Travels with JohnChristopher - NYC to SD, July 2014
Originally created a a tumblr blog which somehow still exists - https://juanchristo.tumblr.com/
Day 1 - We got out of the city early, I didn't even get any coffee before leaving. We left the Skinny Guy in Harlem, but The Lady and her sister are leading the way. PA has some nice green and fresh air. Yeah, man - it's nice to take a break from the city life...
Day 1 (cont.) - Stopping for lunch, still in PA. Seems like a big state - we left NY in like 20 minutes… and here I thought we’d be in Cali in just a few hours.
Day 1 (cont.) - Still in PA, I think. I can’t really see since the sisters won’t take turns in the front seat with me. I’m not even asking to drive… Speaking of driving, even outside the city it’s good to know that I still drive the ladies crazy, a little lady I encountered tried to bite my head off in a fit of passion! Yeah, that’s right, I roll like that.
Day 1 (cont.) - Well, since I don’t get to drive, or even sit in the front, I might just as well have a few cocktails back here. Admittedly, I pretty much just get dopey looking then pass out… but hey - it’s been a long drive, sleeping is a good way to pass the time.
Day 2 - Morning in Indiana. The hoosier state. What's a hoosier? Eh, so long as there are big grass fields to play in, I'm not sure that I care. I like driving. I see lots of things, and still get to just be lazy and sleep.
Day 2 (cont.) - Hey, I’m from NYC, naturally I’m a hipster… Look at irony, ha! As if I could ever be a Bears fan.
Day 2 (cont.) - Drunk on love, no need to say more.
Day 2 (cont.) - At the world's largest truck stop in Iowa. I'm like a modern day Kerouac, representing city life in rural post-modernity. Willie Nelson meets Tom Waits meets Jasper Johns. Yeah, good times.
Day 3 (cont.) - Green, green and green. Lovely, really. I wonder if Al Green, Mean Joe Green, Giuseppe Verdi, and the Green Latern all have home around here - it would make sense.
Day 2 (cont.) - Grinnell, Iowa. The Lady immersed herself in the writings and learnings of the ivory towers here - I’m not totally sure what that means, maybe some kind of Tolkien reference… But what a little slice if Americana here - my kinda stopover. I declared myself king of Grinnell and went where I wanted and did what I felt - even sometimes when The Lady told me not too, ha!
Day 3 - Hehehe.
Day 3 (cont.) - Nebraska. “Knee high by the Fourth of July.” I don’t really understand that - I mean, this friggin corn is way way over that; hell, this grass is knee high on me. Well Dorothy, I guess we’re not in NYC anymore…
Day 3 (cont.) - In the city, in the country, at the beach, on the road or on a plane - the ladies just love me. And I, them. As the Beach Boys meant to sing - "I wish they all could be New Yorker girrrrls!"
Day 3 (cont.) - Wyoming. Yee-haw! I could've been a cowboy. It's fair to say that I've got a little Jon Voight in me. But I'm not sure I could fill these particular boots though. Hmm... I should learn to ride a horse.
#midnight cowboy #travels with charley #boots made for walking
Day 3 (cont.) - Cheyenne is lovely. A bite to eat outside in the open air, cheap beer (2 IPAs for $5.50!) - not that The Lady or her sister were letting me have any… I guess that’s payback for my over-indulgence in the car yesterday. Still, life is good, living the american dream on the open road.
Day 4 (cont.) - Ha everything in Wyoming is funny - "Pet Run". Clearly it doesn't know me that well. I don't run. I stroll. Sometimes I strut. Run? Pshaw!
Day 4 (cont.) - Utah. It's nice here. This sign seems out of place though, I don't see a lot of snow around. But still, it's nice.
Day 4 (cont.) - Salt Flats in Western Utah. Haha, maybe they should have just drawn a chalk outline on the ground for this pet area… My Harlem pit bull buddies would have a field day with this!
Day 4 (cont.) - Whoa. Where's Mad Max? Maybe post-apocalyptic isolation isn't my thing. Hey, who is up for a pawdi-cure and truffle fries on 5th and Broadway? Hauntingly beautiful.
Day 4 (cont.) - Got The Lady. Got the road. Got an infinite sky. Got good times.
Day 4 (cont.) -
Dear America,
You are lovely.
Sincerely,
JC
Day 5 - So money that I don't even know how money I am! Yeah baby! Thats right, the 'Biggest Little City in the World' is meeting the 'Biggest Little Dog in the World'. So money.
Day 5 (cont.) - Okay, so I may have a wee problem. I'll admit it, The Lady had to pull me away from the warm embrace of the lights cast from the halo of Lady Luck... They tell me the house always wins, but see, I had a system... Yeah, maybe she was right to take me away.
Day 5 (cont.) - You'll always be a brontosaurus to me. I mean, 'Deceptive Lizard' is alright, but 'Thunder Lizard', yeah, that I can groove to. JohnChristopher = Thunder Bichon
Day 5 (cont.) - California!
Day 5 (cont.) - Finally! It's about time that I get my turn at the wheel. It's 465 miles to San Diego, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.
Day 6 - Off to get my board! These waves have a gnarly barrel, and I'm ready to do my best Johnny Utah impersonation! I love the Pacific.
Day 6 (cont.) - Just a little romantic run down the beach with a new lady friend - this is the way to spend your vacation. Call me Fabio. When heaven needs some renovating, the angels just look at scenes from my life for inspiration on moments to create for the souls of paradise...
Day 7 -
Often, when following the trail which meanders over the hills, I pull myself up in an effort to encompass the glory and the grandeur which envelops the whole horizon. Often, when the clouds pile up in the north and the sea is churned with while caps, I say to myself: "This is the California that men dreamed of years ago, this is the Pacific that Balboa looked out on from the Peak of Darien, this is the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look."
-Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch