Life takes some funny twists and turns. Like the hundreds of roads Prentice and I traveled in our two years of hiding across America, it sometimes seems that we have spent most of our lives following a winding, unfamiliar, and uncertain path. Tonight we find ourselves again at a crossroads, unsure which direction we should turn, knowing only that we cannot stand still.
One evening a few weeks ago Prentice wrote an article in which he reminisced about our time on the road together, our life as two young fugitives loose in the American frontier, crisscrossing the country from New Mexico to Massachusettes, from New Orleans to South Bend. The only law that governed us was that which said we must always keep moving.
Prentice had intended only a single article, a snapshot of that very special time in our lives. He had not intended to say anything more, but the enthusiastic reaction of our readers surprised the both of us.
Immediately after posting his article, “Hiding Across America In A VW Bus,” Prentice was besieged by readers wanting to know more. “Why were we hiding, what were we running from and how did it all turn out?” These were the questions on readers’ minds.
After considerable discussion Prentice and I decided to respond to our readers’ demand for more “Hiding Across America.” We decided that we would try to answer their questions in a series of articles we would write together—articles which would chronicle the months leading up to our years on the road; articles that would allow the reader to make sense of our travels. Prentice warned readers that patience would be needed to hear the whole story—a story so bizarre that it cannot be set out in a short narrative. It is a complicated story, and one that does not lend itself to summarization.
In the first dozen installments we have told the story of my arrival and first days in Austin, the frightening and comical story of our very unusual wedding day, and a few of the strange and disturbing events that immediately followed. As each installment was posted readers bombarded us with requests for more. Many readers are impatient. We understand.
We have arrived at a point in our story where we must make another decision. Should we satisfy reader demands for answers and spill the beans, so to speak? Or, should we continue the story in the way we intended, telling each part as it really happened. We have decided to do both.
For the past few months Prentice has been hard at work writing a new book, a true to life romantic drama based upon an all too true story. If you find Hiding Across America interesting, the book tells a story you will not want to miss.
The first draft of the book is nearly finished, but Prentice needs time for rewriting before forwarding the manuscript to his editor. To allow him this time, we have decided to bring Season 1 of Hiding Across America to an end, and to resume with a new season on September 15. In the meantime, our daily articles will continue as usual.
We expect the book to be released by Perkerson Park Press in December 2009. It will be available in paperback at Amazon.com, Barnes & Nobles, and elsewhere. A Kindle version will also be available on Amazon.com.
In return for your patience, we have also decided to spill a few of the beans, to end a little of the suspense and provide curious readers with a bit of information to mull over while awaiting Season 2. It’s a “sneak peak” at things to come and an answer to the question most frequently asked by our readers.
The most frequently asked question is, “Is this for real?” The answer is very simple. Yes, the story is real.
Okay! Okay… we’ll answer the second most frequently asked question too. “Why were you running?” This answer is a bit more complex.
We were running to find peace, to find quiet, and for the first time in our lives to be alone with one another. We were pursued by a group of people who posed a serious, very real threat to our safety and to our life together. Some were dedicated, relentless fanatics who played by no rules, others calculating mercenaries loyal only to their fee. They were intent that Prentice and I should never have a life together, and there was nothing they were unwilling to do to bring about that result.
In the end, they failed.
As I think back on that time, a time which has never faded nor strayed far from my consciousness, the memories that come to mind are all happy memories of our wonderful adventure together. We were so young, and our life together was so new. I can almost hear the motor humming as our bus passed unnoticed through the darkness on a road that might have been anywhere.
It saddens me to realize how long ago were those nights, and I often dream that we are there again, side by side, free to go where we want whenever we want to go there. But, our old VW bus has been gone for so many years now. We said our goodbyes to that venerable traveling companion on a frozen January morning in 1975 when its pistons stroked for the last time in foot high snow on the outskirts of Akron, Ohio. We were on our way from Pittsburgh to Austin. Our travels were nearing an end.
Please join us on September 15th when our travels resume with Installment 13 of our story. In the meantime, all of our “reruns” are available from the “Related Posts” links below.
If you are new to the story, welcome aboard. If you’re a regular reader, Prentice and I want to thank you for helping us double our readership over the past two months. Thanks!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay, so “Season One” of the story closes. With a “tune in next season” that’s as beckoning if not quite as exciting (& whodunit) as the “Who shot J.R.?” ending to TV’s “Dallas” was way back when.
I must confess, I got so busy with stuff in the past couple of weeks that I haven’t read the last eight or nine episodes — yet. But I just HAD to read this one. And it leaves an unanswered question. Yes, I think I can understand that you were running to find peace, quiet & each other — and perhaps the traditional honeymoon didn’t appear to you to suffice for all this. Nor would a brief stay in a convent or monastery (á la Jay Hartley in ’08) have sufficed, perhaps. And you know? I can almost hear that old pop song in the background: “Me and you and a dog named Boo / Travelin’ an’ a-livin’ off the land. . . .”
But then you add that you also were running FROM somebody. Somebody unnamed, but described as a “group of people . . .a serious, very real threat . . .[s]ome . . .fanatics . . . , others mercenaries. . . .” Some of the description might fit merely parents and/or other kinfolk who were immoveably opposed to your marriage. Some of it sounds like the FBI or the CIA — or perhaps even the draft board! But the entire description fits none of the above.
So who WERE these people that had you two on the run? Or is this the equivalent to the “Who shot J.R.?” mystery, to get us back next season? Will we learn next season WHO these utterly evil folks were, who make Mary Crosby’s “Dallas” character seem like a choir girl?
I await the answer, with baited breath. . . .
Can’t wait for the book you mention to come out and I can’t wait for more of this story. I wish I had a story like this to tell. No matter what it is all turns out to be about, it is romantic!
Thanks Mary Ann for not leaving us hanging by a worn and frayed thread! I’ll willingly wait for Season 2 – and will remind you if it slips your mind on, or about, September 15th!
Thankfully your blog is so interesting that I know I’ll find a posting every day that gives me pause to THINK! You know you both have the ability to help me clear out the cobwebs of apathy and the dust bunnies of procrastination. Perkersonpark.com is on my toolbar and I’ll click on it again tomorrow. That is a promise!
I’m still trying to figure out who these people are exactly that you are running from. I guess that’s what makes for a good story though! Hurry back!