“The second night, I was just groovin’ with my freedom and singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in my helmet, glad this highway was all in a straight line. I didn’t think about where I was gonna sleep until it was almost dark” (pg. 100 in Lopez’s Flaming Iguanas).
I believe that Lopez prefers to define a road trip as an experience that frees the mind and praises the joy of solitary reflection. At first, the narrator seems to think of riding on a motorcycle as a way of attracting attention because she will look so “fly.” She imagined “women wearing pink foam curlers in passing RVs [desiring them].” Further proof for the narrator’s need for being noticed: her excitement when she is “finally the center of everyone’s attention” after being hit by a car. Despite her initial motive, she seems to express more of an enjoyment for being free to travel whenever and wherever she wants after the restraining plans from Magdalena are gone. The narrator sings carefree songs and fantasizes, focusing only on one thing—traveling to the west.
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