Hitchhiking-Once part of the American dream(Share Your Hitchhiking Stories)

www.msn.com ^ | April 6, 2004 | Robin Dalmas

[Twinkie]

I was 18 and living in a military town, newly married
and green as a gourd. I picked up a "woman" on the
way to the base. As we progressed along the highway,
"her" voice seemed to get deeper and deeper until "she"
sounded like a "he". I told her/him? my Daddy was the
sheriff and let her/him? out as soon as I could. I did
take her/him? on to the base where they had asked to go,
but I never picked up a hitchhiker again. That's almost
40 yrs. ago.

[sinclair]

I have hitchhiked in every state of the union including Alaska and Hawaii and a few countries also. This was due to the fact that for 6 years I was a Merchant Seaman and whenever we put into a port I was interested in I'd draw pay and head out to someplace, anyplace. It was a really interesting way to travel in the late 1960's and early 1970's. I actually spent more time hitching than sailing. Longest single trip was from Boston to L. A. via Montana.

Most interesting person that ever picked me up was a "Carney" with a harelip and a big bag of pot. I probably laughed solid from St. Louis, MO to Hot Springs, AR. He told every harelip joke there ever was and he was doin' it natural, just like they sang on the Dr. Hook "Sloppy Seconds" 8 track he played over and over all the way.

I bet there's a book in there someplace if I'd just sit down and write it.

[Mr Ducklips]

'69 Spring break, from Fayettenam, AR, to Houston, Galveston, Port Aransas, San Antone, Waco, Arlington, Dallas, and other points in Texas. Got rides from army deserters, truck drivers, a Hell's Angel (yep, his Oakland colors were in the back seat), a leprechaun look-alike, and all sorts of folks. Saw alot of things I'd never seen before (and some I don't wanna ever see no more). A good experience - I arrived home alive.

[GreenLanternCorps]

Had me going there for a minute...

[Labyrinthos]

From 1977 through 1983, hitchhiking was my primary mode of transportation for trips over 50 miles or so and beyond the reach of low cost public transportation. The two most memorible trips were in January, 1978, when I hitchhiked solo from the NYC Burbs to Norfolk, VA and back, and in the summer of 1979, when I hitchhiked with a friend from the NYC Burbs to Cape Cod and back. Although I had my share or weirdos pick me up, whenever that happened I made a point of flashing the 8" fishing knife that I strapped to my leg under my Levis just above the boot.

One of the best rides was from a gray haired, pot-smoking 65 year old grandmother who drove me in her beat up Volvo from the Princeton, NJ area down the Delmarva Penninsula to Salisbury, MD, in the pouring rain, which is not the best of conditions to hitch a ride (most people don't want anything to do with a hitcher who is soaking wet after standing in the rain for several hours).

Another great ride ride was across the State of RI. My friend and I had spend the night in police lockup after getting arrested in this well-known beach town for sleeping on the beach. After appearing in justice court the next morning and paying the $25 fine we decided to hitch our way out of town as fast as possible. The first ride was from a beautiful blond haired babe and her equally attractive red-haired friend, who were in their late teens, just like us. We all spent the next 45 minutes bad-mouthing the local police force without mercy. My friend and I decided to stay the afternoon and night near Port Judith, RI and head up to the Cape the next day, and the ladies volunteered to spend the rest of the day with us. About 8:00 p.m. that evening the blond-haired woman said they had to get back to the town where they picked us up that morning before her father sent the boys out looking for her. I asked her what her father did and she said, "He's one of the cops who arrested you last night..."

[chance33_98]

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been if my girlfriend hadn't said to me, "Let's pick him up?"

I dunno, it might have been better, you might have met me instead :)

[Lima_Two_Zero_Alpha]

Mine is a similar story. Vietnam was winding down and I had just dumped a 10 year long gig with a gov agency that will go unnamed. I was crashing for a few weeks at a commune in NE GA.

