Chapter 10 Summary

Chapter ten finds Jack back out on the road trying to hitch a ride back to Monterey and then on the bus to San Francisco. He opens the chapter quoting Thomas a Kempis: "You go out in joy and in sadness you return," and thinks of the young boys who get all duded up to hit the town and crawl back home again sick. He says he is like those boys as he reflects on this day. Standing thumb-up on the road, he starts to realize that a lot has changed in 20 years, and the well-dressed, well-pressed tourists of today are not as likely to pick up a dirty-looking hitchhiker as in the days of "On the Road."

He decides to walk the 14 miles and ends up blistered and hobbling before someone finally stops and takes mercy, retracing his route to take Kerouac...