If you're not making dust... you're eating dust.

The following was taken from the handwritten blog I recorded during my journey which began in Jacksonville, Florida and ended in Los Angeles, California. My companions were Christina "The Stink" Johnson, Spencer "Knowledge Sponge" Pitman, and Jackie Flynburg. I present the blog now in online form and exactly as it was originally written. My fellow traveler Spencer Pitman claims to have written a blog during our journey that rivals the one presented here, but I have never seen it, nor am I aware of it's contents. 

Day One - 1.25.11 

Starting Mileage: 129864

First five minutes - Christina has fallen asleep.

9:43 - Spencer breaks cruise control.

11:58 - First gas fill-up. Spence and I discuss the size of my gas tank. Spencer fills tires with air in the pouring rain. Exit 203 - Tallahassee.


12:10 - We pass an 18 wheeler with logo "Spencer's Theatre of Illusion". Gives me and Spence a good laugh. Spencer claims to be capable of magic. I am somewhat skeptical of that claim. Christina still sleeps. Jack is being good in the back.


11:39 (time zone change) - Listening to Led Zeppelin's "Going to California". Pretty amazing song. Makes me think of Mikey Flick.


12:12 - Spot a billboard that says "America - Love it or Leave". Rain has stopped. Christina is awake. Jack needs to urinate.


1:25 - Stop for lunch. McDonald's schweet tea is so good. Almost out of Florida. All the shit we have in the truck and U-Haul is killing our gas mileage.


2:52 - Made it to Alabama. Finally out of the state. Let the traveling begin. Passed a trucker that had driven one million miles.


4:54 - Missed all of Mississippi. Just crossed into Louisiana. Not going to New Orleans. Look at all the double S's in this section. Lots of water here.


5:28 - Stopped at Quick Chek for gas. The station sold hard liquor. Next to the checkout counter were many sex enhancing pills and flavored condoms. But the most disturbing of all was a box (contents of which were unknown) displaying hardcore anime sex on the cover. Nothing subtle about it. You could see the guys huge veiny cock. Really funny but such a strange gas station/ liquor store/ sex shop. Multitasking I guess.


9:15 - We discover Spencer is part of a sexually based cult via an anonymous text message he received. Not surprised.


9:50 - If you're not making dust... you're eating dust.


10:41 - Transmission goes to shit in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Day Two - 1.26.11

9:33 - Atomic Towing came and picked up the truck. Taking it to AAMCO for an estimate on a replacement transmission or possibly rebuilding the transmission. I hope this process doesn't take too long. Lake Charles is not quite LA. We've checked into an extended stay hotel.

Day Four - 1.28.11

12:07 - Nothing really happened on day three. We spent most of the day at Lowe's killing time. Watched an ample amount of TV. We are leaving the hotel now. We'll have to sit next to the trailer until the truck is ready.


1:10 - We are now sitting behind the Cracker Barrel. Christina had a green ladybug land on her hand. Beautiful day outside, which is nice. Probably 68 degrees, warm and sunny, with a light breeze. Not a cloud in the sky.


4:30 - Walking builds blisters and blisters build character. We are unfortunately still in Lake Charles. The transmission guy decided he wanted to take a month to build my transmission. If everything goes according to the mechanics plan, we'll be rolling out of here tomorrow. LA, we will get to you eventually. Back in the hotel again, watching TV. Playing some more cards. Christina hasn't showered in days. She is starting to really STINK. Hence her name Stinkabug. Gonna get some more beers.


11:52 - Spencer beats us all. Final score is Samson with 455, Stinka with 355, and Spencer with 565. Pretty disappointing night of cards. We didn't expect the Spenceman to pull through with the victory. Good for him. This will be one of the few victorious moments of his life. Jack has been sleeping on the bed like a human all night with his body on the side and his head on the pillow. Hopefully we'll get my truck back tomorrow.

