I'm here for Route 66, the most famous road in the world.
How many other roads do you know, that people sing about?
And it's just one of those magical places that you always long to see.
Ever since I was a wee boy in Glasgow, I've fantasised
about getting my kicks on Route 66.
Oh, my God!
Into to the land of broken dreams and Hollywood endings.
The highway that built a continent,
defined a nation, running from Chicago to LA.
Route 66 is the story of America, written by the people, for the people.
Over eight states and 2,500 miles.
I love that!
It's a tale in tarmac of presidents and paupers, cowboys and indians,
diners and drive-throughs.
Framed in a landscape, from a hundred movies
with a soundtrack of the greatest music in the world.
Rock and roll.
Sounds good, doesn't it?
Oh, my God! Woah!
We're gonna have lots of fun.
Meet lots of people, see lots of nice things.
Come with me.
Let's take a walk on the wrong side.
# Well, it goes from St Louis, Joplin, Missouri
# Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty
# You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
# Flagstaff, Arizona Don't forget Winona Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernardino
# Get your kicks On Route 66 #
This leg of Route 66 is going to take me to the beating heart
of middle America.
# It's a lovely day in Kansas today #
There's gonna be wild dogs.
There's nothing like a nice bit of rat in the morning, I've always felt.
Sassy, brassy hunters.
What do you want me to shoot?
Obsessive compulsives.
Oh, God!
A soul-singing legend.
And the biggest rocking chair you have ever seen.
Starting in St Louis, I'm gonna motor west 600 miles
to Oklahoma City, through the Bible Belt and away into cowboy country.
First on my to-do list, the most impressive collection of rivets,
girders and steel you've ever seen.
If you're ever in St Louis, you'll see this thing behind me.
It's the Gateway Arch.
It's a bit like being in Paris with the Eiffel Tower,
you keep seeing it from unexpected angles.
It keeps coming into your view when you least expect it.
It was designed by a man called Eero Saarinen,
who usually did airport terminals and stuff.
I know it sounds very anoraky
but there's 900 tonnes of stainless steel in there.
He says he designed it like an upside down necklace and it's a tribute
to the great explorers and hunters, and trappers of the West.
And, as you know, they always wore a wee, single-strand necklace
and a twin-set underneath all that rawhide gear,
in case an unexpected social event should show up, you know?
You'd be expected to if you were invited to a dance in Neapolis.
You'd be invited to a dance in the outback!
You know what I mean.
And inside this, it's hollow and there's a-a-a tramway...thing.
I don't know what they were talking about when I read the information
but there's a mode of transport to the top of it
and you shall come with me and you will be the better for it.
Well, I've never been inside a monument before.
We're in the dark.
And this is called a cantilever tramway.
It's kind of weird, really. There's nothing much to see.
Except rivets and girders.
Oh, I can see a stairway!
Ooh! I saw a stairway...
..and a fire extinguisher!
You can now count me in as one of the four million people
that visit this viewing platform every year.
There's two river boats down there. See them?
They're paddle steamers.
That's the mighty Mississippi - Old Muddy.
You spend your whole life as a child learning about these things
and then it's, M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I.
You never dream that one day you're gonna be up the top
of a huge monument, looking down on it.
Isn't life the strangest thing?
I've been here for ages and not one person has asked me
to spell Mississippi. I'm so disappointed.
But the whole point of this is to look west
because St Louis was the gateway to the West.
Straight ahead there must be where the St Louis Cardinals play.
I've been trying to find it, I think I've spotted it.
It's on the other side. Is it?
I've just been informed that it's not, it's not it at all.
Come here! I was completely wrong about the Cardinals' stadium.
It's there.
When I was telling you we were looking west, we were looking east.
I would make a lousy explorer.
Don't follow me. Forward, men! We're going that way!
Now, if I asked you to have a look at some public art,
you might be tempted to turn your TV off but stick around...
St Louis does it differently.
You'll have often heard people saying, "America's got everything."
In actual fact, they're quite right.
And I've got the absolute proof for you and it's right over here.
It's a bidet for joggers.
