Hitchhiking thread...anyone done it?

[Leslie]

Hitchhiking is verbotten nowadays.  Don't do it.

Back in 1976 I hitchhiked from Nashville to Grundy, VA.  That was a trip.  One guy was picking up every hitcher he saw.  There were six of us in the car including a dog.  Remember sleeping under an overpass where the biker with the dog and I got out.  It was so cold that night I borrowed his boxer dog to use as a pillow..  Only thing that kept me from freezing.

Anyway I'm sure some of your stories are more interesting than mine.  Did walk down the interstate and was hassled by sheriff deputy.  He would only give me a ride to town if I wanted to go to jail.  Was kinda funny because I was ready to get in the front seat.  He left me alone when he heard I was from Bama.  Musta thought I was stupid or something.

When I was in Grundy I hitched to my sales territory (didn't have a car).  Was picked up one time by a guy in a trans am involved in a police chase.  We easily evaded them, it was a game with these guys.  Turned around and came back so the police could see us and then left em in the dust again.  They were so bored there they did that.

From Grundy back to Nashville hitched a ride with hippies in a hippy van.  Fortunately that turned out ok.  This was in 1976.





Les

[DREDIOCK]

Never hitched for any great distances. Before I had a car I used to have a girlfried that lived a fw towns over. It was usually no problem getting a ride there but rarely had a ride home. So I used to hitch or walk the 20 miles home every night (heh power of the poontang sure is somethin)

Anyway. never ceased to amaze me when it was raining, how many people think its funny to go out of their way to hit that puddle right next to you.
now before anyone says "Well dont stand next to a puddle"
I wouldnt just stand there at all some some idiots do. I'd be walking backwards in the direction I was headed as there was never a guarentee I was getting a ride and times I would just end up next to a puddle.

One night I had some old guy proposition me. After I declined the invatation he said "I dont have to give you a ride you know" I was like, fine. let me out right here. He kept driving. Next thing I knew he was trying to feel me up. So I flicked open my switchblade which I used to always carry and held it to his neck and suggested he pull over now and let me out. Which he did.

Fast forward 3 months. Its pouring rain and a car pulls over for me so I jump in and notice somethign familiour about the seats. he had these bead type contraption on the seats I think was supposed to be used for back releif. Anyway he starts talking and I notice somethign familour about his voice. Then it hit me its the same guy! And Im like oh no here we go again. But like I said its pouring rain so I want ot get as far down the road as I can. Couple miles later sure enough he propositions me again. So I said to him "you picked me up and tried this watermelon a couple months ago. Want to see my knife again?" he apologises and just pulls over and lets me out.

5 in later I get picked up by a couple and relay the story to them.
the chick says. "You dont really have a switchblade do you" So I take it out and open it and show it to her. She bout turned white as a ghost even though im holding it by the blade and handing it to her to check out. "uhh uhhh no thanks" she says.
her boyfriend/husband or whatever he was had no problems with it took it and checked it out for a few moments before handing it back but you could tell she was terrified.
they gave me a ride all the way home LOL

[JB73]

Originally posted by Leslie
Was picked up one time by a guy in a trans am involved in a police chase.  We easily evaded them, it was a game with these guys.  

were you wearing a wedding dress at the time?

[Leslie]

No JB73, I was standing in front of a very old dilapidated building that used to be a store.  The setting was a 100 ft. verticle wall on one side and a creek on the other.   It was a least a two or three mile straightaway and probably used for drag racing.  The incident I mentioned was more drag racing than actual evasion.  Neither one cared about catching the other, or they would have.




Les

[cpxxx]

Never really hitched. Not my thing but people in rural areas around often do for short local trips. Safe enough because it usually locals giving the rides.

Once I ended up getting a lift in an vintage Austin 7. I was on my way to London from Dublin to visit my sister when the tyre on my bike blew at about 80 mph on the M6 motorway one Sunday evening. I'm not sure how I controlled it but I did. The recovery vehicle brought me to a small garage where someone was 'cutting and shutting' a crashed car. I noticed the driver's seat had a large pool of coagulated blood on it Euggh! Someone met a gory end in that seat.
I patched the tyre but it only lasted a few miles and I ended up limping into Newport Pagnall motorway services.

While I was there considering whether to find a hotel for the night.  I got talking to the driver of the Austin 7 who was returning from a vintage rally. An elderly gentleman who was once a musician supporting a well known singer. He offered me a lift the rest of the way.
I couldn't resist. Traffic was Sunday night heavy into London but he just blithely passed it all down the hard shoulder reckoning that the police would never bother with a old car like that.  He was right and we passed everything in our little putt putt motor car.
It was very late when we got into London and he suggested I stay in his flat for the night. It suddenly occured to me, probably unfairly, that he might want a return on the favour. This did not appeal much so I demurred. As he left I felt he looked disappointed as if cheated of his prey.

Then I tried to find a cab. It's tricky to get a London cabbie to go 'saaf of the wiva' at that hour of the night but eventally I got one. Had to wake my sister by flinging stones at the window of her bedroom at two in the morning. That didn't make me popular.

It was a hell of a day but interesting.

[FiLtH]

LOL 73!!! Just what I was gonna ask!!!

[midnight Target]

Did quite a bit in the 70's along the California coast.

