where's your camp?
i've lived in and around here six years now and i've never heard of any place that goes by that name.
show me how to get there.
ron franz.
alex. where are you from alex?
okay, alex from west virginia. i like a fellow who doesn't raise the pitch of his voice when he talks to animals. shows he doesn't condescend.
you live here?
well, this is somethin' out here. don't you worry about those dope smokers and nudists down below there?
hmmm. you strike me as a bright young man. am i wrong about that?
that's what i mean. how long have you been out here?
and before that?
how old are you?
twenty-three years old! son, don't you think you should be getting an education? and a job? and making something of this life?
in the dirt?
i just don't know. where's your family?
that's a shame.
this is getting a little steep. and a little high for me kid.
you can see the salton sea from up there?
my goodness.
nope. i don't do these kind of things.
how about you and me take a drive? about fifty miles or so up highway, i know a place that's got a view, great food, and requires no climbing. how's that sound?
fair enough.
seventy-nine years old.
it is. no question about that.
alex, please don't lump me in amongst your judges. and your tyrants. but i'd prefer to not hear that kind of language.
you got a lot of passion, young man.
look here. if charles manson and his buddies don't kill me on my way out of here, i'd like to cook you up a home cooked meal tomorrow night. if i come out here about, say, four o'clock tomorrow, how would that be?
good, good. i'm no gourmet but i know where the spices are. good night, kid.
did you find everything you need?
well, that's what it's for. how do these steaks look?
well, sit down.
what do you drink?
nope.
nope. don't have any alcohol. i had to quit all that. how about a guava juice?
yeah, i had a little spell with the bottle, you could say.
i spent most of my life in the army. on new year's eve 1957, i was stationed over in okinawa. my wife and son were here in the states, just driving down the road when a fellow who'd had too much to drink plowed right into them. killed them both. anyway, you might think that the last thing in the world i'd do, is go to the whiskey, but at the time, it felt like the only thing i could do. and i did it hard. but pretty soon, i figured i wasn't doing my wife and son any good, mourning them with a bottle. so, i pulled myself together and quit drinking, cold turkey. and then.
you see all these kids over here?
yeah, that's.  fuki, kenjiro, yoshiko, keiko, masaro, junichi, kimpei, nayoko.
and this is akira. just finished medical school.
yeah, i unofficially adopted all of them. it did my heart some good but i guess really it was just writing a few letters and sending some money. anyway, it was important to me. i get a letter from each of them from time to time. you know. so, since all that, this is pretty much me.
no. i can't seem to get too far from my leather. i'll show you after you finish eating. i do a lot of leather engraving. i got a little workshop in the garage. between that and my pension, i do pretty well. but every time i think i might take a trip somewhere, i get too far behind on orders and such to consider it.
would ya?
alright then.
how about some fishing?
that thing's twice as salty as the ocean. did you know that?
what's the n stand for?
alaska?
son, what the hell you running from?
you do, do you?
sittin' on my butt, huh?
i'll show you sittin' on my butt.
"stubborn old man."
ya little pinhead.
ya little pinhead.
i'm going to miss you when you go.
alex. you're probably right. and i'm going to take stock of that.
no, i am.
i am.
but i'll tell you something. the bits and pieces i've put together, you know, what you've told me about your family. your mother and dad. and i know you got your problems with the church too, but there's some kind of bigger thing that we can all appreciate. and it sounds like you don't mind calling it god. but when you forgive, you love. and when you love. god's light shines on you.
i told you about that language. the two men, their eyes welling up, fall back laughing.
i told you so! i told you so!
heard you get up off the couch half an hour ago, and had a funny feeling you might not be here for our breakfast.
i'm going to drive you a hundred miles to somewhere where you can pick up a train, a plane, or hitch a ride without getting stuck on this desert. i'd take you all the way to alaska if i didn't have to get to an eight o'clock mass.
i want to do it. get you started on this thing of yours.
i know. on your "great alaskan adventure." from just out of chris' eye-line, ron leans out of frame, picking up a zippered duffel bag. he opens it, displaying the contents to chris.
there's a machete, an arctic parka, collapsible fishing pole, and a few odds and ends i threw in there for you.
oh, just take it.
i'll wait for you in the truck.
well my friend.
i had an idea. you know my mother was an only child. so was my father. and i was their only child. now, with my own boy gone, i'm the end of the line. when i'm gone, my family will be finished. what do you say, you let me adopt you. i could be, say, your grandfather.
yep. we can do that, yep.