Back twenty years to... Friday, August 11th, 2006. Day 125. Into 'America’s Dairyland', and a motel with a delightfully laid-back attitude to workplace childcare. A true taste of Cornwall at Pendarvis, the quirky 'Baraboo Circus World' and the small town of Chetek.

"In a parking-spot, down by the river to my right, is a woman sitting in the shade of her fruit stall. She’s dressed in a long, powder-blue dress and a bright white headscarf, and I’m sure that she must be from an Amish Community somewhere. It’s potentially a good picture, and I curse myself as I pass her by. But I quite understand that she'll be possibly unimpressed with a 'camera totin' tourist'. And so with the reasoning established, I drive on with diffidence, and now arrive at the small town of Chetek.

One of the first things I see is a pristine, beige-topped 'Lincoln Continental' in a 'Family Dollar' parking-lot. There’s also some decent old neon signage, a 'Century Telephone' booth and a couple of vintage cafés. So a two-shot coffee to go, and now it’s back out of town the same way I came in – and passing the fruit stand, the woman follows my vehicle with her gaze. Time appears to slow right down, and I feel that she’s scrutinising my van – as though it were from another galaxy – and in her naive and incredulous eyes, I suppose – it just might as well be. A super-modern-looking 'pony and trap'. Such condescending conjecture is presumably to do with the caffein buzz – and of course – she's seen all of it before. Most probably in fact – what she's actually thinking is:

"Why doesn't the smug bugger in the stupid-looking, stripy RV stop and buy some fruit. That's twice he's driven past me now – the tight-assed unhealthy-looking son of a bitch."

Back on the open road, on one side there's beautiful arable farmland, and over on the other – grazing herds of dairy cattle. Now, a hand-painted sign advertising a fourteen acre spread for sale, priced at a quarter-of-a-million dollars. With the coffee still in effect, I actually consider buying it. At, I imagine – five-or-six per acre – I'm hoping that the cutesy-looking cows will be included."

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.