hitching a ride

[Evans, Marv]

The last time I hitched a ride was in 1998. I had spent three weeks in the mountains and was hiking out. It was fifteen miles from where I was camped to the trail head. I was sort of banking on somebody being at the trail head that I could get a ride from. As luck would have it, nobody was there and I had to hike seven more miles to the highway. It was after dark when I got to hwy. 395 in Owens Valley. Got a ride within fifteen minutes, and had him drop me off at the Sizzler in Bishop, CA. I ordered a steak. I guess I looked so beat up with my pack & everything, they upgraded my steak at no extra cost.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by motion

EPIC!!!!!

Wish I had stories that good. I don't believe I have ever hitchhiked nor have I ever picked up a hitchhiker. I've been tempted while driving around Africa, as everyone hitchhikes there, but have just never done it.

Haha, thanks. Not very well planned though. I'd think "this may be a long trip" so I'd bring a good book. No thoughts about water or food. The Africa trip I must have been mad. I looked on the map and thought "One day, two days, three days and four. Then the plane leaves on Friday." Argh, if I'd had one bad day I'd have missed my flight out of the place.

[Rick Lee]

I've hitched all over Germany and some in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Never had a problem beyond waiting too long for a ride. Met some very interesting folks too - WWII vets, black marketeers, students, truckers, all kinds. I stopped when I was old enough to rent cars in Europe.

[JackDidley]

I have to give you guys credit, some of you have a real sense of adventure.
poof! gone

[Pazuzu]

Last took a hitch in, oh, probably 2003. 25 miles out of town, torrential desert rain and my car got flooded. Took three rides back into town, the first 2 cars ended up stuck at flooded creeks and couldn't cross, so I said "thank you", and hoofed my way across the knee deep water. Immediately got picked up on the other side by another car...

Last time I gave a hitch was probably about that same time. Driving up the mountain, and an illegal came crawling out of the brush, beat and cut up to hell. They were told to go up the mountain because "there are people up there who will help you". Well, we wouldn't and couldn't, but this dude was in bad shape. I took him back down the mountain and into the nearest town. Told him as best I could that he had 3 choices...wander back into the desert and take his chances, try to find another ride at the store, or ask for help there and get picked up by the Border Patrol.
Dunno what happened.

[JackDidley]

Just recalled a fun ride. Here am with a thumb out and a big Caddy pulls over. I hop in and see I am in a car full of big black guys. That did not mean much to me at the time but thinking back it could have been scary to some. They were passing around a quart bottle of beer and even offered me a drink. I think I passed. I do remember that they took me all the way home and we had a good time. 1971 was a fun year for me.

[KFC911]

Back in my small college town, the club/bar "small downtown" scene was a hoot . I had moved off campus in a house several miles away. So I was leaving after the packed bar closed (must've rode down with a housemate), drunk, and began walking home down 10th Street...big ol' old caddy with two local guys (not students) offered me a ride...so I hopped in...really cool music playing....'bout a mile down the road, there was another drunk as a skunk housemate walking...hey that's Tim...they picked him up too .

Then there was the ride home one night in a pickup with a young guy driving....bout half way home he asked if I wanted a BJ....umm no .

Not that there's anything wrong with that ...

[kghjr]

In the summer of 1970, I was driving from Denton, TX to San Diego in a '48 Plymouth Special Deluxe with a straight six flathead, buying 5 gallon containers of reconstituted motor oil because the Plymouth used a quart every 200 miles.

Going across west Texas in a blinding rain storm, at night, crossing a bridge over train tracks, I see a hand coming out of a huddled mass. Slam on the brakes. Two figures, soaked to the bone, come running and pile in the car. These guys look like outlaw bikers. Uh oh.

They turned out to be normal, just looked menacing. They have just graduated from Shreveport High School and are hitch-hiking to LA. There were four of them but they decided it would be easier to hitch in pairs.

We were not in a rush and stopped at any interesting sight to explore. After we got into California, we left the interstate and took off across the desert on dirt roads exploring old abandoned mines. At one point I was leading us into a mine shaft and then it occurred to me that I am in an abandoned mine shaft in the boonies with complete strangers. Let's get on the road, shall we? I dumped them in Huntington and split.

At the end of the summer, I headed back to Denton in the Plymouth, but the engine blew at 10 pm 40 west of Yuma on I-8. One truck stopped but the guy was transporting illegal immigrants. Pass.

About 6 am, A sheriff's deputy sees me. He called a wrecker who pulled me to Yuma. I sold him the car for $25 and used my summer money to buy a used ex-farm pickup truck, radio and heater delete, $600.

