Back twenty years to... Monday, April 3rd, 2006. Fond farewells with my buddy, and I start driving at nine. Archer City is around one hundred-and-forty miles north-west of Dallas, and that's where I'm headed for.

"In 1951, a group of high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied North Texas town that is slowly dying, both culturally and economically. This is the IMDb synopsis for the 1971 movie, 'The Last Picture Show', and it was filmed in Archer City. It's the 'county seat' – the primary location for county-level services, and the offices of the county clerk, the treasurer and the sheriff – and is a part of the 'Wichita Falls metropolitan statistical area'. With a population of around fifteen hundred, the city will serve me perfectly as a 'Small town test case', and I'll also hook a motel room near there for the night.

So. West from Nick's place, on the 'President George Bush Turnpike' to Interstate 35E, and north-west to Denton. Due-west again on USA Highway 380, and a stop-off for some brunch in Decatur. It's great to be back on the road again in this part of the world. I remember the signs so well from last summer – "Don't Mess with Texas." They mean it, and it works. Compared with the garbage-strewn grass verges back in England, all of the highways here are relatively spotless. The fines can be harsh: Up to $2,000. 'Large litter' is any piece of trash that's more than two inches, and 'Micro litter' is anything smaller.

North-west again on US Highway 287, bypassing the small town of Bowie, and now my sat-nav unit introduces me to something special, directing me west onto 'FM 174'. It's a first for me, and I learn that it stands for 'Farm to Market' road. How very quaint and archaic. An eternally straight drive through prairie land, dotted with the familiar round corrugated-iron grain silos. After the tiny place that is Windthorst, the name changes again. County Road 25 – fifteen miles on, and I reach my destination. The 'Royal Movie Theatre' is nothing so special, and I get busy with the rest of the town."

In Search of Small-Town America: Volume 1 is a free-of-charge Pdf digital download – available from our shop. A table of contents, the introduction, the route-map – and featuring content on the first two States travelled: New Mexico and Arizona.

Jeremy Hammond I am a British writer and photographer, and have travelled through India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia, but most extensively in North America. In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked as lighting crew, and later designer, for many top-named British bands, on tours through Europe, Japan, and the USA. I’ve worked as a cruise-ship photographer, in office and store design, database design, visual arts book publishing and as a London-based freelance photographer, specialising in interiors and architecture.