It's a strange thing sitting behind the wheel for so many miles, especially when driving alone. There were times that the miles had almost raced by, gone too quickly and visions imprinted forever. Other times, it felt as if the car was hardly moving at all while hour after hour of flat farmland stretched on to eternity.
This was the roadtrip of a lifetime. No time-limits, no mentionable schedule to keep, beyond a list of places Shannon Wilson had always dreamt of witnessing first hand. This leg of the journey found her driving north on Arizona state route 64 into a small tourist town called Tusayan. A bit north of the town, if you could call Tusayan a town, as it was more a village than anything else. She would finally, and excitedly behold the glory of the Grand Canyon.
Shannon hadn't had an easy life. She'd never known her father, well not more than hearing her mother curse his name and almost delight in telling Shannon what a miserable excuse for a man he'd been to knock her up and then almost immediately afterward catch multiple felonies and forever be locked away. This left her to raise an unplanned, and possibly unwanted child on her own.
Shannon found her mother dead on the floor of their tiny apartment when she arrived home from school when she was just 11 years old. It was an overdose, but then that didn't surprise anyone, not Shannon, or any of the few members of her family that knew her. An aging Grandmother tried to care for the little girl, but she could just barely care for herself and so Shannon found herself in the foster care system, and remained there until she was old enough to face life on her own.
She didn't consider her life particularly difficult, only that it simply was. Calling it hard didn't solve anything and wishing for better only made things worse. She'd bury herself in travel books and magazines at whatever school she was attending at the moment, never expecting to stay in any given home for very long. She daydreamed of visiting all of those magical places that seemed too incredible to really exist. She had memorized over twenty sites she had promised herself to visit, and the Grand Canyon would be number eleven on that list.
Traveling solo suited her, although it would have been nice to pass the time with someone, a close friend, maybe a man. She had never developed the social skills to do well, in either department. Making friends had been difficult, friends that had actual parents, when she had whatever family the system had assigned, almost always families that had their own children, and Shannon found that she had been thought of, primarily as a means for the foster family to earn extra income, and not because they had ever really cared that she was just a little kid, that desperately wanted to have a family, and to feel safe. On a few occasions, she was sent to foster care where the adults had no children of their own, and they were always worse than the families that had kids.
Her escape had always been the travel magazines, and dreaming of one day...
Men had been equally mysterious, sure there had been several, but any other 22-year old would have far better-developed social skills and keeping a relationship together, after she had given them her body seemed a lost cause. It was easier to just avoid men. Besides, this road-trip was about finally laying her eyes on all of those long-wished-for sites, not for getting laid.
Her head had begun throbbing almost twenty minutes ago, she needed to get off of the road and check into a motel, if any had rooms available. Although she was hungry, she knew the headache would soon overpower her stomach, and the best option at the moment was a dark room, a bed, a cold compress on her forehead and one of her pills.
She pulled off of the main drag and hoped the first place she checked had a room, she needed the dark, and to lay down. It was a nice-enough place, not a chain motel, and the price was right. Closing the door, and locking it behind her, she pulled the heavy drapes and smiled a bit in the near dark the room had become. A quick trip to the bathroom, a wet washcloth, stripped down to her panties and an oversized cotton t-shirt, and swallowing the little white pill prepared her as well as she was able.
It did no good to complain about it, it would only make things worse. Tears escaped under the washcloth covering her eyes while Shannon imagined what the canyon would look like in the morning. In time, the expected fog overtook her senses and she drifted off to sleep.