Back on the road to Texas. Outside of Tucson I picked up two college looking guys going east and a couple more later. The first two in the cab, the second pair in the back under the tarp.

The two guys in the cab have just spent the summer in LA after graduating from Shreveport High School and are heading home. They were the other pair of the guys I picked up on the way west. They told me about what their buddies said, a crazy guy in an old car forcing them to go down mine shafts. I had scared them. We had a big laugh and then I dumped them under an overpass in a blinding rain storm at the first bridge on I-10 after the I-20 split.

I have a ton of 'em. I used to be hitch-hiker and picked them up for decades, but not in the last 20 years.

Once I picked up a Lakota Sioux in full ceremonial dress, head to toe, at the I-25 southbound on ramp in Raton, NM. He was headed to the Annual Pow Wow of Indian Nations in Albuquerque. He knew Russell Means and John Robidoux and that whole crowd personally. He had some killer weed and native music on tape.

I picked up a French Canadian high school graduate who had been dumped at the most out of the way place in the middle of the Bisti Badlands. He had bussed to Phoenix from Montreal and hitch-hiked all around the four-corners. He was headed to Albuquerque to catch the bus home. I was his last ride. Took him to Radio Shack, Subway, and the bus station. He had a mixed tape, no weed. I practiced my old French and he wrote down American idioms, like, "there you go", and other things I would say without thinking.

Too bad it got dangerous. It used to be fun.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by KC911

Then there was the ride home one night in a pickup with a young guy driving....bout half way home he asked if I wanted a BJ....umm no .

Not that there's anything wrong with that ...

Come on, that could have been the start of a Penthouse Forum letter to the editor.

I haven't ever had to hitch, and probably would continue walking if I had car trouble, unless some hot college coeds wearing bikinis stopped, and offered.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

Come on, that could have been the start of a Penthouse Forum letter to the editor.

I haven't ever had to hitch, and probably would continue walking if I had car trouble, unless some hot college coeds wearing bikinis stopped, and offered.

Did you read my first post on this thread? Unfortunately, that one ended when we arrived to my apartment and my roommate (female) was there....but THAT would have been the start to a great PL lie . I've always had a car, don't remember why I ended up walking/hitching, but just didn't think twice about sticking out my thunb or accepting a ride . But now that I think back...the BJ episode may have been my last time...

[Seahawk]

Since I always had a car, I only had to hitchhike once. This is in 1976.

The summer after HS I met a a young lady. We hit it off and had a great summer.

She went to Williams College in Massachusetts that fall. We decided that I would fly up to see her before Christmas so I could ski.

I found a cheap flight out of Charleston, SC and flew into Albany, NY. So far so good.

A few days into the trip it was apparent that things weren't going well...so I decided to take an earlier flight home. The closest I could get to Charleston (where my car was parked) was Charlotte, NC. I tried in vain to rent a car but no dice. No flights either.

I walked to the main road and put my thumb out. It was getting dark. In no more than three minutes I was picked up by two Marines driving back to Parris Island.

They were really good guys, we smoked a lot dope and they dropped me off at I-95 four hours later, about an hour north of Charleston. "Tell your buddies Marines are cool!" was the last thing I heard as the door closed.

I double-timed it to the road to Charleston. It was dark and cold, as least for SC. I stood under a light and the thumb came out. In no more than a minute, a semi flatbed truck stopped. I trotted up.

"You need to keep me awake...can you keep me awake?"

"Uhh..."

"Just talk to me while I drive, or listen to me talk."

The hour drive to the Charleston Airport went slowly, but uneventfully. He pulled over on the interstate next to the airport and I hoofed it to my car. It was 11pm.

I honestly don't think I could have driven the route faster.

[drcoastline]

Personally I only hitch hiked once, that was the mid eighties. I have on a few occasions been picked up after my vehicle broke down for one reason or another. My vehicles are well kept and I generally am clean and reasonably well dressed. So I assume when people see me they think he must be OK? On those few occasions I was picked up by white men 30-60ish years of age driving pick up trucks.

I have also on a few occasions offered rides. Always women/girls that looked like they needed assistance. Once a woman walking the side of the road with a small child in a rural area and a down pour. The road was relatively busy. Not a good place to be walking with a small child. But it was clear she was walking out of necessity and got caught in the rain. I drove her about a mile to her destination.

Another time I saw a woman walking carrying a bunch of shopping bags from the food store. It was a hot humid summer day. I asked if she would like a ride? she accepted and I drove her home.

Another time I saw a girl walking the side of the road ( a causeway between islands) crying. She was a bout in the middle between islands, a few mines in either direction. I turned around and offered her a ride. I took her a few miles to a safe destination that had a phone. This was before cellphones.

