Hey Jack Kerouac

C’mon on Jack….were takin off. I've spent the last three weeks bouncing from town to town visiting friends and family. It’s been a bit exhausting not being able to stay in one spot, but I think your use to that. I've been traveling on a bike with back pack and an Army Luandry bag full of clothes. The long highway drives have been a drag, but the country roads make up for it. I haven’t been able to write for the last three weeks and you for the last 37 years, but hopefully that will all change. You missed the welcome back parade. I’m not much for celebrations and all, but I have to admit that rolling into town on a bus to people waving American flags while welcoming you back from the sidewalk was a cool feeling. But as I said, it’s time to go again. We’ll be using planes, rental autos, trains, motorcycles and maybe your favorite, a good ole fashion hitch. The first trip is a quick little jaunt out west to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, something Wyoming, then Denver and back “home.” We are meeting a friend out there who will be driving up the coast and back east. This is the little trip, but you’ll have to pack fast, our flight to L.A. takes off in five hours. Apparently you can’t bring your flask along, or your toothpaste, but that’s anothher deal. Anyway, if I remember correctly, you’ve always been a light packer with little to hold you back. We’ll be back about Labor Day weekend and will probably rent a car to get the twin cities and see some old college friends. One of them acquired a wife and a mortgage while we were gone while the other has managed to cut his hair. Then we’ll part ways for about ten days, till September 13, which is when we’ll meet up again and catch a flight to Barcelona. I was thinking something like four weeks, but it’s starting to look more like six or seven. We have London, Amsterdam, Ibiza, Oktoberfest (munich), Rome and Prague on the agenda. I’m looking forward to the travel and maybe finding something new. I’ve been answering the same questions over and over for the last three weeks, with all the Army one’s ending with simplest description of what I did. I’m fine with that, but the only question that bothers me a bit is when everyone asks “so how does it feel to be back?” They always answer it for me, saying something like “it must be such relief” or “you must be so excited” but that’s not how I feel. I don’t feel much of anything, but I’m not worried about that, I simply agree and wait for the next question. In any case the last three weeks have been good, I’ve seen lot’s of people that I’ve missed and been catching up on as much as I can. But there’s something about travel that I’m hoping for. I’m not sure what it is, but that’s why I’m asking you to go. Drinking, traveling, writing and counter culture has always been your thing, so that’s what will do.

Pack your bags Jack, we got places to go!

~Rolligun