Day 6 - 1.30.11

1:26 - Still sitting in the hotel. We are now in Lake Charles. The AAMCO guys haven't been able to fix my truck. Starting to worry we might be here for a while. I've moved past the point of anger. I am now just extremely discouraged. Really tired of being in Louisiana though. Would be nice to be in Los Angeles right now. I need to get Jack to a vet before his ear infection gets too bad. We were supposed to be in LA for three days now. Spencer, Christina and I are still getting along though, despite being cooped up in hotels for a week. Almost done with my book. TV is becoming less entertaining by the minute. The rain has been pouring down all day, adding to the general discouraged mood of the room.

Day 7 - 1.31.11

Spencer has left us to return to Jacksonville to go back to work. Some kids just don't have the heart for these long, miserable, discouraging Lake Charles days. He has abandoned us. He left on a Greyhound bus. And he did have to walk 3.7 miles to the station from the hotel. Me and the Stink are taking Jack to  a vet today. I feel his ear infection is worsening, and part of me thinks we'll be here awhile. I don't want to risk him having permanent damage to his ear. Can't wait for LA. His appointment is at 2:30 and it's 1:06 now. I forgot to log the time at the beginning of this entry. The mechanics are still pounding away at the truck. NOT LOOKING GOOD!

Day 8 - 2.1.11

3:00 - Truck is fixed! We are about to get on the road! Yay! No more Lake Charles. 


5:52 - We've been driving some ways now. We're well into Texas. The wind has been very frustrating. It's blowing straight out of the west, which is really slowing us down. Looks like we're gonna be doing 55 mph all the way through Texas. Don't care too much though; just happy to be back on the road and moving WEST!

Day 10 - 2.3.11

11:33 - Fuck Texas. That turned out to be the worst part of the trip. Long and boring. Not really anything to look at until west Texas. Drove through New Mexico last night. Arizona today. Beautiful. I would consider moving there one day. Such an interesting and unique landscape. Crossed the California state line at about 5:00. First stop in Cali was Starbucks. Made it to LA!!! Crazy city. We are definitely in the CITY. We drove by our new house. Looked pretty cool from the outside. It's the only house left on the street. The rest are apartment buildings. We're going to meet up with Erik tomorrow to get the keys and get in the house. We're pretty excited to finally be here, doing this. It took a while but we finally made it. At the hotel now, watching some TV. Can't wait until tomorrow. Jack's ear turned out to be nothing. Probably just some moisture in there from swimming up at Yulee. 

“This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.”

- John Steinbeck -

Excerpt from Moby Dick #9

It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.

But how easy and how hopeless to teach these fine things! Of erections, how few are domed like St. Peter's! of creatures, how few vast as the whale!

- Ishmael, Chapter 68

Excerpt from Moby Dick #8

Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life.

God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return! That part of the sea known among whalemen as the "Brazil Banks" does not bear that name as the Banks of Newfoundland do, because of there being shallows and soundings there, but because of this remarkable meadow-like appearance, caused by the vast drifts of brit continually floating in those latitudes, where the Right Whale is often chased.


- Ishmael, Chapter 58

Excerpt from Moby Dick #7

But as he sat still for a moment, and as he steadfastly looked into the mate's malignant eye and perceived the stacks of powder-casks heaped up in him and the slow- match silently burning along towards them; as he instinctively saw all this, that strange forbearance and unwillingness to stir up the deeper passionateness in any already ireful being - a repugnance most felt, when felt at all, by really valiant men even when aggrieved - this nameless phantom feeling, gentlemen, stole over Steelkilt.

- Ishmael, Chapter 54

Excerpt from Moby Dick #6

It may seem strange that of all men sailors should be tinkering at their last wills and testaments, but there are no people in the world more fond of that diversion. This was the fourth time in my nautical life that I had done the same thing. After the ceremony was concluded upon the present occasion, I felt all the easier; a stone was rolled away from my heart. Besides, all the days I should now live would be as good as the days that Lazarus lived after his resurrection; a supplementary clean gain of so many months or weeks as the case might be. I survived myself; my death and burial were locked up in my chest. I looked round me tranquilly and contentedly, like a quiet ghost with a clean conscience sitting inside the bars of a snug family vault.


