Improcouching from New Orleans to Vermont Inspiring hope and optimism throught "improcouching".

A few years ago I watched a TV-series called Treme. It depicts the eponymous neighborhood of New-Orleans that was devastated by hurricane Katrina in 2005. The musical cultural heritage, the interesting characters and the political controversies immediately fascinated me.
Earlier this year I went on a 10-day trip to NYC and Philadelphia with my girlfriend. We walked a lot and rode borrowed bicycles until exhaustion. A friend of ours told us about Vermont, a state where big corporate chains are less omnipresent, where people are outdoorsy and where local businesses are flourishing. He didn't need to say more, I knew I had to go there some day.

When I hitchhiked from Norway to Lebanon in 2012, a journey of 10,000 km (±6200 miles) that took me 3 months, I only stayed one night in a hotel. The rest of the time I did something I call "improcouching"; I would walk around in a city where I didn't know anyone and ask random people to host me for a night. I got to know a lot of very different people, almost every time locals. They told me their stories and I learned about their city or country through their tales.
I'd like to do the same on this trip. Each person will be a chapter in my travel diary and through them I will write about the places I'll go.

I don't need to know a lot about the place I'm traveling to before going there; in fact I prefer to have a blank canvas void of any prejudices. I trust serendipity to bring me to interesting places and into the lives of people I would never have met if I was traveling another way. I'm more interested in meeting people than seeing the statue of liberty.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but the combined power of writing and photographing has no boundaries.
On this travel in the USA I want to focus on perfecting my writing skills, I want to learn something new in order to better accomplish a personal mission of mine; In a world where mass-media is creating fear with sensational caps-lock headlines, I want to show that we live in a world filled with warm, loving and kind people. I want to show the world that one shouldn't be afraid of one's neighbor, I want to inspire hope, love and kindness. It may sound naive but I now traveling this way is easy and I think it's important to counterweight the messages of omnipresent images of violence and hate. Without hope and optimism, where are we headed?

Please let me get on board this trip with you, I promise I will do my best to learn as much as possible.
S.