Surfing The Interstates—Overview
1973 Cross Country Hitchhiking Memoir—Chapter Summaries, Character Arc
In case you were wondering what this book is all about, here is a chapter by chapter summary that sketches out the complete arc of book one of my memoir triptych.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 1: Thumb Out
Andre, broke and restless, leaves his family’s 1865 farmhouse in Ledge Acres after 13 years. Haunted by memories of a once-happy Christmas and his father’s abuse toward his mother, he steals $80 from her closet and hits the road, hitchhiking toward California. Carrying a backpack, guitar, and mix tapes, he reflects on his father’s hypocrisy and his own escape from a dysfunctional family. His first ride, a Vietnam vet, offers insight into the war’s lingering pain, while a second ride with a hippie couple reveals a fleeting, warm connection.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 2: Turn On Your Lovelight
Andre camps alone in Pennsylvania woods, reflecting on love and loss after hitchhiking from home. Haunted by memories of a 1970 Grateful Dead concert at Penn, he recalls an acid-fueled night of music, connection, and revelation. The Dead’s performance, especially Pigpen’s “Turn On Your Lovelight,” sparks a spiritual and sensory awakening, intensified by meeting Sara, who leads him to a transformative, fleeting romantic encounter in his yellow room. Back in the present, smoking weed and listening to tapes, he grapples with the eternal and ephemeral, carrying these experiences westward.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 3: The Kindness of Strangers
Andre wakes in a damp Pennsylvania campsite, haunted by memories of a transformative Grateful Dead concert. Hitchhiking west, he meets River, a free-spirited flutist who plays while steering with his knees, teaching Andre to embrace vulnerability in music. In Illinois, Andre joins a campfire jam with Montreal travelers, finding joy in collaborative music-making. After quick rides, he reaches Denver but hesitates to join a group heading to Glacier Lake, grappling with fear of connection. In Boulder, feeling out of place among students, he continues hitchhiking, embracing the road’s lessons and fleeting human connections.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 4: The Price of Paradise
Andre hitches a ride in a pristine VW bus with three affluent women—Star, Moon, and Molly—headed to a cabin in Nederland. Feeling out of place, he plays his guitar to fit in but declines to join them, valuing authentic connections from past rides. In Boulder, he checks the value of his Harmony Cremona guitar, learning it’s worth $200, though he’s reluctant to sell. A draft-dodging Canadian, Bill, drives him to Lyons, sharing his prison story. In Estes Park, Andre camps with Brian and Dennis, sharing food and music in a leaky tent, embracing fleeting camaraderie before heading higher to Glen Haven.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 5: The Frequency of Freedom
Andre wakes in a rainy Colorado canyon and hikes to Glen Haven, where he meets Steve and Mike, musicians playing at the general store. Joined by Lucy and Jade, they form a group and camp in Piper Meadows, sharing music, food, and stories. Lucy’s free-spirited dancing and sound-healing philosophy inspire Andre, who grapples with his guarded nature. Jade teaches survival skills, and their campfire jams create a temporary family. Lucy’s brief, intimate moment with Andre challenges his emotional barriers. As they part, Lucy gives him a stone, and Andre, carrying new songs and insights, hitches toward Granby, reflecting on love and freedom.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 6: The Solitary Push
Andre hitches from Glen Haven to Wyoming, warned about local cops’ hostility toward long-hairs. The open landscape evokes memories of Steve Ferry, a friend from Penn who labeled his weed stashes “Murder,” “Insanity,” and “Death” to mock anti-drug propaganda. Steve, alienated by his abusive ad-exec father, dodged the draft with a psychological deferment, but his paranoia grew, hinting at government surveillance. Andre, reflecting on Steve’s unraveling and a woman’s suicide in New York, reaches California, feeling its promise. After a barbecue in Sonora, he heads to Santa Rosa to find Steve, carrying lessons of the road’s unpredictable provisions.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 7: Chicken Coop Days
Andre arrives at Steve’s chicken coop home on a derelict Santa Rosa prune ranch, marked by a lightning-damaged redwood mirroring their shared wounds. Reunited after a euphoric RFK Stadium concert, Andre finds Steve haunted by his abusive father’s rejection and paranoia about surveillance. They work together on a prune ranch, earning cash, but Steve’s drinking and fixation on a mysterious van reveal his unraveling. Tensions rise as Steve hints Andre’s stay is too long. Carrying memories of past damage and a story about a disabled classmate, Andre leaves for the redwoods, sensing an unresolved connection with Steve.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 8: Sasha Among The Giants
Andre hitches north on Highway 101, escaping Steve’s troubled orbit in Santa Rosa. In Richardson Grove, among towering redwoods, he camps alone, finding peace in the forest’s silence. Encountering Sasha, a commune member who seems to embody a character from his old script, they connect deeply during a peyote-fueled “medicine walk.” The forest reveals visions of survival—lightning, fire, endurance—mirroring Andre’s own resilience. Sasha shares her commune’s ethos of shared love and living with the land. Though drawn to her, Andre respects her boundaries, parting with a new understanding of home as a feeling, not a place, carrying the forest’s wisdom forward.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 9: Target Practice
