Highway 666 Re-Visited

Sometime in the winter of 1980 I had left the University at Green Bay, Wisconsin and headed for the South West States of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona driving my old Chcvy Impala 1965 which I had bought for two US Dollars from my girl friend then and she had got it from her grandma. I was not escaping from the cold Wisconsin winter but was on a school trip, a part of my course study program. I had been allowed to do an independant study for my Fine Arts Degree after having convinced four faculty members from various departments through a University of Wisconsin pioneer program called 'Univerwsity Without Walls' which allows for a student to come up with a design for his or her own degree. Applicants were required to write a propossal after having had acquired a 3.75 grade point average of 37 credits earned prior. I had qualified for this and wrote the propossal entitled "Art in Quest of The Universality". With this Bombastic title and tall spin of a yarn I applied for the chance to be a part of this pioneer program.
The propossal was deliberated by four faculty members and would upon reaching a decision call the candidate for an interview, I ws accepted without an interview! It was a pleasant surprise for me as i never did take school as seriously before then and to be accepted with such ease almost scared me. In my propossal I plainly told the fact that studio studies was become a bore to me and that I felt no challenge in hanging around painting studios and printmaking studios day in day out, I needed to live as an artist on the outside, in the streets away from the campus and its familliar surroundings. On informing me of the decision to allow me to do the program one of my professors jokingly said that the guys were more than happy to get rid of you Sam!! Yes I was no doubt not the best role model as a University student even in the fine arts program, my long hair and beard and my smelly old army kacket, my torn at the knees jeans and my two Guinness Stout and an order of cheese curds luch manu was not the ideal example to set for future students. But I was respected as an artist and no doubt about that, even the most red necked of professors took a wide curve away from my path when it came to Art in those days. I was eating, sleeping and shitting Art so much so that they had to offer me a vacation from myself just to make sure that I did not die in the printmaking shop from too much acid fume ihalation. When I had the first solo exhibition at the University Lawton Gallery and the first student to be allowed to do so in the university history, my mentor and Professor, the late William (Bill) Prevetti came up to me and whispered in my ear, 'Sam, all these guys can't hold water up to your works. There were many art fculty members at the openning of my show.
Actually my first trip out of the campus took me to England along with a group of students from other Arts department. It was a verymemorable journey which launched my future as an artist cum journalist. I started keeping my art journals eversince and called them back then my Eigth Ball Path, becaus I had found a bunch of stickers of the eighth ball (pool ball # 8) ad stuck them on the covers of my black hard cover sketchbooks off course i ran out of stickers after a while and the books continued in numbers. The England trip took place in 1979 and till today I am still drawing and sketching and keeping an on going journal of my life and works for whatever, God only knows. But this, call it ahobby, has kept me going as an artist year after year and I had managed to keep most of these journals no matter where my life had taken me. They travled with me from the US to Japan and now to Malaysia. They have become my refference of what i had done and claim to have done in my past life as an artist, a breadwinner, a father, a traveller, a seeker.
I most probably had written this episode in my life some thirty times already and told it thirty odd more times at one dinner table or another to entertain my friends or guests. But I also have another more legitimate excuse for writing this down and that is the fact that one day I'd like to see my life's adventure in a book form before i exit this life and embark upon the next phase of my journey into the unknown. So for those who have the patience and he determination to follow this blog at times mnotonous and boring as it is, bear with me for it will al come together at the end of the day and rest assured that when it does I will have creatred a masterpiece of what is My Art.

