Un soir je m'étais égaré dans une forêt, à quelque distance de la cataracte du Niagara; bientôt je vis le jour s'éteindre autour de moi, et je goutai, dans toute sa solitude le beau spectacle d'une nuit dans les déserts du Nouveau-Monde.
François-René de CHATEAUBRIAND


Day 54

am (Killing heat)

pm (Killing heat)

Rides = 1
Arrival = Holbrook
KM travelled = 436.8
$ spent = $5.50
Time passed on the road = 9 am - 9 pm
km walked = 12


At 5:30 in the morning, the soldiers came in and said that it was time to get up, clean up and eat breakfast. Everybody was moving slowly as if we had slept in alleys or ditches. In the cafeteria, the sound of the spoons in cups and bowls was mixed with the coughing, hacking and sniffling. I had some peanut butter on my dried toasts. By 7:00 the whole crowd was smoking outside.

I walked briskly to the highway, to start my day but the police came and warned me that I could not hitchhike on the ramp leading to the freeway. It was the most bizarre road layout that I had ever seen. Imagine that the there is a street that parallels the freeway and the ramp to access that freeway, is located on the left - inside of that street. Now try to visualize the difficult position that any hitchhiker might find himself or herself in. Can you picture it, the hitchhikers would be raising their thumbs to cars that are not actually heading to the freeway but continuing on the street that parallels it. That was my morning challenge.


[look at this mess!]

The most popular type of vehicle seemed to be the pickup truck and that is exactly what stopped for me. Darrell was going to Holbrook about 70 miles east of Flagstaff. On our way north, maybe 10 miles further, after passing the Junction with road 69 I saw a road sign that said DUGAS ROAD! I almost asked Darrell to drop me right there so I could go on to explore it. I was quite fascinated that a Dugas had made it way out here. I thought that maybe it was an Acadian that was deported in 1755 and ended up walking from Louisiana in the direction of California. Why that Dugas stopped there is anyone's guess...

30 miles later Darrell said, "I've got a good idea! We can turn here and go toward Sedona. There is a place around there called Oak Creek Canyon and it has this weird piece of rock that looks like Charlie Brown's Snoopy!" So we turned left on the 179. The landscape was breathtaking. I thought that Arizona was the most beautiful place I had ever been through. We stopped at the Oak Creek Canyon and went up on a hill to smoke a joint in a abandoned shack. Darrell said that the cabin was built 125 years ago, we talk about how life might have been back then. Anyway from there we could see Snoopy in the distance laying on his back and looking at the big sky.


[the snoopy rock]

We got back on the road, leaving the desert in favour of a large pine forest. Darrell picked two more hitchhikers and dropped them in Flagstaff. We continued eastward until we reached Holbrook. Darrell's father has a business near the Petrified Forest National Park. He was slicing and polishing slabs of petrified trees on his property. When it was time to part, Darrell pulled a big slab of tree from under the back seat, like 12 inches in diameter and said: "Take this Dan!" The colours, the shape and patterns in this petrified slice of tree were totally out of this world. I thanked him a lot for the ride, for the rock and everything else, then he drove away. I had started a collection of rocks when I left Moncton. Not a big collection but whenever I found nice pebbles or stones I would put them at the bottom of my packsack. This slab was certainly the centrepiece of my growing museum but also added a noticeable weight to my load.

I started to walk and to hitchhike whenever cars came by. I waited and waited and walked quite a bit. There was not much traffic. The sun was setting and with it the chance of getting any lifts out of here were disappearing fast. I met this other guy on the road, his name was Thomas. He did not have any belongings with him. I think he was just travelling with the wind. I did not understand his story except that he was from Colorado and he seemed to be familiar with the area for some reason. Maybe he was living close-by or something. He said that there was a new highway under construction and that we could walk on it and use it as a shortcut to go to the 24 hour Shell Truck Stop. I thought that was a pretty good idea. We walked in the dirt, dust and darkness for 4 miles. At first I did know where we were heading but at some point I could see a little dancing light in the distance. Thomas said: "That's it, that's the Shell." I was relieved to have a focus, a reason to continue. Our walk in the desert at night ended at the gas station. The place was a welcome oasis. The whole area was flooded in bright neon lights, the smell of diesel was omnipresent, trucks were also everywhere, the sounds of big Freightliner Internationals leaving or arriving was deafening and somewhat reassuring. There was a restaurant, gas station, cottages, washrooms, showers, gift shops and a excellent lounge with pool room and TV seats. Thomas and I stayed awake most of the night playing pool like sharks in the only pond in this North American Sahara.

- Daniel


mister
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