hitching a ride
 

In the early 70s at the age of 18 , my dad would drive me to work. Getting home was up to me. Thumb out, I got rides from all sorts of people. Later when I got a car I was the guy that gave rides to the less fortunate. Met some interesting folks and never had a bad experience. At the time it all seemed right. Today, no way. I am too old to deal with unknown possibilities. Society has changed big time.
Tell me some hitching tales if you have them.

No tales to tell relating to problems hitching, but in the late '60's & mid '70s I hitch hiked as a primary way of getting around. I hitched to school most days and the same people would give me rides most of the time. I still have a friend from hitching to school. I was once hitching to work at my summer job in the mountains. I shipped all of my equipment ahead but had a cube shaped carton of twelve dozen eggs I didn't trust to be shipped, so I started hitch hiking holding on to it. The last ride I got was with a girl in a Mustang headed to SF. She invited me to come along with her, but I had to pass on it since I had to report for work. I had some interesting experiences hitch hiking in southern Mexico, but nothing dangerous at the time.

I used to be a hitch hiker. As a teen I hitched from San Diego to NYC, then later years from Cape Town, South Africa to Harare in Zimbabwe.

I didn't mind driving people hitching when I was like 18 but one time (and last time) the two guys in the car started talking in a secretive way like telling each other to get me..(or something). I just had the worst feeling.. Naturally started to think that I'd be found in a ditch somewhere..

I drove way-way faster and confronted them thinking they wouldn't pull a stupid move while moving that fast and they both acted like no way man, we're cool so I took the next exit and dropped them off..

I was shaking.. I thought that was the end of the road for me.. Never again I have helped.

I tell my kids and everyone else to not do it, its too risky.. not worth it.

I was probably about 14 years old, heading home from school with a friend on foot. We'd hitchhike up a hill from town to our houses. We were having some minor argument and I was irritated with Miles and then his mom came down the hill in her powder blue Ford Country Squire wagon, no wood trim. As Miles was walking towards the car, his mom called out "we're going to Safeway for a minute and can give you a ride home if you want."

I said "No thanks, here's my ride" as a Lamborghini Espada was heading towards me. I stuck out my thumb and the car stopped. I grinned at Miles as I climbed in. His jaw was all the way down. I knew who the owner was, a fairly famous local resident, Ed Daly, owner of World Airways. Never met him before, but he lived just a couple of blocks away in a brick mansion. Never saw him again, either.

Another one. I was 15 and hitchhiking to high school to take my driver training class. Got picked up by a couple of girls taking the same class. 15 years old and driving without a license to driver training class. A bit ironic! I knew these girls were above my pay grade, the kind that were taking drugs and having sex (I think).

Dear Penthouse,
I can't believe that it happened to me.....

Ya, no. Nothing like that ever happened but I hitched rides when I was 16 or 17 through the Okanagan in BC. Never had a problem but was a little freaked out with one dude that had been smoking a ton of weed.

After undergrad school I took off with my backpack to roam a bit before really growing up. I hitched up the east coast then west through New York state and up to a small town in Canada (Smith Falls IIRC). No troubles at all. Then I head South with the intent of hanging out at the jersey shore where a sweet hunny I knew had a house. I scored some great rides with truckers and had no issues at all, except for one dude who asked if I was either gay or bisexual. Other than that no problems at all.

About 5 years ago a guy walking with great difficulty and using a cane asked me for a ride as I was getting into my car. He just wanted to go a mile to a church where they were have some event to help disabled people. I just could not tell the guy no so I took him the mile or so in the general direction I was going. Sure enough at the church was the beginning of some big event. He was very appreciative.

The only other time I picked up a hitcher was back in the mid 1970s. I saw a car broken down on the side of the road This was the days before cell phone were even dreamed of. The man (the dad I presume) was looking at the engine. I stopped to see if I could help and the fan belt was shredded. He was stuck. It was two miles to the next exit. I was driving my 914 so it was just one passenger going with me. I took him to the closest gas station and helped him find a tow truck. I am sure his wife and kids were terrified but the tow truck headed out quickly.

I never hitched a ride from strangers. My dad made me buy my own car if I wanted to drive and I had made the down payment on it by the time I was 16.

Trying to get home in my university days,one of my first rides was with a guy who didn't seem to be paying attention to his driving on the highway. When he said he was taking a cross country road, I had a moment or two of concern, as he couldn't seem to keep within his lane on the main road. Turns out he was just bored with the main highway. When he got on the secondary route, his driving was precise and noteworthy in its smoothness.

