The tale of hitchhiking from the Ride Board adventure to the chance encounter with hope personified beside the road speaks to the heart of wanderlust and human connection. It’s the sheer unpredictability of the road and its travellers that turns a simple journey into a tapestry of stories. Like a novel with characters that walk off the page, ‘Blue’ with his tattooed reminder of love, and the young couple with dreams as vast as the plains they crossed, remind me that every person is a story unfolding.

I’m drawn to the raw entrepreneurial spirit of the young couple, their plan as fragile and bold as a house of cards in the desert wind. Their story, a stark reminder that the currency of hope is the most valuable in the ledger of life. It’s in their resilience that I find a reflection of every character I’ve ever penned, striving against the odds, reaching for their moonlit Vegas in the vastness of life's gamble.

CJ #BeOpenClub