~
A bit after 6:00am Shannon woke, drank some water to chase the cottonmouth away, and decided on a quick shower and an orgasm would be how she'd start the day. She stepped into the shower, taking the purple dildo she traveled with along. After washing her body, and taking her time while playing with her nipples, which had stiffened as they always did, almost in anticipation of her coming release. The hot water had loosened muscles that had strained while she suffered yesterday. She felt almost reborn, and that was definitely cause to celebrate. The fleshy material of the dildo rubbed back and forth along her clitoris, as it stuck against the back wall of the shower, and played hide and seek as she moved her hips, feeling the pleasure slowly radiating through her core. She bent forward a bit, and let her fingers adjust the angle so that the dildo parted her labia, and slowly entered her, taking a bit at a time, prolonging the inevitable. Soon, her toy was as deeply inside of her body as the almost awkward positioning allowed, and as she rocked back and forth, her fingers rubbed against her clitoris. Soft sighs escaped her lips and strangely, although it was always like this, she didn't fantasize that a man was inside her. It was, after all, just a toy, but a toy was enough, and soon after, her orgasm caused her to gasp more loudly now, and her legs shook until it had passed.
She stayed coupled like that, for a time, and wondered if other women fantasized about men when they filled their vaginas with their toys.
After the shower, and drying off, Shannon applied a bit of makeup, nothing fancy, she was never one for dramatic looks. In fact if it was all the same with her, she'd be happy enough to quietly blend into any crowd, no matter how small it may have been. She glanced at the rows of almost equally spaced scars that ran horizontally across her left bicep. Those scars had been enough reason for her to be moved from more than a few foster homes, but she hadn't cut herself for years now. Still, those silent reminders would be hard to hide on a day that was expected to reach above 100 degrees.
She picked simple khaki shorts, a white spaghetti strap blouse, and trainers for the day's outfit. She packed her bag and was checked out of the motel by 7:30am, her stomach hadn't stopped rumbling since she had gotten out of bed.
Almost directly across the street from the motel was a fast food joint that served breakfast, well, if you could call it that. Still, it would have to do. Shannon sat at a table, and imagined the endless canyon that would soon lay in front of her. She daydreamed, and pictured in her mind's eye mule-trains, small, but visible moving along dirt paths along the canyon floor, from her perch far up above.
"Hey there." a voice, close spoke.
She snapped out of it, and looked to her right, seeing a younger guy, maybe 18-20 sitting at a table a few feet away, watching her intently.
"Oh, hi." she said, and scrunched up her brow, what did he want?
He was deeply tanned, and clearly a backpacker. A huge rucksack lay on the floor next to him, his clothes weren't clean, but they weren't exactly filthy either. His hair was sun-bleached, and shaggy, and his blue-eyes seemed almost unnatural.
"Are you headed up to the canyon?" he asked, his smile revealing perfect rows of snow-white teeth.
"Mmhmm." Shannon nodded, and she looked at the huge backpack next to him 'How far have you walked?' she asked.
"You mean, like today, this week, or?" he almost laughed as he replied.
"I guess that means a lot." she said, wondering if she should feel impressed, and then wondering if he thought she would be impressed.
"I started in Ojai, in California, but I'd be lying if I said I walked here from there. I'll catch a ride, anytime I can." he said, nodding.
"So, umm, I just wondered, maybe if you're heading up that way, if I could tag along?" he asked hopefully.
"It's not safe for women to pick up hitchhikers, haven't you heard?" she answered, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Take my picture with your phone, then I'll let you take a picture of my ID, send both to your folks, I'd have to be crazy to do anything stupid if the cops would have my picture and ID, right?" he said, smiling again.
"In the meantime, I'd be dead, somewhere between here and the canyon." Shannon answered.
"Yeah, I suppose I hadn't thought of that, look, I'm new at this being a crazy hitchhiker thing. I haven't figured any of this out yet." he shrugged.
"Just up to the canyon, and that's it." she said slowly, giving him her best 'I'm serious, and you better not be a crazy person.' look.
"I'll even pay for us at the gate." he said, then reached out his hand, and introduced himself "I'm Tyler, and yeah, that's actually my name."
"Shannon." she said, and lightly shook his hand. "That's really my name too."
"It's like six or seven miles from here, my feet already thank you." he said, then reached into his backpack and retrieved three water bottles, then walked over to the drink machine, and filled them with water, took a huge drink from one, and came back, sat down and told Shannon he was in no hurry, and she should take her time finishing her breakfast.