Andre returns to Steve’s Santa Rosa chicken coop, sensing a shift in his friend’s demeanor. Steve’s paranoia escalates, marked by a makeshift gun range, midnight guitar feedback, and suspicions of being watched. Tensions rise as landlords Dan and Martha confront Steve about his disruptive behavior, threatening eviction. During a tense moment, Andre accidentally shoots Steve’s car door with a .22 rifle, fracturing their friendship. Steve’s erratic behavior—drinking, wielding a .38, and accusing Andre of betrayal—forces Andre to leave. With little money and a San Rafael address, Andre hitches south, carrying the redwoods’ calm and Steve’s unraveling, seeking the Grateful Dead’s headquarters.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 10: Let The Guitar Decide
Andre reaches the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael office, where he unexpectedly meets Jerry Garcia. Jerry admires Andre’s 1935 Harmony Cremona guitar, playing it briefly and sharing wisdom about its history and voice, urging Andre to let it guide his journey. Leaving with newfound reverence for his instrument, Andre hitches to Golden Gate Park, reflecting on freedom and desire through poetry. There, a psychedelic 1939 bus, the Uncertainty Principle, driven by Cosmic Eddie, picks him up. Joined by eclectic travelers, Andre plays guitar, sharing stories and music as they roll south along Highway 1 toward Monterey, embracing the road’s unpredictable flow.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 11: Zip!
Andre rides the psychedelic Uncertainty Principle bus along Highway 1 until it stops at an overlook near Bixby Bridge. As the group relieves themselves, two metallic, spherical objects appear, moving impossibly fast and halting abruptly above the Pacific. Emitting brilliant beams, they scan the ocean, illuminating intricate patterns and currents as if reading encoded information. The objects defy physics, shifting positions instantly and pulsing in sync with the water. Shaken, Andre chooses to camp alone to process the encounter. Playing his guitar under the stars, he reflects on the universe’s mysteries, convinced the objects were reading the ocean’s ancient stories.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 12: Love Through Stone
Andre wakes from a vivid dream of an African village, finding three translucent stones—white, pink, yellow—symbolizing clarity, heart, and abundance. The dream, featuring a call from his mother, reflects his longing for connection amidst a childhood of constant moves. On the Pacific Coast Highway, still processing the UFO sighting, he hitches rides from Bixby Creek to LA, then east to Cabazon with Geoff and Jason, fellow travelers with roots he envies. Contemplating the UFOs’ ability to read the ocean’s memories, Andre yearns for a love that sees his depths, hoping to find a woman in Austin who’ll teach him the rhythm of staying, transforming fleeting connections into lasting ones.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 13: The Ocean Don't Lie
Andre, Geoff, and Jason hitch east from Phoenix in a Peterbilt, driven by Carl, a weary trucker mourning his enlisted son. In the scorching desert, a cop shoos them from an on-ramp, but a VW van driven by Wade, a tattooed ex-Navy sailor, offers salvation. Wade shares stories of Vietnam, sailing solo to Tahiti, and living authentically, unburdened by societal expectations. A tire blowout nearly kills them, reinforcing Wade’s philosophy of embracing life’s rawness. He advises solitude to find one’s true self and dismisses the “American Dream” as a lie. Dropped in Las Cruces, the trio carries Wade’s wisdom and wine, facing the night and their next ride toward El Paso.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 14: Out In The West Texas Town Of El Paso
Andre, Geoff, and Jason reach El Paso, huddling in a truck stop diner where hostile truckers glare at their long hair. A TV news report shocks Andre: Steve Ferry, his friend from Penn, has died in a shootout at the Santa Rosa chicken coop, firing at the landlords’ house before police killed him. The footage—Steve’s deliberate shots, his Plymouth’s slow roll, the barrage of bullets—replays Andre’s last moments with him, including the accidental car shooting. Haunted by Steve’s paranoia, labeled “Murder,” “Insanity,” “Death” on his film canisters, Andre sees his friend’s self-fulfilling prophecy. Playing “El Paso” feels impossible; instead, Andre strums to process the loss. As they hitch east toward Austin, Geoff shares a cousin’s similar post-Vietnam suicide, underscoring the war’s lingering toll. Steve’s death, like his draft-dodging performance, became his reality, leaving Andre to grapple with survival and the road ahead.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 15: The Descending Dark
Andre, Geoff, and Jason ride a semi through the Texas night, haunted by Steve’s televised death in a shootout. Dropped at a Fort Stockton Texaco, they hitch a ride with Louisiana oil workers to Junction, where Andre, driven by grief and a need for solitude, chooses Big Bend over Austin. An old rancher, Williams, takes him to the park, sharing his own loss from the Korean War and wisdom about carrying grief like a river carries stones. In Santa Elena Canyon, Andre camps under starlit limestone walls, seeking answers in their ancient silence. Waking to find his beloved Harmony Cremona guitar stolen, he feels its loss like an amputation, yet continues deeper into the canyon, carrying Steve’s memory, Sasha’s stone, and Jason’s wooden horse, trusting the landscape to teach him how to endure.