Do you notice over here, that man is striding manfully
through a line of bidets,
which will get rid of his sweaty crotch problem, instantly.
Oh, America!
You see that face?
You see that sculpture that's a head lying on its side?
Look in the eyes of that sculpture, you'll see little faces looking out.
Are you OK? ALL: YES
It seems to become very tactile and accessible because it's abstract.
Isn't that lovely, how people feel entitled to go and touch that art?
I love that. I absolutely love it.
Good on you, St Louis.
How many times have you been in town and you've seen a statue
of some dreary, old curmudgeon, standing there in his frock-coat
with children clambering over it? They actually scare children!
The only things they don't seem to scare are seagulls and pigeons.
But look at that. That's alive and well.
Don't you miss those days when you didn't mind being soaking wet?
And didn't care about a change of clothes.
Hamburgers, fries, hotdogs...
it's an unfortunate truth that road food
is not exactly good for your taste buds or your colon.
So when you get the chance to eat real soul food,
prepared by a real soul queen,
you shake your tail-feather and get to Sweetie Pie's restaurant, pronto.
Hi! Hello, Billy Connolly. How lovely to meet you, Robbie.
This is Miss Robbie Montgomery,
the equally formidable and beautiful owner of Sweetie Pie's.
Make sure you guys cut those greens up
cos we were eating greens, like a whole leaf, like jungle weed.
Cut them up!
But if there's something in her sass that makes you think
you might have seen her before, take a look at this...
Because Robbie used to be one of Ike and Tina Turner's legendary Ikettes.
Those amazing backing singers that used to tear up the stage in the '60s.
Welcome, welcome. I saw you before, going like that.
Shaking my tail-feather.
That was my favourite, shaking the tail-feather. Really?
The tail-feather is broke! I can't shake it any more.
I've gotten too old for that now. Oh, river deep, mountain high!
These days, she is much more famous for her soul food
which is supposed to be the best in Missouri.
Billy, pick up your tray, I'm gonna give you a lesson in soul food.
Oh, good, I've never had soul food before. This is your first?
My first. I'm glad it's my restaurant you're checking for the first time.
This is Billy, ladies. You take care of him. We take care of everybody.
I'm looking forward to this.
Oh, collard greens, can I have some of that?
And he's got to try the macaroni and cheese. Of course he does!
Here we call this Mississippi-style cooking
because all of these are my mom's recipes.
Well, you grew up lucky. That good?
So, is that approval?
I love this, it's delicious.
Good, that makes me feel proud and I'm sure my mom is happy.
She's turning over.
I can hear her! Saying, "I told you!"
I always order mac and cheese when I can, to see if it's as good as mine.
Is it?
Mmm... Just a little bit off, huh? All right, I don't wanna beat you,
just put me in the race.
But this is a highlight for me... collard greens.
See, that's a big green right there. It's a big lump of green.
That should have been cut up. Yeah.
See, those little things like that, I have to go in the back
and say, "Why didn't you cut those greens up?"
I don't think I'd like you to be my boss. You'd be a mighty boss.
Oh, you should hear me some days.
Really? I got a vocabulary that...I can't use all the time. Me too.
Bitchin' in the kitchen! Bitchin' in the kitchen, exactly.
Thanks for the music, too. Oh, good.
So you would actually sing and rehearse and cook as well?
Oh, yeah. Because everything was segregated back there. Yeah.
Wasn't a lot of places for the black people to eat.
We had electric skillets so we would get in the hotel rooms and cook.
It's very difficult to believe, isn't it, segregation?
That's right but it's still going on.
It's not prevalent but it's still happening.
I remember the day my son came home and said,
"Mom, what's a nigger?" And I'm like, "Who told you that?"
I knew somebody had told him because I had never said anything about it.
He's like two or three years old.
But, as you grow, and you learn to ignore their ignorance...
because I'm in a place in my life, at 70, I'm happy just to be here.
As long as we love each other, that's where I'm at.
That's the beginning, the middle and the end, isn't it? Right, it is.
Before you go... Come here, love. Thank you.
Oh, thank you so much. I love ya! I love you more.
God bless you. And just once...
