Going Nomad

1998

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. He's tired of his humdrum life and a going-nowhere career. And he's been saddled with the name of an epic hero played on-screen by Charlton Heston (his mother's favorite). Bouncing between dead-end jobs, El Cid struggles to find his calling, yet fears he'll 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 Manhattan's 900 miles of open blacktop after midnight in boat-like '70s Buicks and Lincolns to find a sense of control, serenity and briefly, freedom. A tale of self-discovery and the search for purpose