To Nebraska

This morning I rolled out of bed in a lazy way from Kate’s sleeper sofa. It was quite cozy. For breakfast I had a bowl of cereal, some new kind that I hadn’t tried before. When I looked in the mirror trying t prepare myself for the day I was kind of scared by my morning hair, wondering how long I should go without cutting it. I mean it would be cool to go the whole trip without cutting it, right? Kate and I headed to the capitol and wandered around then on to see Kerouac’s original manuscript of “On the Road.” This would change my outlook on the day. Kate and I concluded that I need a copy of it on CD to listen to while “on the road.” How fitting.

Sometime before 3p.m. I finally got on the road. In goes one of the ten CDs from the book, and I would eventually get through three of them on today’s drive. At this point I’m deeply intrigued by the book and trying to find things that are parallel to my own trip. Eventually I would be laughing to myself. In the book, Jack, is headed west mentioning staying in North Platte and heading to Denver. Strange that it’s the same two towns I’m traveling between in the opposite direction. Earlier today I was walking on Colfax St. in Denver, which Kerouac mentions walking on as well. So that’s that, and I’m learning about how to write some of these back-stories that aren’t on the website.

I arrived in Nebraska tonight. Now that I’m in the Central Time Zone I can say that I officially left the west. The west was good to me. As I was driving looking out on the snowy plains it reminded me of the ocean, how it was flat and you could see all the way out to the horizon. I started thinking to how I miss the ocean and that it’s far behind me now. When I left the ocean it was replaced by the landscape of mountains. Now, it’s back to the plains and I’m reminded of my time in the Dakotas, eastern Montana, and Wyoming, which seems so long ago considering the stories, photos, people and places since then.

Tomorrow is February 1st and that is hard to believe, it’s been five months since leaving Lansing. Another day, another state.