My Epic Journey Home - Part Two

We began our trip on Thursday, August 25, at 2:35 am. We needed to reach Reno by Sunday. I had driven to his home the previous afternoon and we had spent all night packing. I use this term lightly because you see, though I was packed neatly, and all my items obsessively labeled, he literally just threw a bunch of stuff in the car on top of mine. He packed barely any clothes and no shelter, but he brought a full computer, extra screen and all his photography equipment. I understood that he was working as a photographer for the burn but his apparent unpreparedness worried me. He seemed very erratic and easily distracted. He told me he had PTSD and ADD. He had a prescription for Adderall. But he also seemed very sweet and intelligent. Who am I to judge another's issues? I am bipolar after all. It tends to make me very tolerant of other people's oddities. So we began our trip.

It began well enough but went down hill quickly. We drove and drove until nightfall again and somewhere in Missouri I decided we needed a good night's sleep, so I paid for a motel. I woke up the next morning to find him still awake having not slept at all. We got on the road and I continued to watch in concern as he also wasn't eating. I began to be a little uneasy as he kept popping more and more of his Adderall. On no sleep and no food. In Kansas right before we hit Nebraska the car broke down. I wasn't alarmed because he rationally figured out that the oil change he got before we left must have been done incorrectly. You see he has a turbo and the car was acting like it had regular oil in it instead of synthetic. This causes things to gunk up and over heat. When the car cooled we got back on the road and headed to our hotel we already had booked in Nebraska. We knew we would have to get the car looked at the next day. I thought the issue was decided on. I went to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to find him still awake after obsessively spending the entire night researching his engine online, calling his mother to yell at her about the oil change (she's the one who took the car to the mechanic for him), posting inflammatory and histrionic statements on facebook, and then finally getting a call from his father and yelling at him too for "taking his mother's side". I managed to get him calmed down and in the car but it was 1:00 pm at this point. I was getting seriously annoyed but kept it well hidden so as not to antagonize him further. We took the car to jiffy lube where I paid for an engine flush and fresh synthetic oil. The car fixed, I now turned my attention on my driver. He was unkempt, wild-eyed, and rambling at this point. He continued to pop Adderall like vitamins. Again on no sleep and no food. He was convinced we could push through and hit Reno by Sunday evening. After a heated argument in a parking lot we got on the road. He kept occasionally accusing me of saying things I hadn't really said, starting irritating yet small arguments. I humored him to shut him up. I just wanted to get to Reno. It became a mantra in my head. Reno. Reno. Reno. I thought he was just obsessing about this as well and would calm down and get some rest once we hit Reno. I had never wanted to see a city more.