How it all started.

It was 1983. I had evicted from my mothers home for the third and final time just one week after my twenty first birthday. There wasn't a celebration for my birthday, or my exit. It was me, my backpack and the highway under my feet. With my right thumb in the air and a one hundred pound hikers pack mounted firmly on my back I pointed my sights towards the west and headed for the Rocky Mountains.

Mom's house was in Indiana at that time. I had a lot of difficulties getting along back then. I was accustomed to hitchhiking long distances so it wasn't a big deal when I had to leave, with nothing but my cloths, my backpack, sleeping bag and my tent. I had no money. I headed west thinking that I might try living off of the land in the mountains of Colorado.

A couple of days after leaving, I was in Iowa and managed to get a ride from an over-the-road driver in an old Mack R700L pulling a flatbed.  His name was Larry. On the C.B. he went by "Whiskers". I will never forget that day. I had spent the past seventeen or so years hoping to learn how to drive a truck and now I was going to get to ride in one.

To be continued...

West Coast Reflections is intended to be a collection of memories and images from my past. When ever possible, I will include lessons learned. There are as many lessons as there are images too.

I currently have in excess of five thousand photos, most of which were taken with a 35mm camera. I do not intend to post all of them, but as a new project that I've recently created, I plan to start scanning them into my computer to preserve them and have easier access to them.

I hope that you enjoy my blog. If you do, please leave me your comments.

This photo taken in 1997.
I'm heading into California in my first truck, a 1987 359 "numbered" truck.