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
the night before at Dennis Hopper's place 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."
We drove off, heading north, got back on the highway toward Hopper's house,
and after maybe two minutes, we passed a road sign that said:
'If You Have Come This Far, No Point in Turning Back Now.'
I 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.