All right...
# Doop-doop-doop-doop doop-doop-doop!
With my belly full of mac and cheese,
it's time to leave the city limits and head into Missouri.
This is real Bible Belt country,
a lush state, peppered with churches and gun-toting hunters.
Which is ironic because my first port-of-call is a wolf sanctuary.
wolves are now nearly extinct in these parts.
But thanks to people like my guide, Regina,
real efforts are being made to turn that trend around.
Where's my wolves? Oh, we've got them for you!
We have 40 wolves at the Endangered Wolf Centre.
We're very unique because we don't pet the animals,
we don't talk to them, we don't play with them.
We want them to keep that fear of humans
so when they go into the wild, they stay away from people.
Well, you want to help us feed a deer to one of our packs? Yeah.
All right. This is for you. For me? What do I do with it?
It's your protection stick. The wolves won't come up to you
but it's just for safety. If you feel threatened, you can wave it.
But, like I said, wolves stay far away from us
so you'll see they're gonna be at the back of the enclosure.
Right. OK.
(LAUGHS) A protection stick!
I'm sure wolves are terrified of white sticks (!)
This guy was frozen so it'll be a deer Popsicle for them.
So this guy was hit by a car. I can see that.
Yeah, he broke a leg. It's nice that he's not gonna go to waste.
You know, the wolves get to practice eating their natural prey.
We'll go out this way and let them get their dinner.
Even though we're on the outside of the enclosure,
they're still nervous that we're here.
That's how much they're afraid of people.
That really takes me by surprise.
Oh! And now it's his! He's peed on it? Yeah.
Maybe that was his way of defrosting it.
They're really wishing we weren't here, aren't they? They are.
They're ready to go for dinner and we're making them nervous.
I like the way they stop and look straight at us.
I never expected them to be so tender and scared, you know?
When you think about the kind of reputation a wolf has
for being terrifying and attacking human beings, it's just nonsense.
While we leave the wolves to enjoy their lunch -
Look at this! They're checking you out.
Regina introduces me to African wild dogs that they also breed here.
Oh, a pig's ear!
Pig's ear and a rat. Pig's ear and a rat. Yummo (!)
Making you hungry for lunch? Mmm-mmm-mm-mm-mmm (!)
Those are like Easter eggs, you get to place it wherever you want to.
Anywhere here? Yeah, you can put it wherever you want.
Perfect. You hear them howling?
(HOWLING)
That cool? Oh, that's the coolest noise.
I don't know if I would like it if I was in my tent.
That was a great noise. That's made my day.
Isn't that cool? Not many people have heard the sounds of howls.
What's amazing about these guys is, these guys share.
When they have puppies, they'll have a babysitter stay back
and watch the puppies. No! Yeah.
And when they make the kill, they'll eat and they'll come back
and regurgitate. Not only for the puppies, but for the babysitter.
So, it's really a one for all, all for one system.
There's nothing like a bit of rat in the morning, I've always felt (!)
They save the tail for last, that's the best part. I always do (!)
Nothing like a bit of rat and a pig's ear for a wee snack in the morning.
There's a lot to do on a Sunday afternoon
in the fabulous, green state of Missouri.
You could fix your tractor,
you could stuff an animal,
maybe even have a barbecue, or...
..you could get on the blower, call some mates...
find an empty field...
..dress up like an extra from Pirates of the Caribbean
..and play with some very big guns.
All to mark the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.
It was 11 Southern states versus 25 Northern states.
And do you know, the funniest thing is,
everyone thinks it's about slavery but the argument goes on today,
as to whether it was or not.
Abraham Lincoln thought it was about slavery.
ALL: FIRE IN THE HOLE!
It's a very complex issue and it sells millions of books every year.
People dedicate their lives to the study of the Civil War.
FIRE!
625,000 men died.
It was the saddest war of all because some of the people involved
didn't actually know what they were fighting for.
Some people today don't even know what it was really about.
FIRE!
But as you can see, very few people fall down.
I think it's the one failing of re-enactment.
Everybody wants to be in it for the whole day.
Nobody wants to die in the first five minutes
and lie there for the whole day.
