For 100 years, an intriguing mix of people have been criss-crossing the United States by Greyhound bus. To mark the centenary, Laura Barton sets off on an unplanned journey ‘to look for America’, inspired by the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel and the writings of Jack Kerouac, but conscious of the discrepancy between what the bus line represents in the collective imagination – an idea of freedom, adventure and possibility – and the realities of cross-country coach travel.

(Photo: An empty Greyhound bus pulls into the Greyhound Bus Terminal, Detroit. Credit: Jeff KowalskyAFP/Getty Images) Show less