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CNN Sunday Morning

Author Details His Trek Across the U.S.

Aired August 12, 2001 - 08:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(AUDIO AND VIDEO GAP)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're going to bring you that cutting edge vacation travel piece one more time. Paul Vercammen has this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Happy wanderer Mark Sundeen chronicled his trek through the Western United States in a sort of travel log with a screw loose.

MARK SUNDEEN, AUTHOR, "CAR CAMPING": This is a car part that fell off somewhere. I'm not sure where it goes, so I haven't ever put it back on.

VERCAMMEN: The book is called "Car Camping."

SUNDEEN: I mean, it's not a vacation at all, it was a -- leaving California because I couldn't afford to pay rent and so ending up in my car and then -- basically being homeless, but, you know, trying to be optimistic and calling in camping.

VERCAMMEN: Sundeen urges Americans to get off the beaten path for unique tourists experiences. Take this beach-side RV park.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to have an RV here.

SUNDEEN: You can't come with your tent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no tent is allowed here.

SUNDEEN: No sleeping in your car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sleeping in the car.

VERCAMMEN: You can watch the planes land at LAX.

SUNDEEN: And from here, you can go on a tour of the Hyperion Plant, just walk right over.

VERCAMMEN: Not far from the landing spot for raw sewage and whatever else floats through the pipes.

FELSIE L. KIDD, SR., HYPERION TOUR GUIDE: It comes from all of the city of L.A., over 600 square mile area.

VERCAMMEN: The Hyperion Plant tour is proving Sundeen's questions can be draining.

SUNDEEN: Do you ever get really strange things, like animals or anything like that?

KIDD: Once in a while.

SUNDEEN: Like cats? Dogs?

KIDD: A couple of dogs.

SUNDEEN: Dogs?

KIDD: Cats, once in a while.

SUNDEEN: What else?

KIDD: Well, a few other things I won't talk about right now.

SUNDEEN: Dead bodies?

KIDD: Once in a while, parts of a body.

VERCAMMEN: Sundeen seems to enjoy bodies of water, never mind he once flunked out of river raft guide training school. He recommends a trip down the L.A. River.

SUNDEEN: How about that smell?

VERCAMMEN: But note, L.A. Public Works officials told us later they discourage such trips, no matter how safe they might be in bone- dry mid-summer.

SUNDEEN: It's kind of like skateboarding.

VERCAMMEN (on camera): It's a lot like skateboarding, it's just sheer lunacy.

(voice-over): Sundeen is now working on a bull fighting book -- that's bull fighting. No telling where he'll stop along the way.

Paul Vercammen, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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