ok, so i was just rereading some of my blog... i can't believe i wrote this. it's so amazing. here's one day that i hope i remember to the day i die. i'm glad i wrote what i did, because i forgot the finer points about this trio. it's about the group of three in the S10 i mentioned. i forgot what kind of a man Adam was. inspiring, really, a role model you might say.
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Nov. 22
Drove into Albuquerque today. I first went to two museums, the National Atomic Museum, and the Museum of Albuquerque. the atomic museum was another small but interesting museum with both peaceful and wartime nuclear technology history. the other one was more of a traditional art museum, with both modern and old art. i liked the more modern art better, finding the eccentric creations more captivating than the oil paintings. After those two, i drove to the Frontier Restaurant that carol had suggested to me long ago. I got a red chile burger and a Frontier sweet roll. my roadfood book had said that the sweet roll was doughey, but i wholeheartedly disagreed - it was sweet, chewey, and moist. the burger was good too, somewhat in the same style of Sycamore's burgers. I left the city on I-40 (the ex-rt. 66) until moriarty, where i headed south. i hadn't gotten as far as i wanted to a national forest to camp, so i went to some campground symbols on my map that were closer. as it turned out, they were in national forest property, but i could only find one of the two campgrounds that had been advertised on a sign, and it was closed. so, seeing no signs forbidding camping, i pulled off onto what looked like a well-worn pullout off the road to camp. since it was getting dark, i made a can of chili. as i was cooking it, i saw a pickup driving slowly up the road, and as i ate, i saw i slowly drive back, and stop on the road near where i was. after a minute, i saw someone walking up to my door in my sideview mirror. I rolled the window down, and said hi to the kid who later introduced himself as Wes. he apparently was in the same situation as i was, trying to find a campsite. he asked if they could camp with me, and i said sure, pull up your truck. The driver pulled up, and the other two occupants came out to say hi. There was Adam, the driver, aged at 28. i later learned he was an ex-felon, a car thief, was wanted for crime in michigan, had kids he wanted to see that were in michigan, and had the lung capacity of an 85 year old because of a lung ailment of his. Amanda was Wes's girlfriend, and she didn't talk much, and didn't reveal any real bad past history, she was just traveling with her boyfriend. Wes was about 18, the same as Amanda. he had a horrible cough that interrupted his words, and seemed to be a bit ill from something. his yellow hoodie sweatshirt was beaten and stained. they made a fire as i ate my chili, and i went out to warm up by the fire. Adam offered me a beer which i accepted and drank with my chili. we all stood or sat around the fire, talking of out own stories and problems. they had been on the road for about 2 and a half months, and wanted to get up to michigan for thanksgiving, and eventually back to california. Adam spoke of how he wanted to meet his kids back in michigan, even though he had a warrant out on him. "my kids are my life," he says. "why the f*** would i go back to michigan otherwise? they'll put me in jail, my truck will be reposessed - but i need to see my kids. F*** my wife, i don't care about her - she left me. But I love my kids to death..." Wes spoke of his own problems, how he did time and kept doing more because he kept scrweing up and couldn't stay straight. Adam's view on life was much more advanced than that of a normal 28-year-old. because of his lung ailment that would kill him by age 40, he saw each day with much more importance, a selfless importance that few people, especially his age, had. The whole group struck me as a very American group, very Grapes of Wrath-like. a group of traveling vagabonds, each with thier own crimes and problems, traveling together to get thier minds off thier problems and sort things out, make a better life for themselves. I really liked spending that night with them.
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TMM
PS. to give you an idea of my safety during my ENTIRE road trip, i'd say this was the most dangerous night, because there was a felon and a criminal camping 20 feet away from me. but they were the nicest folk, and minded thier own business.
