Chapter 5: The Night I Met Dennis Hopper

If You've Come This Far

Out there I found eyes that stay blue far into the dusk. Out there you can get lost and no one will
ever bother to look for you.
Down the highway there was a gas station liquor store that said proudly on the outside, "We Sell
Maps and Liquor." The day we were there, they were out of both. The guy at the counter said no one buys the
maps anyway and there was a huge party up the ways a bit the night before at Dennis Hopper's pad and he had bought out
all the liquor. I had met Hopper, one of the main reasons we were out there in the desert in the first place,
at a Neil Young show years before in San Francisco at the Boarding House. So circumstances being often what they are,
really just coincidences in life, we knew all too well about the liquor. My head still hurt.
As we walked out the door, I noticed a box on the porch of the store, a label on
the outside stating"Maps and Flags." I recalled that they didn't sell flags either in the store.
We drove off, headed north, getting back on the highway toward Hopper's place, and after maybe 5 minutes, we passed
a road sign that said 'If You Have Come This Far, No Point in Turning Back Now.' Have always thought that Dennis had
staked that out, maybe as a warning. One we did not take too seriously, or so we hoped.
With not a single car in sight, we kept going, driving in the center of the highway splitting
the double yellow line down the middle as a razor might slice a sheet of paper like soft butter.