Sal stayed with Remi and Remi had him write a screenplay for Hollywood. In San Francisco, Sal found Remi Boncoeur’s place (a shack) and climbed in through the window. He said goodbye to all his friends but couldn’t find Dean before he left. Sal wrote to his aunt for more money and then bought a bus ticket to San Francisco. Before he left, though, Dean fixed him up with a woman named Rita Bettencourt, who Sal slept with. When Sal got back to Denver, he had an urge to travel to San Francisco. Sal went on a trip with some friends to a nearby mountain town, where they stayed in an abandoned miner’s house, threw a great big party, got drunk, and went all over town causing trouble. Sal watched as Carlo and Dean sat on Carlo’s bed all night and talked, sharing all their thoughts honestly. Dean announced that he was set to divorce Marylou and marry Camille. He went to a huge party with his friends and then went to Carlo’s house and heard Carlo read some of his poetry. Sal got a call from Eddie, who happened to be in Denver, too. Sal, Dean, and Carlo went out partying together in Denver.

Sal learns that Dean is simultaneously seeing Marylou and another woman named Camille. He then moved in with another friend, a writer named Roland Major, and finally heard from Dean and Carlo, who had become close friends and would “communicate with absolute honesty” every day while sitting opposite each other on a bed, high on Benzedrine. His first night in Denver, Sal stayed with his friend Chad King, unable to find Dean or Carlo. Slim took off the next day and Sal hitched rides to Denver. He and another passenger from the truck, Montana Slim, went to bars, drank, and met some girls. He loved the ride, which took him all the way to Cheyenne. When the truck stopped somewhere, Sal bought a bottle of whiskey and shared it with his fellow hitchhikers. Sal hitched a ride with a truck that was picking up all sorts of vagrants in its flatbed. Sal gave Eddie a wool shirt when it started raining, and then Eddie left Sal behind when they encountered a farmer’s trailer with only room for one passenger. As he continued catching buses and hitchhiking, he met a fellow traveler named Eddie and the two started to travel together.

From Chicago, he started hitchhiking west, eating apple pie and ice cream wherever he stopped. Sal had an urge to follow them west and get out on the road, so he saved up some money and took a bus to Chicago, heading for his friend Remi Boncoeur in San Francisco. Not long after, Dean and Carlo journeyed out west. Sal was struck by Dean’s mad enthusiasm for life, and the two became friends, as Dean also got to know Sal’s close friend Carlo Marx. Sal Paradise recalls when he first met Dean Moriarty, who came to New York City from Colorado with his new wife Marylou and asked Sal to teach him how to write.

Jack kerouac reading on the road