It was not directly my fault, but the San Francisco branch of UMI InfoStore closed down on 12/96, leaving 40 or so slacker/liberal arts majors out on the streets, myself included. The good news is:

1. I don’t have to work there anymore.
2. We got a nice severance package.
3. So I could goof off for a few months.

I packed up the Honda and hit the road for a month. Just me and a bunch of cassettes. I stopped in LA, Vegas, Tuscon, Las Cruces NM, Lubbock, Dallas, Houston, Snyder TX, Raton NM, Denver, Albuquerque, the Grand Canyon, L.A. encore, then back home. I watched a great deal of HBO in motel rooms. I read Infinite Jest. I listened to three books-on-tape: Grisham’s The Firm, Crichton’s The Lost World (both loaners [and groaners, ha-ha!] from my uncle), and Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth (an xmas present from my stepmother). I did a lot of hammering on my manual typewriter. Here’s a photo of my baby:

Also note the Gideon’s Bible and the pack of Camels that I bought in a casino. I don’t smoke, but it seemed like I should have some cigs around, just in case. In Roswell, New Mexico I stopped here:

…where I learned about the UFO crash landing outside of town and the subsequent government cover-up. What was nice about the museum was that they didn’t shove their x-file dogma down my throat but simply presented the facts and allowed me to come to my own conclusion. This conclusion was reinforced by this sighting I had outside of Denver, later on in my trip:

I think the phrase for that photo is “ironclad evidence.” So here’s me taking a picture of myself:

…and me giving thumbs up to Joshua Street:

Not a whole lotta action- or people-filled photos on this trip, seeing how it was primarily me, myself, and I.