everyone can relate to what i appreciate, my friend / my first road trip #3

las vegas eats the dust from my truck. speaking of dust, a california highway worker threatened to call the california highway patrol (chp) on me yesterday. it went like this, i was driving south on highway 95 headed for joshua tree national park. i didnt really want to go to joshua tree, but it was a condition that steve added to lending me money. basically he forced me. i am just kidding.

but he did recommend that i go there, the last place he suggested to me - prescott, az - was awesome. so i gave him the benefit of the doubt. south south south. then highway 95 joins up with highway 40 to go east, back toward arizona. after ten miles or so of this 95 breaks off and then heads south again. and once i got to this breakaway the signs started popping up: highway 95 was closed.

i wouldnt believe that this entire highway was closed, so i kept going. eventually i made it to a barrier in the road and the scene suggested that i should go no further. there wasnt really another route i could take to get to joshua tree and i had already gone more than 100 miles out of the way, so i sat at this intersection looking at the map. i wasnt the only one, about four other cars were having the same debate - should we see what is down this road or not. shortly, but surely, the other cars were called on their bluff and turned tail scared of what the closed road may hold for them.

not so, this truck. after the last car left i said "fuck it" and drove around the barrier. i had done things like this before, but never in the desert wasteland. the first sign i saw was "next services 40 miles." which meant that i would be driving for 40 miles and see nothing, except for maybe a washed out impassable road or a dinosaur or flying saucer or something like that. i told myself i would go 15 miles and turn around if the road really looked bad.

by about 10 miles i started seeing signs for construction and when i got to the construction the road constricted to one lane but there was a flagger and i was waved through. i figured that this was the only reason the road was closed. i was feeling good, in the middle of the desert with no other cars around and 10's of miles away from civilization. i thank my truck for deciding against breaking down in this situation, the thing is good to me.

twenty more miles down the road i came upon another vehicle, a street sweeper kicking up a whole bunch of dust. i rolled up the window and sped past this person, who sweeps the desolate desert roads? another 10 miles and i was at the other end. there were about ten vehicles on the other side of the barrier, contemplating whether they should risk the closed road or not. i was very popular, like i had just come out of a maze and everyone wanted to know the proper turns to take so they too can overtake it. i pulled up and assured the first few cars that it was okay to go through, just some construction down the road.

after talking to the first few people i switched to just giving a thumbs up, i wanted to keep going. but a pickup truck pulled up and wanted to talk. i immediately told her that it was fine to travel the road. she erupted at me. she worked for the transportation department and informed me that the road was closed for the street sweeper. this didnt make sense to me so i told her that he was

this is the moonrise. there will be a video soon.

off on the side of the road sweeping, the traffic wouldnt bother him. but she kept on saying that he would have to sweep the entire road again because a couple of cars went through. this made even less sense to me, wouldnt the daily traffic kick up dust and rocks anyway? whats the point.

she sensed that i wasnt grasping the seriousness of the violation and then she threatened to call the chp. i was like, whatever. and then i drove off. she followed me for a little bit, but turned on highway 62 while i drove 95 south. i was thinking of how ridiculous it would be if the chp came speeding down on me for kicking up dust. i laughed as i drove further south and into the sun.

so, i am reading this book called guns, germs, and steel and it isnt what i thought it would be, at least not yet. i was thinking that it would be about how guns germs and steel were used and acquired by some people and why this was so. it is a really academic book that starts about 11,000 years ago and is currently describing how some people acquired crop production and animal domestication. and the spread of these things. right now, you are thinking, yeah so what get to the point.

the fertile crescent is where farming and animal domestication started and it spread rapidly east and west but slowly north and south. the reason for this is because of the climate and the ability of plants and animals to survive and thrive. the climate stays relatively the same on an east west axis, but when you start moving north and south the climate changes much quicker. and this is what i am getting at. when i was in mississippi it was 70°, when i drove 150 miles north towards indiana it was 30°. in las vegas it was comfortable, in the 60's. right now, 150 miles south, it is 80°. and thats my whole point - convoluted and unnecessary.

i hit highway 10 and headed west toward joshua tree, it was getting late now and my plan was to get into joshua tree and park to camp there overnight. i had never been to this place and was expecting something different. i turned off at the joshua tree exit and drove about 20 miles into the park and it was all just high desert. it was boring. the sun was going down and it was getting dark. there werent places to park and camp plus it was really cold in the desert mountains. so i pulled over and took a walk through the desert. just over the mountains i could see the moon rising and decided to sit and watch that for awhile. then i watched the

luckily i outran these rabid beasts!

sunset behind me, then i kept walking through the desert. it was really cold, and i started getting scared that coyotes and rattlesnakes were going to come and tear me to pieces.

i ran back to my truck.

and then drove into the wasteland that is palm desert california. which was also the destination of my first road trip. dear reader, i recognize that this is the third time i have titled a post and talked about "my first road trip." i think the story goes like this in 1997 i drove to dallas on a whim as my first road trip. then in 1998 i drove to new york with my then girlfriend as my second road trip. in 1999 i drove to new york again to stay and in 2000 i left new york for palm desert, my first cross country road trip. see, what i mean by first here? anyway.

