the road tripp...1973

this is part one of my road trip in mid-late summer

'73 . i at present have no idea how many parts there will

be . 

 july,'73...bill and i have been planning our excellent adventure for months.we are almost ready to embark . i have two hundred bucks in travelers checks,he has three.his folks gave him the extra hundred,and offered to give me an extra hundred if i would cut my hair before we left.say what? i had been growing my hair out specifically for this trip,as when i left mi. in '69 i had a fucking "princeton" haircut.cut my hair? i would have rather cut my arm off . his folks were worried about our safety as we drove across country.there was still a sizable portion of the country who hated hippies,i.e. anyone with long hair.needless to say,i made the trip with my 200.00 bucks

we made the trip in bills '63 chevy nova,with a re-built straight 6 cylinder engine and a three speed auto transmission on the floor.he thought it was a race car.we had tried to talk my mom into letting us use the cortina (don't ask),but she declined.anyway.the reason the motor was rebuilt was because he had blown it up the previous year on the way to the orange county fair.because they were "cool",he put shackles on the rear springs to lift the ass end up.by the time we had gotten the trunk packed it was level.we were almost ready to go,but i gotta tell you i was as worried about the car as his folks were about my hair (both the car and i made it thru the trip just fine)

for some reason i don't recall(like a lot of stuff) we got a late start and got to yuma,az. around dark.stopped at a motel and checked in.had some alcohol and passed out/went to sleep.woke up,took a shower just before we left.5 minutes out of the shower i walked outside and my hair dried almost instantly,turning into a big poofy mess.i let him drive as i spent the next 60 miles trying to control the mess on my head.we both thought it was quite funny but glad his folks couldn't see me because they would have had stroke

 we made it to albuquerque n.m.,and decided to spend the night in a campground outside of town.met up with a mexican family there and partied the evening away.we got their addresses and gave them ours,promising to keep in touch.that wasn;t the last time we made that promise and didn't keep it...

on the road that day we decided that stopping every night was going to be eating into our money too much,so we said fuck it and started driving straight thru to at least ohio.we stopped only for gas and food and a restroom.we barreled along the interstate,just a tad over the limit.,very conscious of our california license plates.

just before getting on the will rodgers turnpike we pulled into a rest stop.there was a dodge van with cali plates so we kind of drifted over towards it.seems the couple driving it were from...san diego.small world indeed.within an hour we had secured "help" for the road, 20 miniwhites.benzidrine.the "truckers helper".hahahahahaha

columbus ohio,and points beyond,here we come...