Filmmaker John Waters' crazy cross-country hitchhiking journey continues, with word Monday that he sped through Kansas with a middle-aged married couple from Illinois.



Laura Broviac and Michael McHaney, she a county Democratic Party chief, he a circuit judge, were motoring through Junction City, Kansas, this weekend and according to wjbdradio.com, saw a man near an exit ramp holding a sign. She thought he looked like Waters and after a quick Google search, found that the Baltimore filmmaker was in fact hitchhiking across country.



She made her husband turn around on the double.



Waters apparently began his hitchhiking odyssey last week in Baltimore -- he was spotted standing near St. Paul in Guilford with a sign. The band Here We Go Magic then found him in eastern Ohio, close to the Pennsylvania border. They nearly passed him by but like the couple, a band member thought he looked very familiar.



After picking the guy up and realizing their hunch was correct, band members immediately began Tweeting their good fortune: "Just picked up John Waters hitchhiking in the middle of Ohio.. No joke. Waters in the van."



Band member Jen Turner revealed later on Twitter, that she and the band "tearfully" parted with Waters on the side of the road in Indiana, calling him "the real deal" and "a true artist."



"He just wanted an adventure," Turner said. "Imagine!"



From there, the director somehow got to Kansas, where the couple ran into him.



According to wjbdradio.com, Waters stayed with the couple all the way to Denver, Colorado.



After eight hours in the car with Waters, the couple learned a lot.



"He had stories about Faye Dunaway and he talked about his most major accomplishment of selling out the Sydney, Australia Opera House while working as a stand up comedian," Broviac told WJBD. "Of course his type of work isn't for everyone, but chances are you've seen Hair Spray or seen the Simpson's and maybe the episode he narrated."



Waters told the couple he is planning to write a book about his adventures.



"We'll have to see how he viewed us," Broviac told the station. "I laughed and said, 'do you think you just got the most boring people to pick you up at almost the end of your ride'. He said 'no, no, you're very interesting' and said he enjoyed his time with us."



Like he did with the band, Waters treated the couple to lunch to help repay their generosity with the ride. And -- even better than lunch -- he allowed the two to "dumpster dive" with him to find another piece of cardboard to make a new hitchhiking sign.



jill.rosen@baltsun.com



@BaltInsider

