AUSTIN — A former TV reporter who quit his job in mid-April is traveling the U.S. with an Airstream in tow. His second stop on his trip? Austin.
"Living this way, living on the road, living on a house on wheels has always been this, like, unattainable dream of mine in the back of my head," Caleb James told KVUE.
It's a dream that became a reality when James quit his job at KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"I had to have the perfect thing to do. I couldn't just quit for anything," he said.
James bought the Airstream and latched it onto the back of his Porsche SUV. But instead of traveling around the country for fun, he is still working.
"If people were able to hear from their neighbors, from other people, just talking about the same stuff they thought maybe they couldn't admit, maybe everybody would be a little bit more open with each other," James said.
He's traveling from city to city, meeting people and telling their stories -- the good and the sad -- on his YouTube channel, "The Greatest of US."
The channel has already picked up a decent following, with more than 5,000 subscribers and thousands of views in three weeks.
"We all have these things that, I think, societally, we're encouraged to keep inside, we're encouraged not to talk about," James said. "But most of us, I think, are dying to talk about those things."
James might be alone in his journey -- well, except for his dogs Wilma and Buddy -- but he's not lonely. His neighborhood is America and his neighbors are you and me.
"I think by the end of this I'm going to have thousands of friends, so it'll be a cool thing," he said.