Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell had a crazy idea.
No. They had a gloriously crazy idea. The kind that people obsess over. The kind that leaves family and friends shaking their heads in confusion.
First, they quit their dreary Web-marketing positions in Arizona a couple of years back, abandoning the conventional luxury of a steady paycheck.
“We were making quite a bit of money,” says Weeks. “We were living a comfortable lifestyle. We just realized we weren’t really happy. We needed to find a way to get out of there. We were both ambitious people; we both have a lot of ideas. We needed something creative, something on a large scale to take us out of that life.”
Only in their mid-20s and perhaps a bit quixotic – after all, why shouldn’t they be miserable like the rest of us? – the duo managed to find their calling and bona fide happiness.
They moved north to stay with a buddy in Westminster. Weeks says they loved the Denver lifestyle and stayed. Here, they began mulling over their yet-to-be determined life-changing experience. The Pursuit of Happiness, I believe, follows only Life and Liberty. And in Weeks’ estimation, millions of American have found it – somewhere.
One day, the improbable answer presented itself through a fairly eccentric friend of the duo’s from college:
“No one’s ever ridden across America on a Segway,” he proposed. “You should do that.”
Weeks says they initially laughed off this preposterous idea. “There’s no way we’d do that. It makes no sense. Then we started looking at it as way to do something bigger. For it to mean something.”
A Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing, computer-controlled contraption that you stand on and ride. A walker with wheels, if you will. Touted as the greatest invention since the iPod a couple of years back, it hasn’t exactly caught fire.
In fact, neither of them had ever ridden the machine that Weeks, pretty accurately, describes as “dorky.”
But then, the idea of traveling across the United States at 10 mph started to germinate. Both Caldwell and Weeks had dreams of becoming filmmakers. Why not make a documentary of the trip? A sort of (really) slow-motion “Easy Rider” – without the copious drug taking, we presume.
Since the Segway could travel only 50 miles a day, they had plenty of time to document what they saw as they cruised at a languid pace.
“We realized it was a perfect way to tell a story,” says Weeks. “And it actually ended up being more about our story than we ever thought it would be. Initially, we really wanted to focus on people who were either really successful or had found ways to truly enjoy their lifestyle. Then it became more.”
It was Caldwell who rode the Segway from urban Seattle to urban Boston and through Red America. Weeks directed their film, called “10 mph.”
When the duo first started out, they asked, “What’s the American dream? What’s really going on out there?”
“There was a lot of negative press at that time,” Weeks says. “It was during the elections. We’d gone through … 9/11. We wanted to find something more positive.”
Did they find answers?
Weeks says their struggle not to conform to the expectations of others changed their lives. Plus, he says, “the people we met in all those small towns helped tell that story. They had all figured out a way to enjoy their lives.”
An official selection at the Vail Film Festival, the film will be shown Friday and Sunday. And Weeks, well, he seems to be living the life he imagined. A talented photographer, he’s traveled the world doing something he loves.
“You’ve got to do the things you’re supposed to do,” he says. “Once you figure it out, find it and go for it. Don’t worry about how much money you’re making or what you’re supposed to be doing.”
For more information, visit www.10mph.com. For Hunter Weeks’ photos, see www.hunterweeks.com.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
