Missoula Independent
by Andy Smetanka
August 2007

The title says it all. Unfortnuately, it's also everywhere: the disturbing phenomenon of tens of thousands of Americans, mostly seniors, lumbering around in their gas-guzzling, GHG-belching recreational vehicles trying to find the next Wal-Mart parking lot to "camp" for the night. Wal-Mart encourages these American nomads, who call themselves "Wally Worlders" and conveniently load up on provisions at these carbuncles of capitalism before setting out again. Filmmaker Doug Hawes-Davis - half of award-winning production company High Plains Films and one of the founders of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival - paints a playful but also rather disturbing picture of this societal trend, which amounts to Americans wanting to travel and see new things and have them be all the same. For Missoulians, many of whom are profoundly depressed by our two local Wal-Marts, it's cold comfort that these carbon blobs are just passing through.