Hitchhiking poll

[sbj405]

Been quite some time since I've seen someone trying to hitchhike until today - on the Beltway of all places. So tell us your hitchhiking stories.

[On the Road]

1. I USED To Hichhike

cross-country when I was younger. NC to CT and back, for example. Very educational. Met lots of different types.

[Wickerman]

2. used to

all through Europe in the early 80's. Great time, great way to meet cool people. Wouldn't do it now, wouldn't allow my kids to, either.

[mitchtv]

3. used to all the time

cross country and across South America

[Rainbowreflect]

14. I use to hitchhike all the time.

Have not done it in years.

[BurtWorm]

17. Another "used to" here.

It was my primary transportation to and from high school in my last two years. I still have dreams about taking that route in both directions. My brother and I hitched here and there in England and Scotland when we were 17 in 1976. I stopped hitching after being picked up by a sadistic, drunken guy who picked me up after my late shift one night and who let me out in the middle of nowhere only because his girlfriend convinced him to let me go. He didn't do anything but scare the shit out of me.

[texastoast]

4. It used to be fun

And not so dangerous.

Once, my car broke down in Austin after a big, fun concert, and we had to get back to work.

Took for freaking ever!

Our first ride was in the back of a pickup with a St. Bernard. The Texas wind and a St. Bernard's lips do not mix. We kept feeling like it was raining, but it surely was not. Once we figured it out, we gave up that ride for another in a van full of hippies traveling in a convoy. The convoy had to pull over every ten minutes to toke up or pee.

A five-hour drive turned into a ten-hour trip home.

Thanks for the trip down I-don't-remember-details lane.

[ret5hd]

5. another "used to" here (nt)

[Alpharetta]

6. used to hitchike. used to pick up riders

stopped hitching after college.

stopped picking up riders when it got too dangerous around '85

used to hitch to work in D.C. suburbs. nearly every day.

used to hitch up and down the Eastern Seaboard while in college.

2 rides stand out

- a Baptist preacher from Tifton Georgia who didn't like the way I stopped his car after he refused to let me out.

- a bro in a van who drove me from N.C. to Jacksonville back in '79. we partied the whole way down. great ride. Listened to Isley Bros and Steely Dan. Just cracked each other up the whole way.

[frogbison]

8. It's been 30 some years

since I've thumbed a ride, but used to do so often. I didn't have a car, I was young, and it was a different time.

I do have some stories...like the ride with the elderly man who exposed himself to me. I knew I could outrun him, so I wasn't scared!

Had to get * back * to * my * baby! Had to!

[bobthedrummer]

7. Did a lot of it back in the mid-late 1960's

Met a lot of really good people and several creeps too. That was then, it was not uncommon.
It was ok then-it's not a good idea today in Homeland.

[regularguy]

9. Hitched from San Fran to Seattle around 1984.

Helluva lot of fun. Everyone says the world is more dangerous now; I don't think so. I'm just older.

[Beetwasher]

10. I've Got The Mother of All Hitchhiking Stories

But it's really long...It involves hitching to Daytona, FL. for spring break from Binghamton, NY and back again...It also involves state troopers, single mothers, key's locked in trunks, drugs and being stranded after midnight on the highway in torrential rain on Easter Sunday...

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Another "used to here"

.
.
.

Thousands of miles all tolled, but not past '85 I think -

And

with all the OTHER "used to's" in this thread so far

What does this tell us about our "civilization"? :shrug:

Sadly, it appears we were getting "less safe" a decade or two ago

We're just in "accelerated" mode thanks to UnoWho . .

(sigh)

Oh, and I think in Alberta it's even ILLEGAL now.

It has been illegal on some of our major highways in Ontario for awhile, but not on the overpasses going ONTO the major highways . .

[DancingBear]

12. All the time back in the late 60's/early 70's

Coast to coast, CT to CO, OH to FLA, hell, anywhere.

Syracuse to Columbus, -10 degrees and the guy building the boat in his basement (we saw it - honest!).

Way too many stories - the stoned women with the shopping bag full of chocolate chip cookies in GA, "johnny potseed" from Ashby, MA and the cop in St. Louis, and on and on.

Whew. Those were different times...

[bowens43]

13. HItchhiked from ohio to northern wisconsin

then back to ohio, down the east coast to florida , along the gulf coast to texas. This was in the mid 70's. Tons of short trips during the same time frame. If I caught my sons doing it, I would cut off their thumbs.

Some stories:

Got picked up by a bus load of Evangelical Christians who were bound and determined to save my soul. It was an interesting ride, they had lot's of good eats!

Got picked up by a hash smoking / speed taking, truck driver on the way to Wisconsin. He talked non-stop for a hundred miles.

Got picked up by an old hippie in Florida who let me live in his garage for about a week until his wife made him kick me out.

[Career Prole]

15. Other...yes, frequently (when I was younger)

One story...I thumbed to '73 Summer Jam at Watkins Glen from RI. Tried to thumb back, but the road out was like a parking lot for 10 miles or so. I hoofed it through that, but when I finally caught a ride I was so beat from the forced march after being awake all weekend I fell into the sleep of the Deadhead in this dude's car. When I woke up I was in Wilkes-Barre, PA...not exactly "on the way" between Watkins Glen and Providence.
I was played out by then. There was a small park or square right by the bus station in Wilkes-Barre and there I panhandled the fare home in a matter of a couple of hours.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those citizens of Wilkes-Barre who helped me out on Sunday, July 29, 1973. This is probably the best place to do that because the ones who sneered "Get a job!" were no doubt repugs and as such wouldn't be reading this.
Thank you kindly! :hi:

[bikebloke]

16. Once upon a time

Through Europe in the early 80's like someone posted above. Also, in Israel during the same time period. Later in New Zealand and Aussie when I was bike trekking and had a couple horrible breakdowns that couldn't be repaired on the road side.

Wouldn't dare try it here. But the way the economy is going, many of us may become latter day Okies and need to ride the thumb.

[ihaveaquestion]

18. I used to - before I knew better -

at 15, I was a teenage runaway.

[DS1]

19. Many of them have weed

That's all I have to say about that.

[gula]

20. Last year in Switzerland when I missed the bus

Also used to hitchhike around Europe and across Canada in the mid-70's. Even got a tent loaned by the Greek army for a night when I was hiking from Istanbul back to Greece with another girl.

Met lots of people, most of them pretty cool. One of the fun things was running into the same people in different countries. I remember one girl I was hitchhiking with in Portugal and then ran into her again a few months later in Stockholm. Ahhh, those were the days.

[SoCalDem]

21. 1964.. We used to split into "teams" and have hitching "races"

from Miami to Ft Lauderdale and back..
Scientific observation:

Teenaged girls in swimsuits do better in getting people to stop and pick them up :evilgrin:


Before people jump all over me.. It was a different time back then and we were NEVER propositioned/threatened..


and I used to pick hitchers up too when I was in college.. Driving across Kansas at night was... B O R I N G ..No bad experiences there either