John Waters on hitchhiking across the US: 'I wanted something I couldn't control, something I couldn't plan'

Thumbs up!: John Waters hitches a ride to ‘Disgraceland’ – the cemetery where he owns a burial plot. Photograph: Jonathan Hanson for the Observer John Waters is standing on a residential street a block from his Baltimore home holding a handmade cardboard sign with the word “Disgraceland” scrawled across it in black ink.