- Both Dave and Jack are excited to see Cody – whom Jack cites as one of his reasons for traveling to the west coast in the first place.
- Cody lives 50 miles away in Los Gatos; Jack calls him up and they make plans to meet that night.
- So they bring alcohol and pile into Dave's Jeep.
- There are no seats in the back so they've stuck a mattress there for everyone. As they drive, Jack compares the jeep to the font porch of a house – everyone rocking back and forth (because the seats are broken) and talking.
- As they drive past housing tracts and factories Dave laments the population explosion in America, and the fact that "the world hasn't any chance to produce say a writer whose life could really actually touch all this life in every detail."
- He and Jack talk about what Jack calls "the too-much-ness of the world" – they are both humbled by the sheer numbers of things and people and writers and books and ideas.
- In the backseat of the Jeep are Ron Blake along with Stanley Popovich from New York and his girl Jamie. When the thought of the too-much-ness of the world gets overwhelming, Jack and the others "agree it's too big to keep up with" and simply buy another bottle of Scotch.