so, it was may of 2000. i had just lived in new york - bronxville - for about 9 months and steve came to visit and spirit me away. first we went to washington dc for the may day parade and protest. we went on may day but the dumb communists scheduled the parade for may 5th. we drove back to new york, i packed up all of the things i could into steve's little car, the rest i packed in a box and left $20 for tiffany to mail it to my parents. that box eventually got thrown out, and i was unhappy about that. it mostly held all of the books that i never wanted to lose, now i cant even remember what most of them were, i know there was a lot of aleister crowley in there though.

so, all packed up, we left on may 2nd or so back down to dc and then west. this was also the day i decided to switch to a vegan diet, from dc we headed to asheville, nc. asheville was nice we had never been there and were excited about the food we could get and also, a band that we liked alot just happened to be playing the next night. we slept at the hostel or in the car and then went to see the band fishbone. it was probably the third or fourth time we had seen them together and it was pretty good.

then we were going southwest to bryan/college station texas. we were going to visit tiffany's mom, we arrived late at night and slept in the car in front of the house. her dad found us in the morning and went to get the shotgun. but beth stopped him, she was sure that these two dirty kids sleeping in a car in front of her house were me and steve. she came out and woke us up. that was nice. we stayed there for a few days, beth made us a country breakfast - including meat - both steve and i were vegan such a short time and we werent good at turning down food so we ate it. it remained the last meal of meat that i ate until i stopped being vegan in 2008 or so.

from there we went to tempe arizona to visit my brother and i got completely wasted on tequila. then i made out with joes neighbor on the table, next to the pool, in the trees, and pretty much anywhere else we could. this was a new experience for me, i dont remember anything about the night. that was the last time i drank tequila straight. then we drove on to palm desert where steve

PRETTY.

was meeting his online girlfriend. we stayed here for a couple of days and then steve wanted to go back to indiana to be with his real life girlfriend.

i harassed him for this, and it was something that nearly brought down our friendship. i insisted that he went back for this girl and was determined to make him admit that. also, i thought that he was weak for abandoning his life to be with some girl, and i made fun of him for it. now, i realize that i was the dummy. love, lust, whatever it is, companionship is something that is really awesome and should be sought out and nurtured and held in very high regard. i dont know if this was how he felt at the time, but he had the right idea.

we drove back to indiana very quickly and within two weeks i was off again for olympia, washington to live. steve stayed behind to see where this relationship went. seven months later he was back with me in olympia. so, anyway, that was my first cross country road trip. because it is short and this post is already long, i am going to share the journal entries i wrote in 2000 during this road trip:

May 2 2000 Left New York for LA, end up in Asheville, N.C. Money is not an issue here. Very quaint little punk/anarchist town in the mountains, and Fishbone is playing tonite. A slight detour, to see a band, stay in the area for the evening live on spontaneity, live on life.

May 3 2000 25 mile per hour, 24 hours a day.

May 7 (?) 2000 I am in Tempe, AZ.

May 10 (?) 2000 Weird days/nights here in Tempe. Steve and I have spent most of our time here in some weird haze. Two nights ago, for the sake of remembering, I made out with Joe's neighbor, Julie. I think these things need to be remembered, even if they do take place in a drug-induced mindset. Living on a postcard here; palmtrees—poolside vaginal sunsets and drinks to boot. Where are we going and what direction am I headed in? What is this life for?

May 23 2000 So a lot has changed. Steve and I had a bit of a falling out. Wait, backtrack, after Tempe, we went to Palm Desert California—to see Steve's on-line girlfriend Marisa. That was for Steve what Dallas was for me (Robin + Dusty). We stayed there a couple of nights. Steve will never admit it, but we left Palm Desert and our joint plans so he could be with Rachael. We tried to get an apartment/house in Hammond, but it didn't work. I am on my way to Olympia WA. To begin anew. The falling out--Steve basically runs his life on Rachael time and that is fine, as long as he admits it, which he won't. I won't drop it and the truth pisses him off. APPARENTLY I DON'T NEED ANYBODY!

see, i was the idiot. i do need people, and like them alot. specifically, i am very thankful that steve has stuck with me all this time even though sometimes i am really mean to him. and not just because he is financing my life right now, we have been through so much of life together that it would really be a hard thing to think about not having him to talk about life with. (last night i watched the film "anvil" and i liken the relationship steve and i have to the one that the drummer and singer of that band have.)

palm desert, now (probably even then), is a pit. it is all country clubs and strip malls. it wasnt super easy to find a place to park last night and today it was very hard to find a place to sit and use the internet for hours while i wrote away my life. i did accomplish the tasks that i set out for today. i did laundry and changed the oil in my truck. also it is very hot here, while doing laundry i changed into my stupid shorts for the first time in months, i look like such a fool. tomorrow i will head into los angeles again. how scary.