"Long Promised Road" (aka "School's Out") (Mustang chronicles part III)

 

Somewhere in the American Southwest in May 1993, but almost looking like a still shot from the 1969 film "Easy Rider"

Watching the desert scenery pass by via a vent window of  my '67 Mustang.

Welcome to New Mexico.  I crossed the Continental Divide around 4AM.

My 1967 Ford Mustang outside my Girlfriend's house in Mira Mesa, Calif. in 1991.

     All great things must come to end sometime.  I experienced this part of life one time in May 1993.  My time with the US Navy was coming to an end.  My enlistment was over in June 1993, I had a month worth of leave time saved up, so I was able to get out a month early.  A journey that had started in June 1989 in a small town in Ohio and ended up in Southern California in 1993 was a long strange trip (sorry for ripping off the Grateful Dead there).

     I was at a time in my life when I desperately needed to make some changes.  Getting out of the Service was one of them, the other would come to a head at the end of that year.  In some ways I was really excited to see what lay ahead of me when I drove out the gate of NAS Miramar for the very last time.  In some ways I was reluctant to leave behind a part of the US I had grown to love and feel like a place I fit in at for the first time in my young life.  I think a lot of us have been there?  

     In the weeks leading up to my discharge (honourably by the Grace of God) I had been slowly shedding myself of all the crap I had acquired over the past four years by mailing boxes back to my Dad.  What I had left would fit into my 1967 Ford Mustang.  

     It was sometime in evening when I drove through the gate leading out of NAS Miramar.  About a hundred yards from the gate I pulled over and put in a cassette of the 1972 Alice Cooper "School's Out" album.  I waited until the title track started to play, then I turned the volume up and crossed the threshold into a brave new world blasting "SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER...".  I was going through my Alice Cooper phase (that continues to this very day) and that song seemed fitting for that time.

     I was glad to be getting out of the Service at that time, but I was sort of sad to be going.  Over that previous four years I had grown to develop a drink habit that slowing had taken over my life.  I was never a big troublemaker when I was drunk, but it had taken over any ambition to better my life, my few relationships, my career, etc.  I really could have been a much better Sailor, but the beer came first.  

    The active alcohol issue would come to an end (at least for now, 29 years so far...) shortly before Christmas 1993.  But right now it is May of 1993 and the Christmas season of 1993 is a long way from now....

     My anxious alcohol induced mind had trained me to believe that the very worst thing would happen to me (I still have this unfortunate condition to this day, but it has gotten much better).  I was so sure that my car that was four years older than me would overheat in the desert.  So I planned the first part of the odyssey to take place overnight and get the desert out of the way in the cooler nighttime.  I think I made it to Yuma, Arizona sometime around 1AM?  My first full tank of fuel was behind me.  

    I filled up the Mustang and then stopped off at the first Denny's restaurant I saw.  This began a cycle that would last for the next few days on the road.  I was so hungry I could eat two moose, but I was going through alcohol withdraw and could not relax for too long.  I would order a chicken fried steak (without gravy), potato and a salad.  I would get as much of that down my gob before I hit the road again.  

    Back in the Mustang again and the night time desert passes by, I think I had "...Twice Shy" by Great White in the tape player around this time?  I stopped at Motel 6 sometime in the morning, and stayed until the late evening.  I got just enough sleep to get me back on the road.  I did take time to take a dip in the pool though.  I had on a brand new pair of trunks and sat in wet pool caulking, that was not marked, so my last pair of trunks from California had a grey spotch across the bum...  I recall how great it felt to lay in a bed and watch telly.  I had missed that over the year.  

    But the yearning to get back on the road won out over trying to stop and enjoy life.  The fear, anxiety and any other grey cloud of "something is going to go wrong" put the spurs into my flank and back behind the driver's seat I was headed down the road again.  I think that other sober people who read this will know how I feel here in May of 1993?  It is so strange to write this in 2023 and I can feel like it is 30 years ago...  

