Three years or so ago I mentioned on my blog about a few guys who were riding a Segway across the country and making a film about it. Last night I got to go to a screening of that film here in Denver. It was a really great film.
These guys spent 100 days traveling across the country, from Seattle to Boston, riding at just 10 miles per hour. They met a ton of really interesting people along the way, often staying at their houses, cooking on their grills and helping in the kitchen. It seemed like the Segway helped them make fast friends, in that people would pull over their cars to meet them and find out what the heck they were doing. However, in their travels it was obvious that this wasn’t a story about a Segway. It was about people. It’s about doing your own thing and taking life as slow as you can.
A good example is that Kansas was one of their favorite states. I know I wouldn’t have predicted this, as more often than not, I’m trying to get through Kansas to somewhere else. I stay on I70 and for the most part am bored. You can’t travel on I70 and go 10 miles per hour, so the filmmakers took it slow on smaller roads and had a blast. They met great people and saw some wonderful things. One time I was driving through Kansas and our car broke down. We spent the better part of a week waiting to get it fixed and were forced to walk around the town of Hays, talking to people and seeing the sites. We had a great time, despite my being sick and our bank accounts dwindling as we got a new engine.
After the screening, the filmmakers and some of us filmgoers went to Forest Room 5 for drinks and to play with the Segway. (Sidenote: I ran out of gas for the first time in my life when scootering the mile-and-a-half from the movie to Forest Room 5.) We had a good time chatting talking about life and goofing around on the segway. I appreciate what these guys do, both in the filmmaking sense and in that they encourage people to get out, slow down and to do your own thing.
If you’re in one of the following cities, I encourage you to check out a screening. I think we all could use a little prodding to slow down and do our own thing.
More tour info on their site.
They’re also on Netflix and Amazon. Check out their site at 10MPH.com.
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“It’s about doing your own thing and taking life as slow as you can.”
This is a peaceful way of life-living. Takes you out all the stress we sometimes get by trying to make to much things, that in the end aren’t very valuable.
“When the cart is noisy, it is empty”
§ #1 By Andrés at 3:57pm on August 10 2007