Unless there's sunshine and you can die face-up and get a good tan.
There's a dead guy lying just there.
I think he might be asleep.
Well, he's surrendering and he's a Blue Coat.
Again! He did that the first time. He's got a bigger rag out there now.
Get out of here, you big jessy!
Fight like a man!
Did you win? Yes.
But I thought the Union side was supposed to win today?
No, this is The Battle of Blackwell. The Battle of Blackwell? Yeah.
And that was won by the Confederates? Yeah.
And is it quite accurate?
For insurance reasons, we can't pull rammers
so when you've gotta reload one you've gotta tap-load it.
When properly done, you know, they're loading it. Yes.
But, anything can happen in the heat of battle and people get scared.
Next thing you know, someone's left a ramrod in there and they fire
and the ramrod fires. It happened a lot in the real wars.
Really? Oh, yeah, quite often.
Hello, man. How are you doing?
Are you part of a society? Basically, yeah.
Do you practice these things? Yes. Oh, yes.
Sometimes we work for six months to get everything right...
the gear, the clothes, the attitude. And that's your hobby?
Yeah, one of them. Or as the wife says, obsession.
Oh yeah? Yeah!
Oh, it's been a real pleasure. Stay safe.
Don't go firing those ramrods at each other. No, no definitely not.
There are an awful lot of tourist attractions along Route 66.
From the lofty heights of the Grand Canyon...
all the way to this big blue whale, made of concrete.
But it would appear the place that's most advertised is Meramec Caverns.
Every few miles, there's a billboard, urging me to take a look.
Is it worth it? Let's find out.
Welcome to the Meramec Caverns.
This is one of the most famous stop-offs on Route 66.
And it's a wee bit showbiz, as you can see...
..from the neon.
Lester Dill bought it and decided to make it into a tourist attraction.
When, gasp! He found some artefacts, belonging to Jesse James
and came to the conclusion that this was the James Gang hide-out.
Very convenient.
Jesse James, the outlaw, has a bit of a Robin Hood-like reputation
in Missouri.
And according to this recently uncovered bit of archive,
he was also a fastidious house cleaner.
Great race-horse that, Skyrocket. Kinda dusty though.
Which ultimately may have contributed to his untimely death.
Jesse turned his back. It was his last mistake.
If there's a power cut in here, we might have to eat one another.
What I find baffling is that, for all the neon signs
and James Gang artefacts, the real highlight of the cave is nature.
Built up over millions of years, these beautiful formations
are barely mentioned in the advertising.
Extraordinary!
Look at this one.
I've never touched a stalactite before.
I've got you a wee special treat. It's a bit touristy.
But I think you'll like it.
# God bless America
# Land that I love...
Oh, yes!
It's kind of charming but it's a bit like The Wizard of Oz.
When you see behind all the magic,
there's a wee man working all the levers and buttons.
He's very good at it though.
There's a tackiness about Route 66
that out-tacks any tackiness I ever saw, anywhere.
I don't understand why people think a thing as staggeringly beautiful
needs a light show to make it any better than it is.
It's amazing how that naturally occurred.
That Stars and Stripes.
This is an excellent view of the death of Route 66.
interstate highway.
And that's the thing that took all the business away from here.
They keep trying different things but it's slowly dying.
It's been decommissioned as a highway, anyway.
It's got all different numbers and names and it's kind of broken up.
So you can whoosh along there and see very little...
or you can creep along here and see lots.
People have built all manner of daft things along Route 66.
They're designed to lure you out of your car and into their shop.
But this beats them all.
Welcome to Fanning, Missouri and the biggest rocking chair in the world.
The rockers are down - (LAUGHS) - The rockers are 32 - (LAUGHS) Excuse me.
It's so ridiculous! The rockers are 32 feet long.
And it's got one great failing...
it doesn't rock! (LAUGHS)
That was wonderful.
What a lovely thing. Whose idea was it?
It was mine. Oh, well done. Yeah, thank you.
The giant rocker is the brainchild of the Sanazaro family
who own the 66 Outpost.
A treasure trove of all manner of stuff.