One day when driving back from town, I spotted my future wife and her friend hitching along the highway. I picked them up and it turned out they were heading to the same commune to visit a friend. She was only 17 at the time. We had a great few days together.

Two weeks later, on her 18th BD, I picked her up at the Greyhound stop in town and the rest, as they say, is history. 30 years later we're still together and still loving every min of it.

[Boot Hill]

I hitchhiked every state in the lower 48 in my youth. When I got married and had children, I took my eldest, who was 6 years old at the time, on an all summer long hitch-hiking tour of the U.S.

The real fun was not hitch-hiking by car, but hitchhiking by plane!

But my most memorable hitchhiking story is not about a trip I took, but one my wife and my mother took when they visited the old Soviet Union together. They stole away from their Soviet Intourist guide (read: KGB handler), and hitchhiked from Moscow to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and back, in 1982, during the dark, repressive days of the Brezhnev regime.

Before she left, she asked if there was anything she could bring me back from Russia. I said: Sure honey, get me a picture of #2 Dzerzhinsky Square in Moscow. She asked: Why? I said: Oh, just for historical interest. (No, as a matter of fact, I didn't warn her that this was the site of the KGB headquarters and the infamous Lubyanka prison and that photos of same were strictly forbidden by law. Why would I want to spoil their adventure?)

--Boot Hill

[Glenn]

You can read it online for free.

[EternalVigilance]

This could be one of the most interesting FR threads ever.

I hitched everywhere when I was a teenager.

The longest trip was in '76 from Los Angeles to Omaha, via Lake Tahoe and Reno...imagine a fifteen year-old long-haired kid with a backpack and a dog...

[meowmeow]

A friend and I hitchhiked our way around Ireland, including Northern Ireland in the 80s when we were young single gals. I would never do it in the US - even back then.

[arthurus]

I used to pack what I carried in a guitar case. Wandering minstrels got lots of rides. I never played a musical instrument in my life.I carried that guitbox thumbing back and forth across the south from CA to FL and VA, and up and down the left coast.

[arthurus]

In the 60s I got a ride in North Florida with what turned out to bne a pair of car thieves and their girlfriend who were drunk and needed a driver. The one on the right took to shooting at signs with a little .25. As we reached the Bankhead tunnel going into Mobile at 1:30 in the morning I figured it was time to find a cop because I didn't know if these guys were going to let me out. I asked how much of a hurry they were in. They said fast as we can so I took the tunnel at 65 (speed limit 45)or so and went through Mobile with the pedal down- ran some red lights. I could not interest any police in us at all. Finally west of the city I bit the bullet and said hey guys here's my stop and they just said thanks and let me out.

[arthurus]

In South Fl I was picked up at night by a couple of young guys with long hair. After the car was back moving they started passing a joint in the front seat. I said please at least keep it down. The joint flared while it was above the level of the back of the seat and a flashing red light came on behind us. The 2 cops were ready to go off duty and were not interested in booking anyone so they made the one holding the doobie throw it in the ditch and promise there was no more and I said that I was just a hithhiker. Then neither had an in-date driver's license and it seemed that the cops would have to arrest someone. One said does anyone have a license? I showed him mine and he allowed as how the car could continue if I drove. I did and 15 miles further on when the boys came to their turn I said I get out here. The car stopped and as I got out the driver ran around to the trunk and said hey man you saved our lives I got to give you something. He pulled out a fat baggie from what at a glance appeared to be a trunk full of it. I said no thanks man and legged it as hard as I could back to the highway. I fear that had I not had a valid DL I would have been looking at jail time along with the dopes.

[arthurus]

I was on the interstate in Arkansas in 67, not hitching but alking because I was trying to get 10 miles up the road to a Skelly where I could get on a truck. I got popped by a state cop on a charge of Walking On The Right Of Way Of A Public Thoroughfare". They took me to a little substation in suburban Little Rock thsat was manned by several miđle aged women who were mystified because there was no such charge in their books. They put me in one of the two little cells (cot and sink). The other held a couple of boys who's dađies had called the chief and said my kids are doing dope, please throw a scare on them. I slept and ate McD hamburgers for 3 days and then an officer came in and we were all lined up to go sê the judge. One of the ladies said to me hey not you, you are released. I said you can't do that, It's 25 miles to the Skelly and I'll just get busted again so she made the yardman take me to the Skelly where I quickly got a ride on a semi going east.

