Karl is the young man sitting behind the car in the photo. He is the perfect ad for picking up hitchhikers. Just outside Coober Pedy, Jack driving, we start to get up speed and there he is, classic pose, none of this post-modernist cardboard sign nonsense. Just a thumb and a smile.
We did manage to drive away, Sunday morning, a very cold and teary moment. I felt like a beast, tearing away at the heart of the family just for some crazy dream. Taking us away from Jan, from ‘home’. We sniffled all the way down the freeway, and then by the time we got past the urban sprawl started to feel like we were really doing this thing.
A few moments of doubt, I confess. Is this the craziest of all my crazy schemes and obsessions? Have I gone just too far this time?