This doesn't seem right when we've just been to see
the protection of the wolves.
And if those wolves don't behave...!
Not least, Missouri hospitality.
Will I be able to draw that back?
Yeah, I got it set it on five pounds for you.
They've invited me to go hunting for wild turkey tomorrow.
But not before they put my archery skills to the test.
Put that top pin right there. The top pin. Yeah.
Whoops! Jesus!
That's why you've got to put your finger behind it.
Pull it back there. There you go. Oh, I see.
Perfect! There you go. Nice shot!
You're a natural. Yeah.
Isn't it, that's quite good? Yeah, good shot. That's a four ring.
Let's go to the back and shoot an animal. Target animals!
Put it right behind the front leg.
Well, it's been my experience, when you fire at targets...
Did I get it? Yeah, perfect shot.
..you want the real thing eventually.
Oh, right in the arse.
That makes it jump. That would hurt!
That makes it jump and you get it.
You know, if you're in the army and you're shooting targets
and the target is a guy, like this...
Here's your bullseye. You see that ring right there? Yeah -
..you have a go and after about, maybe a hundred shots...
you think, I wonder how it would be with a real guy...
who shoots back.
That was real kind of you, man. Thanks very much.
You're welcome.
My hawk-eye skills honed, I'm off to the meet the rest of the family,
including my hunting guides, twin-sisters, Caroline and Sherry.
Welcome. Thank you very - (LAUGHS)
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Something's happened to my eyes.
Billy, this is my twin-sister, Sherry. Hello, Sherry.
Nice to meet you. You kept that secret.
And we are your turkey guides for tomorrow.
What, are you both coming? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yippee!
Oh, look at this.
It's beautiful, isn't it?
Is there turkey in Europe? No, not wild ones.
None? No. You're in for a treat tomorrow.
I hope we can call a couple up close and... Yeah, that sounds great!
We're gonna be hunting right over there. There's the ridge over there.
That's where I've been hearing them.
How are you gonna be doing it? Are you doing it with a gun or a bow?
What do you want me to shoot? I've got both. Whatever you like.
It is I.
It's 5:00am, I'm in a garage in Cuba, Missouri and I'm dressed to kill.
I hope turkeys are pretty stupid
because we don't look like woodland creatures at all.
It's like a five minute walk.
(MIMICS TURKEY)
She's good.
She's a good hooter.
I've never hunted wild turkey before
and there does seem to be quite a lot to get my head around.
The twins have set up two tents opposite each other.
Are we going in there?
The idea is that Sherry hides in one to lure the turkey by making noises.
(MIMICS TURKEY SOUND)
Then, once it's in range, Caroline will shoot it with her bow.
Well... (LAUGHS) ..that's the theory.
(MIMICS TURKEY)
(TURKEYS CROW)
That's a turkey, isn't it? Yeah.
It's very far away. Yeah, he wants us to go to him.
(TURKEYS CROW)
Yeah, he's across the river.
Sometimes, if they get excited, they'll fly across the river.
Yeah? Yeah, but sometimes it's late in the afternoon before they do.
(TURKEYS CROW)
I don't think you can charge through here with all these big lights.
My bed was so warm.
And as dawn breaks on another beautiful Missouri morning,
so does our patience.
I'm beginning to suspect turkey sandwiches are no longer on the menu.
Try that again. (MIMICS TURKEY)
If it ever was out there, they're gone now.
What are we doing here?
Well, what do you think of wild turkey hunting in Missouri?
I'm sure it will be wonderful when I see it.
That's why they call it hunting and not killing. Absolutely.
It was an experience. Yeah, it's a great experience.
My hat's a great experience, too.
I was absolutely delighted that the turkeys got away.
I don't know quite how I would have reacted if we'd have killed one.
I had no intention of killing a turkey.
I'm not in the killing business.
But I like being out in the woods and I like being with those women.
They were lovely. They were lovely company.
I'll never forget that, those lovely people of Missouri.
I'm on my way from Fanning to Springfield, Missouri.
Now, you need to keep your wits about you on old 66.
There are some states where it's really well signposted.
