Going Nomad

El Cid Rivera is 33 and has never left Manhattan Island neither have his childhood friends whom he meets every day at the same bar around the same table Hes tired of his humdrum life and a goingnowhere career And hes been saddled with the name of an epic hero played onscreen by Charlton Heston his mothers favorite Bouncing between deadend jobs El Cid struggles to find his calling yet fears hell never succeed on the epic scale his mother expects To find escape El Cid takes to the empty streets of New York at night as part of a group who call themselves Asphalt Nomads He and his fellow travelers cruise Manhattans 900 miles of open blacktop after midnight in boatlike 70s Buicks and Lincolns to find a sense of control serenity and briefly freedom A tale of selfdiscovery and the search for purpose