B: So I guess you really enjoyed your trip across Europe, huh?
M: Oh yeah. There's something about being completely on your own in a foreign place. It's exciting,
it's a bit risky, and you've only got yourself to rely on.
B: Yeah, those long trips are fun. I went on a roadtrip once with a friend of mine from college.
M: Oh yeah?
B: We rented a car and traveled all the way from Louisiana to the West Coast, up through New
Mexico, L.A., San Francisco, as far as Northern California.
M: Wow, that's a long way. What'd you do, stay in hotels?
B: No, we had a lot of friends along the way, so we stayed at friends' houses.
M: Oh, that sounds like a nice way to travel.
B: Yeah, it was.
M: When was this?
B: It was shortly before college graduation. I had never been outside of the deep South.
M: Oh really?
B: Yeah. I'd been to Mississippi and South Carolina to visit relatives, and my family regularly went
to Florida for vacations at the beach.
M: Uh-huh.
B: But that was it. So I was pretty psyched about going to all those new places.
M: Yeah, I bet.
B: Plus the guy I was going with was pretty interesting. He was pretty adventurous. He liked to try
new things, go to new places, and just experience different types of social scenes.
M: Different social scenes? Like what?
B: Well, for example, we stayed with his Mom, who was living with a couple of younger guys -
M: Uh-huh.
B: - which is kind of unusual because they were so much younger than her. Then we stayed
with a friend of his who lived on a commune.
M: A commune? You mean like they all lived on a farm together?
B: Well, actually it was kind of in the desert. They had some Native Americans living with them.
M: Hmm. I see what you mean by different kinds of social scenes.
B: Yeah. So anyway, my friend was kind of free-spirited, sort of a risk-taker, and I was hoping
some of his sense of adventure would rub off on me.
M: Oh really?
B: Yeah, I was too careful. I wanted to be more spontaneous.
M: Uh-huh.
B: Well, one night I discovered that sometimes a person can be too spontaneous.
M: Oh yeah?
B: Yeah. One night our car broke down. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere.
M: Uh-oh.
B: Luckily Mike had his cell phone and they came and got it. They said it'd be ready the next day.
M: Uh-huh.
B: So we had some time to kill. I went to tell Mike the news.
M: Yeah.
B: He was talking to a couple of...how can I put it...biker girls.
M: Oh wow. You mean like leather and Harley-Davidsona and all?
B: Exactly. I could tell Mike was trying to pick up these girls -
M: Yeah?
B: So when he said they'd invited us to a party out in the desert, I went along with it.
M: Wow. In the desert?
B: Yeah, it sounded a bit dodgy to me too, but what could I do?
M: Right. You said you wanted to be more adventurous, right?
B: Well, I got my chance.
M: Oh yeah? What happened?
B: Well, one of the biker girls invited me to take a spin on her bike.
M: Oh wow. Groovy!
B: The thing was, though, I didn't have a helmet.
M: Oh right.
B: And I knew it was illegal and I shouldn't do it and all...
M: But you can't let that stop you, right?
B: Right. It was too good to pass up.
M: Yeah.
B: Plus the girl was really hot in a biker sort of way.
M: (Laughs) Yeah.
B: So I did it!
M: You did it! Good for you. And was it -
B: -worth it?
M: - Yeah, was it everything you dreamed it would be?
B: It was all that and more.
M: But you shouldn't have done it!
B: I just couldn't help myself.

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