By Ellen Ast
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:00 am
LEBANON - Bill Inman doesn't believe America is made up of the sex offenders, meth users and school shooters that occupy mainstream media.
After spending most of his life on open cattle ranges in Nevada and Texas before moving to Lebanon last year, Inman says it's the "everyday people" with uplifting stories that make up the country's backbone.
That's whom Inman, a cattle rancher-turned-filmmaker, hopes to meet during a planned eight-month trek to Hendersonville, N.C., on horseback.
After riding his horse Blackie in the Strawberry Festival parade Saturday, Inman will start his cross-country ride along backroads and through small towns to capture the "real America" on film.
His wife, Brenda, will ride in a trailer with Jonathan Campos, the couple's adopted son and web designer, and Inman's step-nephew and videographer, Dallas Pesola.
"I won't just be passing through," Inman said. "Everybody I meet along the way will have an ongoing documentary."
Inman's crew will post these stories on his website, uncoveringamerica
.com, which also contains a blog and photos.
Inman was born in Florida in 1959 and moved with his family to Texas, where he grew up working on his uncle's cattle ranch. He married Brenda in 1980 and joined the Army after realizing the ranch-hand trade wasn't stable enough to raise a family.
However, Inman said he hopes to eventually return to ranching. He studied ranch management in college but was deployed to the Gulf War. After that, he started a ranch management business in Nevada, but eventually sold it and moved to Oregon so Brenda could take classes at Linn-Benton Community College.