Welcome to Home of the Brave. I'm Scott Carrier and I'm standing outside my car in the mountains of Wyoming. I'm in this place called South Pass. There's a highway. You might be able to hear the cars in the distance, but I'm off the highway.

About a mile.

And it's an open grassland at about 8,000 feet. It's called South Pass because this

was the way that the pioneers traveled to California, Oregon, Utah as well.

And it was the way across the Rocky Mountains.

The easiest way to get through the Rocky Mountains is around here.

There's some white bark pine trees and cows.

I'm looking at a herd of like 20 cows. They came this morning

to some salt lakes across the road. They were out standing there was

standing there looking at me when I got up.

And deer and antelope both.

This is where the deer and the antelope play.

Home on the range at 8,000 feet. I woke up this morning and it was just everywhere

smoke all around me. Stare straight at the sun as it came up.

And so something's happened overnight, I don't know why.

I mean, yesterday was probably the hottest day on record for this time in September in this area and it's you know it's the end of the summer beginning of fall and things are really dry and so it doesn't surprise me. I woke up surrounded by smoke this morning.

I just don't know where the fires are. It looks equally thick in all directions. So anyway, I'm here because I'm starting a new series where I drive around the country and talk to people for two

months leading up to the election in November.

The idea is to stay on the road,

not go home because I felt like I just wasn't getting anything done at home.

The days would go by, just roll by one after the other and it didn't really seem like that was the place to be

anymore. For a long time I had to stay there because everybody needed to stay home and self isolate.

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