Now then, thought I, unconsciously rolling up the sleeves of my frock, here goes a cool, collected dive at death and destruction, and the devil fetch the hindmost.


- Ishmael, Chapter 49

Hollywood Horticulture

Lazy Left

True to his name.

Strange.

Excerpt from Moby Dick #5

"Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!"

- Captain Ahab, Chapter 37

Myself and Mine

MYSELF and mine gymnastic ever,
To stand the cold or heat, to take good aim with a gun, to sail a
boat, to manage horses, to beget superb children,
To speak readily and clearly, to feel at home among common people,
And to hold our own in terrible positions on land and sea.

Not for an embroiderer,
(There will always be plenty of embroiderers, I welcome them also,)
But for the fibre of things and for inherent men and women.

Not to chisel ornaments,
But to chisel with free stroke the heads and limbs of plenteous
supreme Gods, that the States may realize them walking and
talking.

Let me have my own way,
Let others promulge the laws, I will make no account of the laws,
Let others praise eminent men and hold up peace, I hold up agitation
and conflict,
I praise no eminent man, I rebuke to his face the one that was
thought most worthy.
(Who are you? and what are you secretly guilty of all your life?
Will you turn aside all your life? will you grub and chatter all
your life?
And who are you, blabbing by rote, years, pages, languages,
reminiscences,
Unwitting to-day that you do not know how to speak properly a single
word?)

Let others finish specimens, I never finish specimens,
I start them by exhaustless laws as Nature does, fresh and modern
continually.

I give nothing as duties,
What others give as duties I give as living impulses,
(Shall I give the heart's action as a duty?)

Let others dispose of questions, I dispose of nothing, I arouse
unanswerable questions,
Who are they I see and touch, and what about them?
What about these likes of myself that draw me so close by tender
directions and indirections?

I call to the world to distrust the accounts of my friends, but
listen to my enemies, as I myself do,
I charge you forever reject those who would expound me, for I cannot
expound myself,
I charge that there be no theory or school founded out of me,
I charge you to leave all free, as I have left all free.

After me, vista!
O I see life is not short, but immeasurably long,
I henceforth tread the world chaste, temperate, an early riser, a
steady grower,
Every hour the semen of centuries, and still of centuries.

I must follow up these continual lessons of the air, water, earth,
I perceive I have no time to lose.

- Walt Whitman, Myself and Mine

Excerpt from Moby Dick #4

Men may seem detestable as joint stock-companies and nations; knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men may have mean and meagre faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that over any ignominious blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes. That immaculate manliness we feel within ourselves, so far within us, that it remains intact though all the outer character seem gone; bleeds with keenest anguish at the undraped spectacle of a valor-ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at such a shameful sight, completely stifle her upbraidings against the permitting stars. But this august dignity I treat of, is not the dignity of kings and robes, but that abounding dignity which has no robed investiture. Thou shalt see it shining in the arm that wields a pick or drives a spike; that democratic dignity which, on all hands, radiates without end from God; Himself! The great God absolute! The centre and circumference of all democracy! His omnipresence, our divine equality!

If, then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall hereafter ascribe high qualities, though dark; weave round them tragic graces; if even the most mournful, perchance the most abased, among them all, shall at times lift himself to the exalted mounts; if I shall touch that workman's arm with some ethereal light; if I shall spread a rainbow over his disastrous set of sun; then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou just spirit of equality, which hast spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind! Bear me out in it, thou great democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cervantes; Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war- horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne! Thou who, in all Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the kingly commons; bear me out in it, O God!

- Ishmael, Chapter 26

A poem from Philip

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We 

Die soon.

- Gwendolyn Brooks

Excerpt from Moby Dick #3

By this he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.


- Ishmael, Chapter 26

Excerpt from Moby Dick #2

All our arguing with him would not avail; let him be, I say: and Heaven have mercy on us all - Presbyterians and Pagans alike - for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending.


- Ishmael, Chapter 17

Excerpt from Moby Dick #1

Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance. Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air.


- Ishmael, Chapter 8

All Hallow’s Eve