As a young man about to embark upon a summer-long hitchhiking trip through the western United States in the mid-1970s, James Crockett was given a second-hand copy of Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel, On the Road- and later, Kerouac books which provided companionship and enlightenment on the journey. This novelistic memoir, based upon journals kept during the trip, is something like a personal On the Road, set in the late 1970s. And as Kerouac did in his books chronicling the Duluoz legend, Crockett has given aliases to all the characters - including himself - to protect their privacy....