Missouri isn't one of them.
There are, however, a few other signs to read as you ride.
There's a big billboard there and all it says is "Jesus."
There's a church there called The Change of Heart Church.
The First Church of God, Refiner's Fire Apostolic Church
and here's another one. I've never seen so many churches in my life.
This is the Bible Belt.
God, I've figured they've got a church each.
God's gonna get you!
God's gonna get you and them demons is gonna get you!
Demons!
I saw a woman on TV yesterday, saying she had ascended into heaven
and had fought demons. They were dragons, red and black.
And God gave her a sword and she slew them.
And she can teach you how to do it if just you buy her CD for $25.
Apparently, this is a real treat. I'm going to see a man's collection,
a man called Rob Larvey, who's been collecting all his life.
The next time you'll see me, I'll be in there, inside.
He doesn't want any evidence of where the collection is
because it's not for anybody else, it's just for him.
And woo-hoo, I can't wait!
Let's go.
Welcome. Oh, you must be Rob.
You must be Billy. How lovely to meet you, Rob.
You look just like yourself.
I just saw the zithers.
That I know of, I'm one of the few zithers collectors in the world.
These two here are interesting. They were made in July of 1890.
Consecutive serial numbered, one's 3674 and one's 3675.
Zithers and serial numbers?
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of the male obsessive.
That is a fancy, fancy, schmancy one!
According to Rob, collecting stuff was a uniquely American, male trait.
It starts young with baseball cards and before you know it,
you've a room after room after room full of...stuff.
Oh, my God!
I've got one the largest, if not the largest collection of lap steels
in the world. Goodness sake.
Then more stuff.
Oh, God!
I thought I'd seen the collection. Oh, no.
the further you go. My God!
Good God, you've got even more!
I'm sorry for laughing. It's just - Crazy, isn't it?
It's just...beyond.
And for those of you that are thinking of cloning John Lennon...
Yes, Beatles fans, yesterday your trouble seemed so far away
so come together now and discover what millions have before
that love is all you need.
Experience what magic their mop-tops brought to others.
The heart of the '60s still beats.
Actually contains a lock of hair from one of the Fab Four.
My God.
Considering he's a man with a mystery address,
it would be rude to ask how Rob supports his need to collect.
But collect he does.
Like gravity, his need for stuff is a force of nature.
In here, there's medicine bottles. I also collect tobacco tins.
It just doesn't stop.
I collect tweed suitcases.
I got a couple of hundred tweed suitcases. You do?
Yeah, I never sell anything. So, all of a sudden, you have 200 of them.
Why do you never sell anything? Don't you try to make room and change and -
No, I just expand. Just keep -
Oh, look at your ukuleles.
These are Fender Coronados. I've got 50 of them now. (LAUGHS)
And I'm still buying them, if the price is right.
(LAUGHS) "I got 50 of them."
Oh, my God! I've never met anyone like you before.
I tell people, when they ask who I am, I say, well...
"I'm an obsessive, compulsive, manic depressive, eccentric...
..eclectic." Or eclectic eccentric, it depends on what day it is.
They just sit around, waiting for you to phone, don't they, the guys?
It's madness! (LAUGHS) It certainly is.
Well, that is what you call a collection.
And I thought I had too much stuff at home but...I've got hardly anything!
I'm crossing the state line into Kansas.
Route 66 only passes through a wee section of Kansas, just 13 miles.
That'll be three states down and five to go.
This is Galena, Kansas.
I don't think I would be too far out in saying that
its best days are behind it.
Forget the banks going under on Wall Street,
Abandoned stores, homes under foreclosure...
and no work.
Swap meet, might be worth a look.
It would appear the only thing flourishing in this part of Kansas
is car boot sales.
(COCKERELS CROW)
Hello, do you mind if we look at your stuff? Go right ahead. Thanks.
Are you selling those chickens and all? Yeah.
(COCKEREL CROWS)
How much does a chicken cost?
A lot of people sell them for $15 apiece,
when they're grown and laying eggs. Yeah.
Anywhere from $8-$15. 8 to 15 bucks? Yeah.
