Sal stays in Babe Rawlins' house. Sal describes Babe's music and her aunt, Charity. Babe is in love with Tim Gray; they are all sitting around drinking when Dean arrives. He is wearing a tweed suit and goes to Ed Dunkel's house to retrieve his watch so that he can pawn it. He changes into a t-shirt and plans to leave for Mexico the next day. Dean says that Ed is happy with Galatea and is planning to go to college the following year. No one else can talk, as Dean takes out the stack of dirty playing cards to do a trick. Everything gets quiet and Dean exits to get more energy. He makes a fool of himself but no one cares. Dean returns to the hotel where he lived with his father, and drinks, dances, and tries to play the piano.
They mail a postcard to Carlo Marx and go to a party at a castle. The party goes late into the night. At nine in the morning, they eat breakfast and pile into Dean's beat up '37 Ford.
"I looked over the map: a total of over a thousand miles, mostly Texas, to the border of Laredo, and then another 767 miles through all Mexico to the great city near the cracked Isthmus and Oaxacan heights. I couldn't imagine this trip. It was the most fabulous of all. It was no longer east-west, but magic south."Part 4, Chapter 3, pg. 265
Dean is overly excited about the trip. Stan's grandfather tries to get him to stay, but he refuses to listen. Stan's mother tells Dean to take care of Stan. They stop by Babe's and say goodbye. Tim Gray watches them disappear. They leave Denver, moving south.