[arthurus]

For about 7 years hitching was the only way I would travel. Even after Imarried I hitched with wife and baby.I figured once that I rode my thumb near 100,000 miles.

[arthurus]

Once in Oregon I hooked a ride with two craggy middle age men and a craggy middle age woman who appeared to be of rather less than normal intelligence. After a few miles the woman turned to me and said they were going to go east at the next crossroad. I said thank you for the ride I will get out at the corner. The driver turned and said no, you're gonna see ơur place. We got a farm. They slowed to 30 or so to turn the corner and I pushed the door open and rolled out on the shoulder with my guitbox. The car almost stopped and I got up to run and it sped up again. When you hitch a lot you learn to respond instantly to ominous signals.

[arthurus]

My buddy and I got off a 7 week commercial fishing trip in Pensacola and headed west towards Galveston in the summer of 65. We got dropped outside of Bogalusa and started walking into town. I had long been used to the necessity of walking through most towns if my ride did not go through. Well we got a couple miles or so up the road and noticed a terrible lot of cops, most of them were headed into town. There was some smoke rising ahead of us in a couple of places. We saw a roadblock ahead and decided to go around but just saw another one block. Then we got surrounded by 3 police cars and lots of questions and a frisk. Robert had his .38 that went to sea with him and I had a deck knife with a 7" blade in my bag. We got severely questioned on the spot and when it was determined that we were not yankee boys come to stir up the local black folks, they gave us back all our stuff, including Robert's gun. What we had not known was that the Bogalusa race riots were on right then. We got stopped several more times and finally got a ride out of town on a police car that left us a couple miles out with a "Good luck." We walked to the west side of Baton Rouge. It seems that in Louisiana in the 60s no one picked up hitchhikers. The walk took 3 1/2 days and was not too unpleasant except for the heat. Any time we were hungry we went up to any house and would be fed and, if evening, would be offered space on the porch. But when Pere went off to work in the morning westward he would not let us ride.

[Constantine XIII]

I just finished reading the HHTTG series. Man, did the ending tick me off! :D

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I have a lot of stories but this one sticks out more than the others.

I hitched from Boston MA to Bow NH on a Friday night to stay at a friend's lake house for the weekend. This would have been early 70's. Got a ride from a redhead who had rolled a joint in a Tampax wrapper.

Was still hitching round about midnight and seems like I was getting a ride from a middle aged guy in a nice BMW. Got left off where I thought I needed to be but it turned out two roads met in two different places (almost like a Bow) and I was at the wrong intersection.

I saw a house with a light on and ventured up to ask some directions. It was a guy from a state road crew who was making sandwiches for the next day. He was real nice and gave me a sandwich or two and I asked him if I could put my sleeping bag on the floor for the night. He said OK. There were a lot of cats around - like 10 or 15 as I recall.

I was thinking it could have been worse - got food and shelter and could push on at first light. As I start putting my sleeping bag on the floor he goes to a closet and comes back with a revolver. By all rights, I should have been dead. But instead he puts it under a couch cushion and explains that the cats get nervous with a stranger in the house and that the gun calms them down.

I thanked him for his hospitality and skedaddled and spent the night sleeping by the side of the road. The next night my friend and I went to Old Orchard Beach NH in his Corvair, and spent the night in jail for drinking beer on the beach with two girls we had just met - turns out that town made a living off of arresting people for doing exactly that - the jail was full of people just like us and the shelves above the desk sergeant's desk were filled with confiscated Budweiser.

I truly marvel at my good fortune at having survived some of my "adventures".