by animal 25 Replies latest jw friends
When I ran away at 15, the only means of transportation was hitchhiking. I traveled across county twice, and up and down the east coast several times. I wouldnt trade those experiences for the world either, even tho at the time it sucked.
This was back in the early to late 70's, a much nicer time. I wouldnt advise anyone doing it now.
Hows about you? Ever do long trips with your thumb? Any good stories?
Animal
No, I'd be dead for sure. Glad you're not.
changeling
I hitchhiked a lot, but my big adventure was...
After summer baseball let out my junior year in high school, I took my backpack $100, my false set of ID's that said I was 21 so I could buy booze, and set out on my journey from Chicago to San Diego and the great northwest. My JW brother was a bit mortified, so he insisted I take a bus to Denver (he paid...cool brother) So I hitchhiked from Denver all the way to San Diego where I recruited my childhood best friend, we hung around San Diego for a week, then hitchhiked all the way up to Seattle. We really wanted to go up to Banff and Lake Louise, but I had to get back for my senior year of HS and we were running out of time, so we hitched across Montana, down into Colorado and I caught a ride from just outside Denver all the way to my front door from some guys from Kankakee who insisted I drink as much Coors as I wanted.
Highlights were the Rockies, SanFran and the Redwood forest, slept in Yosemite (pretty stupid considering the bears) partied with a bunch of really cool people and made it home with $1.23.
I used to see so many guys and girls hitchhiking everywhere and all of a sudden it stopped.
I never understood why NOBODY hitchhikes anymore. In my college years, I would pick up one or two every day going to and from college. They were everywhere.
Around 1985, that seemed to be the turning point and no more.....
I hitchhiked a few times with my friend in the city, and once up north about 100 miles up.
I remember once in town, we hitchhiked and we sat in the back and about 1 mile further 2 chicks were hitchhiking and the driver stopped and picked them up too...lmao. they had no other place to sit but on our laps.....
Gee, times have changed !!!
In Europe hitchhiking is not dead, at least in most countries it goes on. I usually give lifts to hitchikers when I travel but I am sometimes displeased with their behaviour eg they eat in my vehicle and drop food bits on the floor and expect me to clean them later on.
I used to hitchhike a lot in upstate NY then I turned 16 got a motorcycle... I don't think I ever did it after that.
My brother did it a lot and continues to do it even now. Neither of us ever had any bad experiences. I've known LOTS of guys who did it all over the world. I've a friend who went from NY to alaska one summer. Took him about three weeks one way. I've only known one girl who did it regularly and she did have one bad experience and considering that she was unbelievably hot I'm surprised she didn't have more! I think every guy that ever picked her up hit on her but she only had one who started getting a bit out of control... Hell if I had picked her up I would have tried to put the moves on her she was a BABE!!
I would say if your a guy in reasonably good shape go for it it's fun it's free and you can cover a lot of miles! Don't buy the hype that the world is more dangerous now than when we were kids. Violent crime is much much lower than it was 20 years ago. That said if I was a woman or girl I would be very very careful!
I left Phila, headed for Calif..... with $10 in my pocket. I made it, with a side trip to Vegas. Once there, I found a job as a ranch hand and stayed with the dude that gave me the ride thru Vegas to LA. I stayed about a year and headed back east. Fun trip.
Animal
It stopped because of the myth of the hitchhiker killer. If someone was a hitchhiker they were probably an axe wielding maniac. If someone picked up a hitchhiker they surly wanted to rape them and kill them and put them in the trunk!
Its absolutely ridiculous the USA is a county that completely specializes in fear 99.9999999% of the people in this world are nice normal people. You have a much much much higher chance of getting run over while sticking out a thumb than getting picked up by jeffery dahmer! The media and government clearly just want us to be terrified of everything in the world...
If you've never watched bowling for columbine you should. America is all about being afraid!
I left Phila, headed for Calif..... with $10 in my pocket. I made it, with a side trip to Vegas. Once there, I found a job as a ranch hand and stayed with the dude that gave me the ride thru Vegas to LA. I stayed about a year and headed back east. Fun trip.
Great story. Though there were a few offers I did refuse, weren't most people who gave you rides really cool?
Animal-were you a witness then? I remember the elders giving me crap about hitchhiking. Associating with worldly people and such! What if one of them was a molester? (you mean like you and your son brother elder?!)
