Alright. Long day. Whew. Started in Chicago. Took a long time to get outta there. Made it to Wolcott and then made our escape from there. Didn't make it too much further when the trucker made an exit. We were somewhere in the vicinity of Iowa City, but rural. It was either east or west of there but there were cornfields where we got dropped off. We had to hit the sack. We still had a long ways to go.
Up with sun. We were down a ditch. Pretty much ok in the dark but we had to get up when it got light. There's always a place to hide to take care of your bladder. Guess I didn't have toilet paper all the time but like my mom said "Being outdoors is a lot cleaner." We held in everything else till we hit a rest stop or whatever. The peanut butter and jelly on white bread sustained us for most of the trip. Maybe that disgusts you to mention food after I mentioned bathroom habits. I made sure I wiped my hands on clean leaves first if nothing else was around. Hey, I went to Catholic school. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Waited till restaurants or stores to drink something. I drank a lot of milk.
I was in awe of all the food growing around us. It was beautiful. The sun and the clean earth. Fresh air. Everything was so healthy.
Walking again. Way beyond today's' standards. I'm sure we found a truck stop to give ourselves a proper face washing and tooth brushing. Brush the hair again.
Ok. Ready. Out with the thumb. Nice 70's car pulled over with two guys in front. I remember both of them had those great 70's sideburns and moustaches.
Kind of a comfortable car too. Fancy interior.
Kind of very comfortable. "Where are you headed?" "California." "Not going that far but we're going a ways." The passenger in the front was a hitchhiker too, but they seemed to enjoy conversing with one another. The inside of that car was nice and big. We couldn't hear what they were saying and they couldn't hear what we were saying. Windows open and radio on. It was a beautiful day speeding by the cornfields and open land. He was serious about driving. They had a loaf of bread and some bologna up front. Passed a couple of sandwiches back to us. Nice change from the peanut butter. Wind, sun, music and bologna. We kept going. Hours and hours. What were we talking about in the back? I couldn't tell you exactly, but I know there were many dreams of what we were going to find. That big smile on my face again.
I don't know if you know this, but on the highways for the most part people didn't drive as fast as they do now. The speed limit was 55 mph. Except when you finally get to the desert. But anyway. I think it was mid afternoon before we stopped to pee near Omaha. Went into a store and bought some milk to drink. No bottled water then. I think everyone else bought Pepsi.
We kept driving like madmen again. All the way across Nebraska. Have you ever driven across Nebraska or Kansas? Some people don't like it. Think it's boring. If you just look, it's all different and spectacular. Good for thinking.
We pulled into a rest stop close to the border. I think it was near Sutherland, Nebraska. I remember there were quite a number of trees. We were near Ogalalla too.
Ok. The driver was tired. We needed to stop. Alright. First he lit a joint and we all had a couple of hits. Ok. Have you seen Tim Burton's remake of Dark Shadows. There's a few reasons I love that movie... one of them is the scene where the hippies are sitting around the campfire. OK. It's cartoony, but a lot of that was right. Makes me laugh. I was pretty spacey sometimes. It took a few minutes for things to sink in.
The two guys get out without saying anything. Whatever. After a little while I say "Where are they?" LBJ goes he's (driver) getting a blow job in the bushes. Huh? Whatever. It's just that I wasn't expecting it. Uh oh. LBJ looked in the front seat. Grunting sound. "He left his wallet on the front seat." Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I'm saying that not because I liked that, but because I did not like what was about to happen.
LBJ picked up the wallet. Wow. That thing was thick and filled with money. Mostly twenties. Oh. I woke up. "Put that down!" Even though we were pretty low on cash I just didn't worry enough to steal from anyone. I'm not saying I never swiped a cookie from a store, but never from a human. Especially someone who was so cool and nice. Big argument but quiet. He said "I'm just going to take $60." That didn't make it any better, but at least he didn't empty it. I also argued "He'll know."
Ok. Cool it. Here they come. I did notice the driver took a glance at his wallet. I was fuming but tried to keep it cool because there was no need at this point to get all dramatic about it. We had a few more hits on the joint and we all stretched out the best we could and got some shuteye.
I woke up when daylight hit and the car was moving again. We were headed to get a decent meal. Pulled into Ogallala and found a diner. We should have just let them have their meal and headed on down the road. But we did have a good time with them. He offered to buy breakfast and we went in. As we were stepping into the restaurant I smacked LBJ's arm and said "He's going to know!" "No he won't."
Jesus Christ. Now we're eating food that he's buying after we did that to him. God damn it. I guess I held my demeanor, but what a lousy experience. I was sweating bullets when it came time to pay. I'll never forget sitting there across from him as he's looking in his wallet and counting. But apparently he kept track like I do, and didn't notice. God help me.
Alright. Time to split up. They were heading north and we were heading west. Adios. Sorry dude. Hope it all ended up ok for you.
P.S. I'm thinking we spent a lot of our money in Chicago. Bought some food so Norm wasn't paying for everything.
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