In August of 1998, I set out to drive across the country. For three years I had been working as a teacher, coach, house parent, fundraiser, janitor, cook, driver, and whatever else at a boys’ boarding school. For five weeks or more I had been helping out with summer school and running the dorm. Why anyone who had just spent all winter looking after boys would voluntarily spend all summer looking after the boys who were dumb enough or incorrigible enough to wind up in summer boarding school is beyond me. There was money involved.
I decided to use the money to pay for a trip out west with the primary objective of seeing my boy Ted. Ted had moved back to Orange County to be with his mother who had cancer. I sort of got that at the time, and I totally get that now. Ted missed Altamont and the least I could do was go visit. Plus I could stop and see Elvis on the way. Not to mention “the country.” Like so much else in my life, I lacked any sort of distinct plan as to how this was going to go. I just knew I was going.
I also knew that I was excited to be driving my car: a 1990 Nissan Stanza with something like 85,000 miles on it. I loved that car because it was exactly what I wanted when I got it. The fact that it had electric windows and door locks was very impressive to me. I had also put in a stereo with a CD changer. That is what we did before iPods. I had a large binder of discs, with more titles than I can remember. All the gear was laid out in the car in a very specific way so that I could access everything on the road.
There were many things I should have done on this trip and did not; however, the one thing I did do was take pictures. I got them developed and sorted them out and had some great stories to tell whenever anyone wanted to look at them. I have not been bowled over by requests, but I now have a blog. So in honor of the 12th anniversary of this trip, I will be regaling you from time to time with pictures and stories of the journey. I understand that you are not captive to my slide show, but I hope it will be as much fun for you as it will be for me. Well, I hope it will be fun for me at least and that you will not totally abandon me in the process.