III. Hitchhiking from Miami to Jazz Fest (2002)
Phoenix to New Orleans to Miami
Arriving back to Phoenix, I discover Dr. Love and his hosts are in conflict. Dr. Love has not been able to find a trucking job yet either. He suggests we just pop-smoke and head to Miami. He still has friends living there that could help get us established.
With the pickup transmission replaced, we head East to try our luck in the South East rather than the South West. Kind of a drastic change of destination, but the adventure continues.
Driving Through Texas
Smoking a lot of weed had helped get me through the doldrums of boring such as college. Not having any herb to drive through West Texas is like taking coffee away from people that need their caffeine kick to get out of a sleep-funk.
West Texas looks like the desert mountains of Afghanistan on a large scale. It takes around 10-hours of driving 75-mph just to get to Dallas, Texas from El Paso. Not one of the more vegetated landscape road trips. Weed is needed for such adventures.
Somewhere around Midland, Texas we pull over for a rest stop at a gas station. Dr. Love goes into the store while I dog sit with the window down in the pickup. A lady in her forties pulls up next to the truck.
“Hey do you need any meth?” she asks presumably because I look like a drifter.
“I’m good,” I respond to her brazen question.
“Do you know where I can get some weed?” I ask with an equally brazen question.
She laughs.
“Here you go,” she says and hands me a large bud wrapped in the cellophane of a cigarette package. “Compliments of the Hell’s Angels.”
Maybe there are angels in the Hells Angels?
Visiting Mason
The next part of the trip rolls on quicker.
Our decision to change locations was kind of a last minute decision, but I call and “warn” Mason en route that we are passing through New Orleans. He is happy to hear from me since my last adventure through New Orleans and invites us to stay a night or two.
Friends that allow you to show up at the last minute, no matter how long it has been, are true friends.
