After I gave up my home and my former life, I chose to live in my Chevy Blazer, with my dog Jack.  We were free.  We could go anywhere and do anything.  We traveled throughout the southern states.  As the weeks passed, I knew I’d eventually run out of money.  I needed to find a home base, even if it was temporary.  I was in Flagstaff, Arizona, when I called my friend Wallace, who lived in Idaho.  We were both recently divorced, and he had a spare room he was willing to give me.  

Jack and I then had a destination.  As we drove up through Utah, I thought I’d contact my musician friend Tom Bennett, and pay him a visit.  He invited me out to a road house, the Hog Wallow Pub, to record a live performance.  He was sharing the stage with Jordan Young and Dylan Roe.  They’d be taking turns playing songs and telling stories throughout the evening.  It would be the final concert I shot in Utah.  

Tom and I arrived early, and ordered a pizza from the kitchen.  It would be a 30 minute wait, and we decided to shoot an impromptu music video while we waited, for his song ‘Sharecropper’s Blues’ (It subsequently turned out to be one of my most watched uploads).  In a rush to find a suitable background, we picked a spot across the street, in front of an abandoned building.  It took me a minute to realize where I was standing.  The old mill behind us, surrounded by a barb wire fence, was the location for the most terrifying paranormal event I ever had, nearly 10 years prior.  A demonic entity attached itself to me within those walls, and that had a profound effect on my mind.  

How ironic, that just by chance, I ended up right there, in my final days in Utah.  We recorded a positive work of art, in that negative space.  A chapter closed forever.   After Tom finished his song, we headed back to the bar, and ate dinner.  I then met the other two musicians, and worked out the details.  

As expected, there wasn’t an ideal way to record audio, other than a room mic I set up.  I had no one to run a second camera, so I set up my Canon on a tripod, while I roamed with an old iPod Touch.  My goal was to create a very lo-fi, stripped-down experience, and I’m glad I could improve the visuals and audio, for this symbolic entry into the 2025 Restoration Project.  

After the show, I said my farewells.  Then Jack and I continued down the road, towards our fate in Idaho, where my life would be irrevocably changed.