[Skydancer]

Went to Donnington Monsters of Rock once in a Rover Metro liberated from my Mum.  Got so wasted we fell asleep in the car park on the way out. Woke up in an empty field very early next morning. American girl banging on the window. She had  some interesting tobacco and was a good looking bird so my mate and I proffered a lift. Turns out she was living on the base at Mildenhall. By the time we got there we could hardly drive in a straight line or manage two words without cracking up. We actualy got past gate security. Big scary looking guys with big guns. Much worse when you are wasted. Think we ended up in a bar on the base not sure as by then was very far gone.  Never got the girl but did get to be wasted on a USAF base!!!

Was hitching home one night after going to see Ipswich town play. Got offered a lift so jumped in only to find the guy was a full on tranny, stockings dress the lot! He was pleasent enough but I was seriously uncomfortable. Made out I lived in a village down the road just to get out of the car. It was a long walk home. Should've looked at the guy before getting in I guess.

Both stories from long ago. No hitching these days. The fear mongers got to me in the end. Pity realy.

[Sandman]

I've never hitchhiked, but I've given rides.

Last one was about a month ago. I was heading up to Kernville to go mountain biking. Passed some hikers that were doing the Pacific Crest Trail near Walker Pass. I gave them a ride to Onyx.

Nice couple.

[Seagoon]

Last time I hitched a lift was in University, this was back in the UK in 1990. I had been out drinking with three other lads at a pub/restaurant just outside of the town. We had driven there, but in classic student style had decided that we were all going to be the designated drinker.

At closing time, the owner of the car (a clapped out Opel) suggested that he was fine to drive home, but considering we had just watched him pour most of his last pint down the front of his shirt, we decided that we weren't going to get in the car with him and then because we had all drunk and smoked the last of our spare cash, decided we should walk home. He anounced "I'm going for a slash." Walked off and the next minute he's driving past us tooting the horn and flashing us "a salute." So the two of us started the long tromp back into town which is harder when standing up and walking is a task in itself. Eventually, we gave up walking and broke out the thumbs under a street light.

Eventually a twenty somethingish townie stopped for us, and my friend got in front and I got in the back. He stalled the car on starting again (not a good sign) but what the heck we weren't walking anymore, then he turned and casually asked my friend in the front. "Ahm a lettle stoned, could yas jes lean oot the window n' tell ma how close ta the side o' the road ah ahm?"

My friend did exactly that and guiding him back by "leff a liddle" "righ' a liddle" we managed to make it back.

Our friend who left us wasn't home when we got in, so we concluded he was probably dead. But the next morning we discovered he hadn't come home because he had stopped at an ATM and then the "open late" Curry house in town to get in some chips with curry sauce and a few extra pints of lager before bed and then had gone over to an "ex" girlfriends flat. (Why bother with the embarrassing 2:00 AM phone call when you can just show up in person?)

Truly the only reason I survived the period from '87-'91 is God's providence... Anyway, wouldn't hitch today if you paid me.

- SEAGOON

[Jackal1]

Originally posted by JB73
were you wearing a wedding dress at the time?

 More interesting question would be...did he take his hat off?

[Boroda]

Never practiced hitch-hiking as a "sport" or a main transportation on a trip. You know, there are some, usually young, people who simly get "on the track" and travell from Omsk to Moscow and back. Here they have special places where long-range truck drivers pick them. It's an interesting, but almost extinct culture here. I know people who travelled from Moscow to Cental Asia, then Siberia and back in 70s-80s, now it's impossible because of all that stupid new borders.

When I get stuck somewhere in the rain with my backpack and a piece of bread/cheese, with last bus left several hours ago and the next will come next week - I have to hitch-hike or go something like 100km on foot, I usually get a ride in no more then one hour, even on some god-forgotten forest roads. There are sill some people who are not afraid to pick up a bearded guy wearing faded cotton camouflage and a dirty backpack. I never had to pay for such a ride, even some people with Moscow license-plates usually simply want me to show them the "way out of here".

Travelling with children we sometimes hich-hiked some trucks or shift-buses on forest-roads in taiga, drivers usually were quite happy to help 15+ kids with their leaders.

[Yeager]

If I cant get myself there, I dont go.  Never have hitched a ride with any unknown person in all my years.

[Boroda]

Originally posted by Yeager
If I cant get myself there, I dont go.  Never have hitched a ride with any unknown person in all my years.

y
Yeager, you don't understand what is an adventure

One of my best hitch-hiking rides was on a forest road in Central Russia, on Valday height, two guys in a ZIL-130 truck with Moscow license plates, they said they hijacked it in Moscow and were riding to their village... They were unable to start an engine, because one of them was deadly drunk and it took two people to start an engine: one had to rotate the handle in front (starter didn't work, I think they sold an accumulator to buy vodka), and another had to put the wires torn from a key-lock together... We helped them, they poured us some poison and gave us a ride for mabe 15km...  What really touched me was that they stopped at a common grave from 1942, and we drank some glasses without clincking, to honour the dead. The grave deep in the forest was clean and it was obvious that they keep it clean.

[Yeager]

Boroda,

I drive Interstate five everyday for 50 miles.  Not only is that an adventure, its a frikking dance with disaster coming and going.

On top of that I lay in bed at night wondering if the next asteroid is going to plow through my roof and in and out of my skull.

I have lots of adventure daily haha