strings
lead guitar and bass]