Missing what feeds us. Be real, and show the slaughterhouse.

More, more, more, more!!!! This is the country!

Is this a representative sample of Americans? I wonder how many of these folks lack health insurance or would have to go into debt to cover a $500 emergency (as surveys suggest is true of more than 50% of Americans). These are nice stories, but the selection seems skewed more towards the "feel-good" than the accurate. Comforting the comfortable while ignoring the afflicted.

Thank you so very much for this. I got emotional jumping from shot to shot to shot. It dawned on me how amazing your average person is and how the positive impacts can cascade onto the lives of others. We are so divided as a nation at this moment and yet here are average people just keeping things going. It gave me hope that no matter how terrible things get politically, there are still adults in the room getting stuff done and affecting lives in positive ways. Also a bit choked up as I've lived abroad for the last 15 years and many of these shots brought me home. I miss it a lot. Thanks NYTimes.

More of this, please. Maybe topical would be fun: How America eats breakfast, How America commutes, How America consumes political news, How America learns, How America styles etc.

Thank you for showing me once again what and who America truly is. A welcome respite from the constant battering and noising that comprises media today. We Americans are not mean spirited and suspicious fanatics but people living lives of hope and beauty with all their various faces. This is not 'fly over" country, it is live and love and share and laugh and cry and teach your children country.

lovely / please consider reformatting as a slideshow

What a spectacular piece to demonstrate the diversity of the USA, whether by diversity of race, of ethnic group, socioeconomic level, hobby, past time, culture, etc. This should serve as a reminder for us that, we are all Americans in the end, and we should never forget this fact. We can agree to disagree on various political and social issues, but in the end, we are all brothers and sisters. If we remember that we are one, we can TALK to each other, and find ways to come to a middle ground. If we continue to divide ourselves into two very distinct 'camps' and simply point fingers, yell, name-call, etc. our beloved country will continue on its rapid decline.

In light of all the political noise pollution usually bombarding us, this cross country joy ride was a pleasure!

Beautiful article! God bless this incredible country and everyone in it.

Nice. It's important that we see each other minus the headlines!

I use to have a tradition, every September I would take a month off work and drive across the country because America always fascinated me. To see what people were like in different States. I learned if you want to see what people were really like you went to the diners, or the supermarkets. One thing I learned as you got further west, people became nicer, they said hello to you when the passed by, as a New Yorker born and bred, this shocked me at first, but I soon got use to it, and I began saying hello right back. There is small town America and big city America, and the too are total opposites, every big city is the same, the angst, the dirt, the crime, but small town America has such a different vibe, life is less rushed, everybody is a bit happier, and the very idea of trading all that in for life in a big city seems insane. Big cities change you, you wise up quick in big cities, you watch where you walk, you size up situations and make mental game plans. In big cities you always know where the exits are. Times have changed, and the ever present news cycles has brought the angst of the big cities to small town America, people don't smile as much, and are not as quick with their hellos, especially to strangers, you might be one of "them." Times are changing, news is ever present, from the TV on the wall to the next alert on a smart phone. I stopped taking my annual road trips," there" became to much like here.

I would love if this became a series! What a great way to stay connected to the rest of our enormous country, now more than ever.