Sunday, December 13th. (Driving to Dover, Ferry to Belgium, Frites & Fancy Ladies)
It was Sunday, December 13, 1981, and it was a miserable Day. We were driving, rather recklessly, through a very bad winter storm along the south-eastern coast of England, desperately trying to reach the Ferry Terminal at the Port of Dover. Rain was pouring down on us, except when it was snowing so hard we could barely see the road. We pretty much had the road to ourselves because you would have to be bat-shit crazy to be out in this weather. Well, if crazy is what you need, we were the boys for the job.
‘We’ means Dave GoWell, 27 years old, and Kent Davis, 25 at the time of this adventure. To be honest, we weren’t actually trying to risk our lives on this night; but we weren’t trying to be safe, either. Not by a long shot. It just wasn’t our style.
We had met in High School in 1970. Dave was a junior and Kent was a freshman, and he and his parents had just moved to New Jersey from Brussels, Belgium where Kent’s father had worked for several years as a representative of the Philadelphia Port Authority.
We immediately bonded over our shared love of psychology, ancient mysteries and altered states of consciousness. At that time Marijuana was the only drug we could get our hands on so we used that frequently. Eventually we were able to get a whole range of other mind-expanding substances, including amphetamines, barbiturates, mescaline, peyote, MDMA (now the kids call it ‘Molly’ or ‘Ecstasy’), and the latest wonder drug: lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD. Most sane people probably think that taking all these powerful drugs was extremely reckless, and we won’t disagree. But, for us, it was a risk worth taking. So, we took it a lot. Which leads us back why were making this crazy journey in the dark, through a horrible storm, desperately trying to get to Dover in time.
“Look out!” Dave shouted. Kent swerved hard to try to avoid the worst of the latest deluge that had just exploded over the breakfront and poured down onto our car, reducing visibility to zero for a few terrifying seconds. Well, it wasn’t actually ‘our’ car, it was a rental. We rented it at Heathrow Airport a week earlier and drove it to Brighton to work at a Trade Show. ‘The Plan’ was to drive it back to Heathrow Airport today