Two: up yours, Horace Greeley

          I was in a meeting this afternoon, hearing about changes to insurance and the new hoops we have to jump through to qualify for a discount, and a thought came to me and stayed there.
             What, I thought, if I started out walking some weekend and kept going?
          West, I thought, that's the way to go.  Start off on the OHT and go to the end, and then don't stop.  Tramp through Oklahoma and keep going.  Follow the Joads.  Follow Sal Paradise even if I don't have Dean Moriarty to keep me company.  Travel without Charley.  Look for the blue highways.
          Could I do it?  Could I leave the world I know behind and start off on some damn fool idealistic trip to find the American Dream?
          Yes, I think I could.  But it's not easy in the early 21st century.  I don't think you can jump a freight train bound for parts unknown anymore.  You certainly can't hitchhike.  In this day and age you're more likely to step on a rainbow than to step on the golden road.  You have to pay bills, pay taxes, pay utilities, pay for the luxury of having things.
          That doesn't sound like a dream to me.  So could I do it?  Damn right.  And every day I go to work and put up with life and come home and every moment of that day just leads me closer to the road.
          I'm reminded of the character Slim Pickens played in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid":  "One of these days,|when I get my boat built, I'm gonna drift out of this damn territory."
           I can live with that.