Another time I saw a woman broken down on the side of the road with five or six kids. Loaded them all in and took them to the local PD so she could get assistance.

I haven't seen hitch hikers in years until last week. Saw two Asian girls with their thumbs out. In a safe town obviously just looking to get from point A-B. I passed them by.

[Rick Lee]

When I worked at the Bayer factory near Cologne, I had a week off every month and always traveled somewhere straight after my shift ended at 6am. I usually walked to the hwy onramp near the factory and got a ride quickly. I wanted to go to Munich for the week and figured I'd make it by late afternoon, leaving around 6:30am. Geezus, was that the worst trip. Probably took me an hour to get picked up and it was a guy in a van, who first wanted me to help him deliver a few cases of Bibles to a church in Bonn, which was a whopping 30 min. away. So that took an hour and I was barely farther along my route than I could have ridden. I got a few more rides, stuck for an hour near Limburg and, by mid-afternoon, still hadn't gotten as far as Frankfurt. That's when I decided it was time for a train. I even made really good money then and easily could have flown or taken the train, but just figured hitching would be faster and more fun. I ended up grabbing McD at the train station and eating it on the train, got to Munich late that night. Miserable day.

Another time my buddy and I took a train from Berlin to Frankfurt/Oder, grabbed a cab and got out at the bridge that goes into Poland. We walked across and started hitchiking. It was a Sunday and church had just let out. We got a ride immediately all the way to Poznan. Fortunately, our driver told us a lot of stuff we had no idea about that really made our trip to Malbork a lot easier. After that trains were easier, since Poland was so dirt cheap and we couldn't communicate with drivers very well.

[Rtrorkt]

back in the day, i lived in Pittsburgh and went to school at OU in Athens, O. Parents would drive me to I 70 in Washington, PA and from there i would hitch. Found that i could get to school within 30 to 60 minutes of the time if i had actually driven. Going home was actually easier. Athens to Marietta, to I 70 to 1 79 and then little rides as i got closer to home. Got lots of interesting rides. Truckers, good ol boys.

The most memorable was hitching home. Made from Athens to Marietta and walked up the ramp to I 77. The quintessential VW van pulled up with 1 guy and 2 girls. That trip took a little longer.

Seems too bad the environment now is so toxic that hitching and finding those interesting folks just is not happening. Read the stories above with a bit of nostalgia.

[Salty Springs]

Back in my college years I hitched home from Macomb Ill. WIU, to Sterling Ill. to see my girlfriend. It was fun & safe back in the 60's. One time I got picked up by a guy driving a Hostess Bread truck. He said "help yourself." Don't know how many cupcakes I ate but I was stuffed by the time he dropped me off. Never had to hitch back as my gf's mothers boyfriend had a plane and he would fly me back.

[sammyg2]

I don't believe I ever hitchhiked or picked up a hitchhiker.
That was just something we were taught never to do.

[Rick Lee]

Another good ride I had was from around Bielefeld to Magdeburg. This was just after the Berlin Wall had come down, so E. Germany was still pretty close to the real E. Germany. An elderly couple picked me up at the exit of a rest area. When they heard my accent, they asked where I was from. When I told him, he lit up, said he had been sent to a POW camp near Lake Erie, had the time of his life, had never eaten so well and loved the US for it. They dropped me off in Magdeburg and I started walking into town. An old lady on a bicycle figured I looked really out of place, asked if I needed directions. I said I was headed toward the train station. Again, my accent prompted her to ask where I was from. Again, this lady lit up, said her husband had been a POW and was sent to a camp near VA Beach, said it was the best he had ever eaten and he so loved the US.

[Kraftwerk]

Hitchhiking: the original 'sharing economy'. I used to thumb rides quite a bit, before I had wheels of my own. Noticed how in the wealthier areas, it takes a longer time to get someone to stop, working class understands basic needs better. Signs helped a lot too. So at least the driver picking you up knew that you know how to write and spell and that you actually have a destination in mind.
Most people in the world are good. Hard to believe but true. Good rides out weighed the bad: White Cadillac, white cowboy boots, driver was a Doctor who delivered babies she said, nice woman. Guy in a VW Jetta said he raced motorcycles often, amazing driver very fast and smooth. It was cool to just ride shotgun with someone like that back before I had my license. The bad: drunk drivers.

In turn, when I had my Porsche Germany and Switzerland, in 2004 I think it was, I picked up any one who had their thumb out, mostly kids had missed the last train at midnight or were too far from public transport. Just paying back the good karma.