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Adventurous Roads Ahead - Unbound and Determined: Part 1

Join me on my road-trip across the United States in 1991 and experience the journey.

By Greg PrincePublished 4 years ago 6 min read
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Adventurous Roads Ahead - Unbound and Determined: Part 1
Photo by Mark Basarab on Unsplash

Look

Went looking for a wild ride.

Found meaning brought me smiles.

Shared the feeling with all around.

Taught my soul the salt and grain in folk.

Opened sight on new ground.

For this scene I give thanks.

Memories so color filled.

Find me thankful and forever

given to all feelings deep and vivid to take.

____________________________________________________

Setting out on the highway was a bit scary. I was 20 years old, only had a couple of thousand dollars and one credit card to my name.

My yellow 1988 four-door Chevrolet Cavalier was worn but in fairly good shape.

Money was a factor and since it was limited I decided to camp my way through a good part of the country.

I was determined to do my own version of Jack Kerouac’s travels he wrote about in his book On The Road.

My family in Ormond Beach, Florida gave me a little party before I left. As I drove on I-95 northward toward Georgia the pangs of doubt about my future life hit me like a heavy, wet bag of sand inside my gut.

Florida is flat so the drive up was uneventful. My best friend’s girlfriend rode shotgun. He had to tie up loose ends and then made plans to meet us in about a week for the journey.

I hoped he would join us but that seemed unsure.

We camped and slept in the car in Georgia. Taking turns at the wheel and napping took the edge off driving for extended periods.

Stayed in a cheap hotel too.

By the time we got to North Carolina, she was homesick for my best friend and her life back in Florida. I didn’t help her confidence.

One night we were camping and we decided to drop acid. LSD was easy to keep fresh.

Trippin’ was good and we felt connected but my emotions were laid bare. I told Sarah about all my doubts and insecurities. I cried a little. Being high, the next moment had me admiring and worshipping the flames of our campfire.

We had sex on a blanket in the forest. I felt extremely guilty of my betrayal. Sarah felt uncomfortable from then on.

Best decisions are not made when trippin’ on acid in the wilderness.

My suspicions are she was uneasy with my lack of confidence in our tryst and my future. My plans had no structure and were just to wing it and let life happen.

The next morning Sarah told me she thought she might be pregnant and wanted to go back to my best friend. She said she was feeling homesick and could not go on without her man.

Sarah decided to hitchhike back to Ormond Beach.

The journey home surprisingly took Sarah only 12 hours because she caught a ride with a semi-truck driver going to Miami.

I felt relieved Sarah found a safe way home. She was my best friend’s girlfriend and I felt a bit of misplaced responsibility to him in making sure she arrived unscathed.

Sarah was a couple of years older than either of us, an adult, and fully capable of taking care of herself. It was an early lesson to me that I wasn’t in charge of other’s lives and not some kind of overseer or director of women.

I camped for a few more days in North Carolina then got on I-40 and traveled west until I was just outside of St. Louis, Missouri.

A wild day ensues.

Listening to heavy hard rock, grunge music, alt-rock bands, and classic rock energized my driving.

The highway was congested and fast. I had my sights on finding a youth hostel in St. Louis to stay in for the night before driving on.

I knew my sister was going to be in Colorado soon and the thought crossed my mind to meet her there. She was flying out for her birthday. Driving there would take a couple of days, no problem.

A car of senior college students kept parallel to me for a few minutes. I was smoking a small joint and blasting the Beatles on the CD player.

Traffic had slowed. Vehicles were only moving about 50 mph. I didn’t notice the girl yelling at me from the car keeping pace until they honked their horn several times.

Turning to find out what the honking was about brought a huge smile. A young woman was half hanging out of her passenger car window motioning to me she wanted a toke on my joint.

Traffic slowed again due to massive vehicle congestion. We were only traveling about 10 miles an hour.

I reached out and handed the end of my joint over to the eager girl. She smiled and yelled,

“Thanks, follow us. We’re hittin’ Lollapalooza!”

All of the cars on the highway suddenly sped up and I was game for the side trip. I noticed the inhabitants of the car continuing to the motion for me to follow, so I did.

My excitement to attend Lollapalooza was beyond stratospheric.

Having heard about the concert of multiple music acts before I left for my trip I was shocked and surprised to happen by chance for the opportunity. Some of my favorite bands were performing.

Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails, Fishbone, The Violent Femmes, Living Colour, and more were there. The lineup was incredible. The music mind-blowingly fantastic.

By Nicholas Green on Unsplash

We arrived and parked in a field at a place I have no recollection of the whereabouts. It seemed there were 10,000 cars parked around the area. It took an hour of waiting in line to buy a ticket but the price was reasonable.

Soon after parking and buying tickets, I lost sight of the college crew which led me to the venue. I entered the concert area and it was nothing like I’d seen before.

The Rollins Band was rocking and jamming on stage. Thousands of young adults were seated in rows.

There were huts set up in various places selling t-shirts, bandanas, souvenirs, and food. It was a commune, hippiesque atmosphere.

A huge mosh pit circled in front of the stage like a whirling semi-violent nautilus of people crushing, pushing, and ramming into one another. I joined immediately.

The energy was frenetic and explosive.

The tunes were loud and filling us with the driven freedom to let all out.

I was wearing beaten, ragged green army pants torn away at the knees adorned with threads ripped and hanging from the cut-off. My shirt was a grungy tie-dye swirl. It was close to and similar to everyone else’s garb.

We were all young and rebellious and we partied and danced to many bands that day and into the night.

Early the next morning I drove to St. Louis, Missouri. My adventure continued.

By Holden Baxter on Unsplash

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