On the Road Notes | Part 1, Chapter 5

In Cheyenne, Sal wastes five of his seven dollars left on drinks with Montana Slim. Montana is a sloppy drunk. Sal goes into a Mexican restaurant and writes a love note to a waitress there. She says she'd love to come with him, but she has a boyfriend. Sal retrieves Montana who has written a postcard to his father. In the next bar they pick up a young blond and a fat brunette.

The blond girl idealizes New York. Sal tells her that there is nothing there. The girls join the brunette's sailor-cousin and friends, while Sal and Montana go to a bus station. Sal imagines that it could be any bus station in the world. When he wakes up, Montana is gone. He eats and starts going south towards Denver, getting a ride with a guy from Connecticut.

In Longmont, he takes a nap under a tree and then cleans up at the men's room of a gas station. After buying a milkshake, he hitches a ride with a businessman from Denver, with whom he has a long, warm conversation about their respective lives. Sal has finally arrived in Denver, and he wants to find his friends.