Surfing The Interstates—Chapter 16: Phantom Ships
Andre, fasting for days in Santa Elena Canyon, enters a trance-like state, merging with the ancient limestone and Rio Grande. Writing in his journal, he urges escape to nature’s silence for peace. A low-flying F-4 Phantom jet disrupts the canyon’s sanctity, triggering rage. Andre hurls stones that transform into doves, then prayers, dissolving against the war machine. Smoking his last joint and playing “Wooden Ships” on his cassette player, he envisions escape on a boat, free from war’s reach. Steve’s ghost appears, urging Andre to find love that moves like water. A prophetic vision reveals a woman by the sea, promising a love of patient tides. Emerging from the canyon, Andre walks north, carrying the loss of his stolen guitar but buoyed by the promise of a deeper connection, guided by water’s truth.
Surfing The Interstates—Narrative Overview
Andre, the protagonist and narrator of ‘Surfing The Interstates” (seemingly inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road), undergoes a profound character arc across the 16 chapters. Beginning as a restless, introspective 21-year-old fleeing a dysfunctional family and personal traumas, he evolves into a more self-aware seeker of deeper meaning, grappling with loss, connection, and purpose. His journey is marked by physical hitchhiking across America but is fundamentally internal: a quest for emotional resilience, authentic relationships, and a sense of home beyond the road.
Surfing The Interstates—Act 1: Departure and Initial Restlessness (Chapters 1–4)
At the outset, Andre is portrayed as a disillusioned, impulsive young man burdened by family secrets and a sense of suffocation. In Chapter 1 (“Thumb Out”), he’s 21, broke, and haunted by his father’s abuse toward his mother and the family’s fractured dynamics (e.g., a sibling’s death in childbirth, his father’s hypocrisy about violence). He’s introspective and nostalgic, fixating on a “ghost” Christmas memory symbolizing lost innocence. Music (Grateful Dead tapes) and marijuana serve as escapes, revealing his artistic, sensitive side. His theft of $80 from his mother’s closet shows a pragmatic yet guilty survival instinct—he justifies it as “saving yourself first,” echoing Kerouac’s influence. Hitchhiking begins as rebellion: he’s evasive about his draft lottery (high number, but ready to flee to Canada), highlighting his anti-establishment streak and fear of conformity.
By Chapter 2 (“Turn On Your Lovelight”), Andre’s vulnerability deepens through acid-fueled flashbacks to a 1970 Grateful Dead concert, where music and a fleeting encounter with Sara represent spiritual and sexual awakening. He’s philosophical, pondering love, death (e.g., musicians like Pigpen, Hendrix), and time as a “spiral.” This chapter exposes his longing for transcendence amid isolation— he’s “watching life instead of living it,” a recurring self-critique.
In Chapter 3 (“The Kindness of Strangers”), Andre’s adaptability shines as he bonds with drivers like River (who teaches vulnerability through flute-playing while driving) and joins a mescaline-fueled jam. He’s guarded yet open to fleeting connections, fearing “being seen” due to childhood shame (e.g., his father’s time-telling lessons turning punitive). His guitar-playing shifts from solo noodling to collaborative, signaling budding confidence.
Chapter 4 (“The Price of Paradise”) reveals Andre’s class consciousness and authenticity-seeking: he rejects affluent women’s superficiality, valuing “real connection” from past rides. He’s pragmatic (valuing his guitar at $200) but idealistic, camping with strangers and embracing transient camaraderie. His arc here hints at loneliness—he hesitates to join groups, fearing disappointment.
Overall in this phase, Andre is a wandering idealist: sensitive, music-obsessed, and traumatized, using the road to escape but beginning to question perpetual motion.