How much is a duck? Ducks are five.
Five. (LAUGHS)
Because they grow quicker than chickens do.
Oh, look at the wee chickadees.
# It's a lovely day in Kansas today
Hello. Hello. Are you a Grateful Dead fan?
No. I used to make these. Oh, yeah?
Used to sell them but they're kind of dead right now so...
Yeah, I've got long-johns like that. (LAUGHS)
And I'm very proud of them. I'm a Deadhead and proud of it.
Come in and look. It's all cheap, we don't sell nothing expensive.
I'm trying to...liquidate stuff.
Everything's like ten cents, we're just giving it away. Really?
Well, welcome to the United States.
Yeah. Quite a bit of history here. Yeah.
What's that? That is an old German piece.
I acquired a small collection of German military memorabilia
from an elderly gentleman in Joplin who brought them back from Germany
during the war.
Well, this is a German dagger.
And this old banner was also the same gentleman - Oh, my God!
..liberated this banner from a building in Germany
during World War Two. Yeah.
And it remained in Joplin ever since but erm...
I don't really keep this kind of stuff.
I do buy it and sell it and trade it when I find it
but I'm not really a big fan of it.
No, I'm not a fan of it, myself.
Due to the history behind it...
I've always picked up anything unusual or unique.
Of course, you may not want to see that.
You may not want to film that particular bumper sticker. It -
"Obama sucks." Oh, I like him. I think he's great.
I know a lot of people from other countries think he's absolutely wonderful but -
What about the killing of Osama?
Well, you know, he's taking full credit for that but erm...
he's not greatly liked at this point.
Well, thanks for your time. Yes, yes, enjoy your stay.
Yeah, thanks for allowing me to rumble through your stuff.
There's something about a swastika that just stops me in my tracks.
That's the second one I've seen in a few weeks. I saw one in Scotland...
..and it just...it does something deep inside me.
Scares the bejesus out of me.
I get unsettled.
I've crossed the state line into my fourth state, Oklahoma.
It's 300 miles to Oklahoma City and I'm keen to get there before dark.
Because I'm heading for the site of the Oklahoma bombing,
now a national memorial.
It's something I really want to see but in all honesty,
I'm not really sure how it's going to make me feel.
This is the site of the Alfred P Murrah building.
Where, in 1995, on April 19, Timothy McVeigh drove up
with a truck-load of explosive and blew the building up.
He was a kind of reactionary. He was an ex-American soldier
who was all right-wing and screwed up about government...
..and how evil government was.
And there's a few guys like that here...
with that kind of militia mindedness, you know.
And this is the memorial to the tragedy that he created.
168 people died, including 16 children.
And we're very, very close here to where he parked his truck.
It's just about halfway down here.
He loaded it up with explosives and had built a cage inside the truck
so that it would blow towards the front of the building.
He really put that much thought into it.
These chairs - there's a 168 chairs, representing each one of the dead.
That's Cathleen Louise Cregan.
And this is a child one.
Ashley Megan Eckles.
I wonder who these people were.
There's another child one here, you see.
Another one - Oh, there it is.
They're lit.
Although it was a Federal building, there was also a creche in here.
Children all playing, having a nice time.
It's every bit as powerful as I thought it might be.
This says it all.
It's a funny thing. It gives it a kind of strange life, doesn't it?
It gives the people a life that will never go away...
..that light.
Just one of those great American tragedies.
I'm glad we came here.
It was funny, it was all stormy a few minutes ago.
We thought we wouldn't be able to come. It was building up
to be a big storm and now we're here, it's very, very calm.
It is so deeply moving.
They should be immensely proud of it, in Oklahoma.
A fitting tribute to those innocent people who died.
Next week, I head into the great, wide, open spaces
and the big, big skies of the cowboy states.
Now, THAT is a shirt!
It's 700 miles of steers...
..and queers. (LAUGHS)
And just plain crazy.
See that?
It's going to see me dabble with some ancient magic.
Talking in tongues...
and meeting the real-life queens of the rodeo.
Ride it like you stole it. (LAUGHS)
This place...I wish you were here, I wish you could see it.
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