On the run from Beverly, Johnny pulls into a lot he mistakes in the dark for a trailer park. In the morning it turns out the trailers parked there are with a travelling circus, Bosco's Big Top. As he's about to leave, Bosco's chimp, Kimo, pretends to get hit by the 'bago, and Bosco claims the chimp has whiplash, and will need therapy. He insists Johnny stay to work off the debt, which Johnny does to avoid the police who are looking for him. While working there, Marilee, the fat lady, gets a crush on Johnny, and befriends him. Eventually Johnny learns that everyone there is Bosco's prisoner, because he has dirt on all of them. Then he finds out Johnny's wanted for murder, and forces him to stay on at the circus. He chains Johnny and Kimo together, and gives the keys to the 'bago to the chimp for safekeeping. Everyone decides to run away and take Johnny with them, but Bosco overhears their plans and calls Beverly, telling her to come to the show that night. He also plans to take care of

Johnny arrives at Mystery Trees RV Park & Campground, where an ""eco warrior"" named Erica is looking to hire someone to find and photograph spotted owls. Johnny's looking for work, so he takes the job, and fakes the pictures. The pictures make Erica happy, but not her boyfriend David, who just wants to go back to New York. Also not happy are the local loggers, who will be out of work, since Johnny's pictures will secure an injunction for the eco warriors against logging in the owls' habitat. The loggers are about to take their anger out on Johnny, when Elvis shows up and saves him.

Johnny and Elvis go back to Elvis's RV, and they get to talking. Turns out Elvis had met Hick some time ago, and he had given him the same advice as Johnny, to traipse the bergs and the byways. Also Elvis told Johnny he'd decided to disappear because he'd lost ""it,"" so Johnny tries to help him get ""it"" back. When Elvis falls asleep, Johnny calls his mother to tell her who he's with, and she wants him to take