Surfing The Interstates—Act 2: Connections and Revelations (Chapters 5–8)
Andre’s growth accelerates through relationships and epiphanies, shifting from isolation to tentative openness. In Chapter 5 (“The Frequency of Freedom”), camping with Steve, Mike, Lucy, and Jade in Glen Haven, he forms a “temporary family.” Lucy’s free-spirited philosophy challenges his guardedness; he grapples with “loving without walls” but admits he’s “one step outside.” Music becomes communal healing, teaching him vulnerability (e.g., jamming polyrhythms). A brief intimate moment with Lucy exposes his inexperience with emotional depth.
Chapter 6 (“The Solitary Push”) contrasts this: flashbacks to Penn reveal Andre’s bond with the paranoid Steve Ferry, foreshadowing loss. Andre is empathetic yet detached, recognizing Steve’s unraveling as a mirror to his own fears (e.g., draft avoidance). Crossing into California, he feels “possibility,” but it’s tempered by reflection on illusions.
In Chapter 7 (“Chicken Coop Days”), Andre reunites with Steve in Santa Rosa, exposing his loyalty and concern. He’s practical (working prune ranches) but horrified by Steve’s paranoia and drinking. Accidentally shooting Steve’s car fractures their friendship, highlighting Andre’s clumsiness in tense situations. He leaves feeling unresolved, showing growth in recognizing toxic dynamics.
Chapter 8 (“Sasha Among The Giants”) is pivotal: in Richardson Grove, Andre’s solitude yields peace, but meeting Sasha (embodying his college script character) sparks profound connection via peyote. Visions of survival (lightning, fire) mirror his resilience; Sasha’s commune ethos teaches “home as a feeling.” He’s romantic yet respectful of boundaries (learning she loves women), emerging with hope for belonging.
This phase transforms Andre from a lone wanderer to someone craving authentic bonds, using psychedelics and nature for self-discovery.
Surfing The Interstates—Act 3: Loss, Grief, and Transformation (Chapters 9–16)
Andre confronts profound loss, culminating in spiritual rebirth. In Chapter 9 (“Target Practice”), back with Steve, he witnesses escalating paranoia (gun range, accusations). The accidental shooting and Steve’s rage force Andre to leave, marking maturity in prioritizing self-preservation.
Chapter 10 (“Let The Guitar Decide”) offers uplift: meeting Jerry Garcia, who blesses his guitar, reinforces Andre’s musical identity. Joining the psychedelic bus symbolizes embracing uncertainty, shifting from isolation to communal flow.
In Chapter 11 (“Zip!”), the UFO sighting shatters Andre’s worldview, evoking awe and vertigo. Camping alone to process, he reflects on universal mysteries, deepening his philosophical bent.
Chapter 12 (“Love Through Stone”) brings a prophetic dream of African stones, symbolizing clarity, heart, and abundance amid childhood transience. Hitchhiking east, he yearns for lasting love, envisioning a woman who’ll teach “staying.”
Chapter 13 (“The Ocean Don’t Lie”) introduces Wade, whose seafaring wisdom plants seeds of ocean-as-truth. A tire blowout underscores life’s fragility, aligning with Andre’s growing resilience.
In Chapter 14 (“Out In The West Texas Town Of El Paso”), Steve’s televised shootout death devastates Andre, forcing confrontation with war’s lingering trauma. As a “pilgrim,” he processes guilt and loss, recognizing Steve’s self-fulfilling madness.
Chapter 15 (“The Descending Dark”) sees Andre detour to Big Bend for solitude, but his guitar’s theft amplifies grief, symbolizing lost identity. Yet, he persists, trusting the canyon’s wisdom.
Finally, Chapter 16 (“Phantom Ships”) climaxes in fasting-induced visions: hurling stones at a jet transforms rage into prayer; smoking and music summon Steve’s ghost, urging water-bound love. Andre emerges renewed, sensing a future partner and ocean freedom, his arc resolving from flight to purposeful seeking.
Surfing The Interstates—Overall Arc Summary
Andre begins as a traumatized runaway—impulsive, introspective, music-reliant, and relationally guarded due to family instability and institutional isolation. Through encounters, he learns vulnerability, authenticity, and communal joy, but losses (Steve’s death, guitar theft) catalyze crisis. Psychedelics, nature, and visions foster resilience, shifting him toward embracing uncertainty and deeper love. By the end, he’s a transformed seeker: wiser, hopeful for lasting connection, drawn to water’s fluidity over the road’s endless cycle—evolving from lost youth to enlightened wanderer.