     I was so expecting something drastic to go wrong and I would be stranded...so far that did not happen..yet.  It was in the evening when I crossed into New Mexico.  Looking back, I think this was my favourite part of the trip (I did not know that at the time).  It was late night when I drove through a sandstorm near White Sands.  I remember turning north near Las Cruces, and later driving over the Continental Divide of the United States.

    When I lived in So Cal I had a leak in my heater core and instead of replacing that I just rerouted the heater hoses and bypassed the heater core.  It was Southern California after all and it got cold I would Roll up the windows and put a sweatshirt on.  Going over the Divide it got cold, not frigid but it would have been nice to have heat (I need to remember this for next time.).  I was wearing shorts and T-Shirt, that got augmented with a USN wool blanket over my legs with a sweatshirt and jacket.  

    I think I stayed in another Motel 6 the next day?  By this time it was all turning into a blur.  I have not had a drink in a few days and I felt it.  But I knew if went out and got some beer and got drunk in a motel room that would lead to more crap to deal with.  So I white knuckled it...and forged ahead.  I tried to eat most of a dinner, got a few Mountain Dews, filled the tank and pointed the Mustang east.

     Looking back....New Mexico, and the rest of the US Desert Southwest was beautiful.  I really wished I had been in a better frame of mind and I could have enjoyed it more.  I was alone (or so I had thought) and was convinced that bad things would happen.  Had I gotten to know God a bit better at that time, had I attempted to change my way of thinking, I could have had a great time on the road and turned it into an adventure.

    Next came crossing into Texas (or OK? I really don't recall now).  More of the same...I was convinced that my 20 some year old 1967 Mustang (this is 1993...) was going to bite the dust and leave me stranded. That old horse had other plans and kept chugging down the road without a hitch.  It was remarkable how well a car that was a few years older than me got me across the country without blinking an eye.  I can look back and see this as an adventure, in my mental condition at the time it was anything but...  

   I think by the time I crossed the Mississippi River I consiously started to miss Southern California a bit. Here was this place that I had grown to love, met me first Girlfriend in, fell in love with the Pacific Ocean.  Part of me did start regretting leaving around this time.  Returning to Ohio as a 22 year old was a much bigger culture shock to me that arriving in California as a 19 year old.  

    Once I was on the Eastern side of the US, I started to think there was a slight chance I would actually make it.  The sense of anxiety was still there, I still could not relax, etc., but I started to have a slightly better mindset.  

     The only major car issue reared it's head near the Indiana-Ohio border at a fuel stop.  Walking back to my Mustang with a Coke.  Turing the key got the dreaded click, click of the starter solenoid.  I had a dead battery...  Opening the caps on the battery revealed no water in the battery.  So digging through a rubbish bin tuned up a empty Coke can.  Using that to pour water into the battery, it was back on the road...  The exact same thing would happen to my Mustang at a Grateful Dead Show in 1995.  Using an empty beer can and water from hippies coolers got my Mustang up and running again.  The voltage regulator went bad and let the battery overcharge.  

      I got to Bellevue, Ohio well after Midnight.  I stopped by and woke my Dad up, then back to the house I grew up in which my Sister was living at.  I was staying there for the time being.  I parked my Mustang.  Got a few things out and started to begin life as a 22 year old "Veteran".

    Later that year I received the gift of getting sober and not a moment too soon!!!  Had I started that road earlier when I was in the Service, this cross country journey would have been seen as the adventure it was and not to be dreaded.  About four years later I moved to Alaska.  I drove across the US and up the ALCAN Highway.  That trip was fun!!!  I actually had fun and did not worry too much about what could go wrong.  It is amazing what can be when your mindset is changed.

    Years later...I now have another Ford Mustang (I drove the living snot out of the one I this story), ironically the same year and colour (Lime Gold).  Once I get this one on the road...who knows, I might check out the Desert Southwest again?, I might go back to San Diego?

    In closing...thank you to The Beach Boys and Alice Cooper for the double title.  "Long Promised Road" 1971 by The Beach Boys, and "School's Out" 1972 by Alice Cooper.  I saw the legendary 1969 film "Easy Rider" after I got sober and wished I had seen the film before this trip.  I need to take the soundtrack tape along for the next time!!!