A year or two later, I was about half way home on the same 220 mile trip and got picked up by a couple of guys in an old AMC Ambassador. As we got rolling on the highway, the first thing I noticed was the 1/3 empty 24 of beer on the back seat beside me. The second thing was the pavement visible through the holes in the floor at my feet.
I had them let me off at the next exit, where I got a ride almost all the way home with neighbors who just happened by.

Along that same stretch of road some years later, I picked up a guy with a huge backpack. Turned out he had his little dog in the pack and was hiking out west. Cool dude.
Again, some years after that one day I picked up a guy hiking out of the next town from home and this LLPOS starts telling me how he's on his way to pick up weed to sell to the school kids in town. The local RCMP detachment got a report of our conversation and his description. No surprise, he "was known to them".

Then there was the guy who tried to sell me tapes. He had a half dozen copies of the same Elvis tape, still in their shrink wrap. Obviously a very low overhead operation.
I just don't pick up hikers any more.

Best
Les

Left a HS party with my friend.

No license, no insurance, no registration, switched plates.

Sitting at a light in front of the 2nd precinct and officer pulls up next to us.

My friend is nervous, I tell him to relax, officer is making a left.

Friend proceeds to drive over the curb.

Ended up hand cuffed to a wall next to a black guy in a yellow suit. Was a bit surreal.

They impound buddies car and cut us loose.

Walking home it's hella cold out so we decide to hitch.

Guess who was the first car to pull over.

Same cop.

My old man used to tell us kids how he was "rolled" hitching from Calif. to Illinois to visit my mom, back in the '40's :eek: Said he "came to" in a corn field, broke, err. robbed. Fast forward 30 years and growing up in Santa Barbara, my friends and I would hitchhike just about everywhere, especially in the hills of Montecito while skateboarding. Seemed pretty safe back then, especially there. We got rides in Benz's and once in a Rolls. I'd also hitchhike up and down the coast, never any problems. Today it's different. We regularly warned our kids (2 girls and a boy) as they were growing up NOT to hitchhike anywhere. Not so safe anymore.

Some great stories here. When I was 21 I had a 41 GMC pick up with a hot rod small block Chevy motor. My cousin was driving with me and another guy riding so the cab was full. Winter night and about 10* F outside. We see a couple teens that had their thumb out and said they could ride in the back. My cousin thought it would be fun to go 90 on this dark 2 lane back road. :D:D The kids in the back had to be freezing on top of being scared . They started yelling and beating on the back window. He finally stopped after about 2 miles.....

I was hitching with one of my friends and we got picked up by some decent guy. I whispered to my friend about if we should give the driver some sort of help, gas money, etc. The driver started speeding up and looking really wild. Started talking to us like we were about to jump him.

He dumped us off at the next exit and we were really happy about that...

My dad said he used to travel by air.

"Ere ya going my way?"

I really never hitched. In town I had a 10-speed and never traveled without family outside town. I remember picking up a woman when I was driving home (Upstate NY) from College (Texas). Broken down car. No penthouse fantasies fulfilled...

Back around '82....needed to get back to college from a friend's house in Raleigh....made a sign with my college initials on it and a cute thing picked me up in short order....we stopped for a six pack and she took me right to my apt. (well out of her way...heading to the beach)....good times :).

Hiched in college a bit....different place and time however....

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.

I used to hitch home every day from school every day. What fun. I lived about 7 miles from the school and the bus would take an hour and a half to get me home.

My last hitchhike was in the 70's. Had the 911S being worked on at Motorsports in Portland. It was ready to be picked up, but everybody I could think of was busy that day, so I stuck out my thumb. Three rides for the 95 miles. 1st was short, the 15 miles to Albany from home. Then onto I-5 north to Salem, and a memorable 3rd ride with a salesman. Picking me up in Salem, I don't think he believed that I was hitching to go pick up a Porsche, so he kindly drive me right to Motorsports...

One of those fun Porsche memories from the good old days. :)

Way back in the late 1960s my cousin took an epic world journey. He is one of the people that never met a stranger and can chat about anything. He started in Pauls Valley, OK and hitched down to Key West, up the coast to NYC. He stayed in youth hostels and camped out a lot. He worked odd jobs and earned enough to get to Europe. He hitched across most of Europe, and then to Egypt. He spent 6 month in Iran and out to Russia. On to India and he stayed in India for many months. He finally hopped a freighter and worked his way back to California. He hitched his way home and had more money than when he left.

Not a trip a hippy American can make now days.

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.

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.

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.

I have to give you guys credit, some of you have a real sense of adventure.
poof! gone http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gif

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.

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.

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 :)...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.