Joseph Cassell talks about his hijinks in the Fall of 1971 when he and his two buddies Frank and Earl decided to take a year off from college and drive across America. Truth is stranger than fiction as the long-haired, California trio (and an Afghan Hound), visit the Grand Canyon and see a mysterious figure hundreds of feet below. The adventure continues with near death encounters in freezing temperatures, and, just when it did not seem possible, things get even more surreal when the boys end up on the wrong side of a local sheriffs guns near St. Louis. This is the first part in a the true-life coming-of age story from a man who lived far more in a year-long sabbatical than most do in a lifetime.