On the Road Part 3, Chapter 8 Summary

  • Dean is screwed because he left his fingerprints all over the stolen cars. Time to peace out.
  • Frankie again comments that Dean is like her crazy husband that left her.
  • They go to a travel bureau and there’s an opportunity to drive a Cadillac. Uh-oh.
  • The first thing Dean does is...pretend it’s his Cadillac to pick up a waitress.
  • The second thing he does is break the speedometer when he passes 100 mph.
  • By the way, there are some Jesuit boys in the back seat of the Cadillac and they’re headed for Chicago.
  • Dean talks about how Beverly (the waitress he was hitting on) is going to come to New York and marry him as soon as he can divorce Camille.
  • Everything will be OK once they get out of Denver.
  • Dean takes a corner too fast and they end up in a ditch on the side of the road, with much swearing and anger from Sal.
  • Sal explains to the boys in the back seat that Dean is his brother. We’ve heard this before.
  • A farmer helps them out; his daughter is definitely the most beautiful girl they’ve ever seen. She’s sixteen.
  • Dean recalls stories from his past as they travel. Again, we’ve heard this before.
  • They stop to meet Dean’s old friend, Ed Wall, and Sal astutely comments that Ed used to be Dean’s "old brother" as he himself is now.
  • Ed is convinced that Dean stole the Cadillac. If we didn’t know better, that would have been our first guess, too.