freed from jail, cassady began to travel again. during the 1960s, he joined ken kesey's merry pranksters, who traveled back and forth across the united states in a bus, holding "acid tests", a name for lsd parties. cassady drove the bus. he acted as merrily as anyone, and as full of energy as a young man, when the pranksters were around. in private, though, he was not enjoying his life, and old friends noticed he looked very tired.