This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
John Waters has completed his hitchhiking trip across the United States - and the Utah leg may have been one of the smoothest, quickest parts of the trip.
Last week, the Internet buzzed when the indie rock band Here We Go Magic picked the 66-year-old filmmaker up on an onramp of Interstate 70 in eastern Ohio.
In an interview with The New York Times, Waters talked about the trip - which took him from coast to coast, and gave him material for an upcoming book.
"Pot smokers, cops, I got everybody," Waters said of the people who gave him rides. "And everybody was lovely."
Waters made it through Utah in one stretch, riding in a Corvette from Denver to Reno (presumably taking I-70 through Utah, turning right at I-15 around Cove Fort, and hanging a left at I-80 in Salt Lake City). The Corvette's driver was Brett Bidle, a 20-year-old town councilman from Myersville, Md. - who, as it turned out, also gave Waters a lift from Maryland to Ohio.
Waters called Bidle "the first Republican I'd ever vote for."