I was driving my Chevy with a faded picture of the Virgin Marry stuck to the dashboard along the 65 mile long road between Gallup and Durango on the border of New Mexico and Colorado on my way north to Denver. It was drizzling rain and the road was a straight two lane highway with nothing in sight on both sides of the road but pure darkness. I was driving through the Navajo Reservation on Highway 666. Yes they called it the Devil's Highway and has many a tall tale to tell just look it up on the internet! Off course i had no idea what an internet was back then and nor did i know of Highway 666 except for the number being notoriously linked to the Devil one way or another. Never thought of it while driving just determined to get to Denver in one piece.
I have done a great deal of night driving and had gotten used to it and even enjoyed it for obvious reasons. Its peaceful, quiet and meditative and it allows for me to do alot of thinking too and dreaming and singing out loud! Less traffic, cooler and you get the sense that you own the road along with just a few night warriors like yourself the truck drivers, the long distance travellers and people who are returning from one late party or another. I had covered many miles of the US Highways from north to south and east to west in my years of living there. I love driving along the American highways especially along country roads and long stretches of the South West highways just so long as the vehicle I was driving was in good condition and I had enough fuel to take me to my next destination.
Highway 666 was no different than most haighways in the South West and while driving this straight road with a roller coaster ride of up and down small hills it was normal for me even if it was past midnight and I was the only vehicle on the road. I saw the on coming lights of another vehicle after sometime and thought nothing of it as it kept appearing and disappering from sight. How ever as it got nearer I began to get an uneasy feeeling that something was not right. I became fully awake and checked to make sure that I was on the right side of the road and yes I was. The oncoming vehicle kept charging towards me in the darkness and except for the two bright lights I could not tell what make it was. Then it was too late, I realized to my horror that the vihicle bearing down on me was driving along the same lane as I was!! My mind reacted at the last minute before the head on collision, I swerved the Chevy so that the impact would be taken on the pasasenger's side of the car and in doing so the oncoming vehicle slammed the Chevy and set it spinning on the slippery wet road and it came to a rest facing the direction from which I was headed making a three hundred and sisxty degrees turnaround while I was holding on to my dear life. Thank God for tough old American cars!
I got out of the car immediately and checked the front lights, none broken, checked the engine on the hood and felt it still running, the worse is over! Then on looking up to see if the other vehicle was alright I found myself staring stupidly at two tail lights appearing and disappearing in the far distance. I swore all i could and got back into the car and continued on my journey. About ten miles from the scene of the accident I came upon an old man thumbing a ride on the side of the road. I could barely make him out but felt sorry for him standing there all alone in the wet night, I decided to stop and give him a ride. He tried as much as he could but could not get into the passenger side and i got out to find out what was the matter. I realized that the whole side of the car had been flatten from front to back like someone had scraped the side.
I let my hitchhiker into the front seat from the driver's side and he slid over to the passenger's side. I did not really knew what he looked like and nor was I interested after still recovering from the shock I had looking at the amount of damage the car had received. He asked me where I was headed for and I told him that I was on my way to Denver, Colorado. He said that I was crazy and that I could never make it, have i not been listening to the radio? I said no. Well it had been snowing big time up north he said. Oh well I will find somewhere and pull over and continue tomorrow I guese I assured him while we arrived in Durango. He got out thanked me and disappeared into one of the small streets of Durango, a cowboy town. As soon as he was out of sight I said screw it and headed out of the town north and before I got further than the outskirt of the town the car wheels were spinning but the car was not moving. I had driven right on top of thick snow thick enough to float the car. It took me almost half an hour to find my way bakc into Durango and not knowing where to go for help without getting myself shot in the process I decided to head back the way I came and keep heading sounth the Albuquerque, New Mexico where it was my only chance to get any help from as was fast running out of cash.
I never gave much thought to my experience on the Devil's Highway untill I saw the movie "Natural Born Killer" where at the beginnig scenes took place somewhere along this notorious highway and I started looking up for some more infos on this Road and found out that..

"In 1997, US666 was named as one of the 20 most dangerous highways in the US!"
"Highway 666 runs through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah as well as the Tribal lands of the Navajo Nations and the Ute Mountains, Ute tribes. On 31st of May 2003, the Highway, known as the Devil's Highway 666, officially ceased to existand was replaceby Highway or US491. Within days of the announcement of this virtually every US666 sign had been stolen some for sale on eBay.'"

After all these years and looking back yet at the times when i was not thinking much and getting myself into all sorts of close calls I realized what a lucky dog i was to have escaped what could have been another mysterious death on a lonely highway called.. the Devil's Highway, perhaps it was the Virgin Mary sitting on the dashboard of the old Chevy Impala or perhaps it was just my lucky stars, or it could have been that I was just too stupid to get hurt. My journey to the South West states of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado was filled with many such unexplainable close calls and weird events, nevertheless I consider myself very fortunate that i was able to do what most only dreamt of doing. I had slept in the car along roadsides and parks and I have slept in my tent in places even I would not dare repeat such simillar act of reckless stupidity but when i was on the road I did it did not matter death was the last thing on my mind and the only fear I had was running out of cash hence out of fuel or food. I was a lone Malaysian travelling through three states of the US South West and that gave me a sense of pride in what I was doing.