Foreshadowings -- A defense of the gentle art of hitchhiking -- Sound and fury -- Service plaza -- Cop -- Laws of the highway -- Dangers -- Chicago independent -- Missionary -- Gods of the highway -- Chinese-Canadian tourists -- Mexican driver -- Night -- Truck stop -- Malaise -- Rounding St. Louis -- Weirdo -- Regional manager -- The literary life -- Hannibal -- Hopping freights -- Townspeople -- Sleeping rough -- The tramp's alarm clock -- Midtown crossroads -- Of grain elevators and skydiving -- The easy life -- Of toll bridges and torts -- Of air conditioners and conspiracy -- A historical investigation -- The art and science of hitchhiking -- A vehicular taxonomy, or natural history of the highway -- A fellow musician -- A ride across the plains -- Another night on the road -- Red desert and Little America -- Russian -- The melting pot -- The whiteness of the drivers -- Corvette -- Russian redux -- Dark streets -- And the gods laughed -- Envoi : Mexico 1987.