Hitchhiking - who's done it?

[montanafan]

I hitchhiked once. Not a very bright thing for a 16 year old girl a long way from home to do, but it was for only a couple of miles and I was dead tired and trying to carry three suitcases.

 

[Tylanner]

id rather walk

 

[mugs]

Never done it, never picked anyone up. It's illegal here, so I rarely see them.

 

[KarenMarie]

We used to do it all the time when i was a teenager. That is how we met ppl to party with. We would have some weed and smoke it with who ever stopped to give us a ride. we were not going anywhere in particular, just wanted to drive around and were not old enough to own our own cars.

but i was a teenager so long ago, that stuff like that was safe.

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: datalink7
I finally pulled up to my house and parked the car. As I was getting out, I noticed the dude had left his bag on the floor of the passenger side. I grabbed it and headed into the house.

A couple of my friends and I went out for lunch a little later and this really nice Mexican place, La Casita.

Anyway, it was just a wierd day. Why are hitchikers so damn wierd?

WHAT THE FVCK IS IN THE BAG?! BITCH!

 

[jagec]

I've hitchhiked...but not in this country. It was in Romania, I was 15 km from the nearest town with 40 kilos of stuff on my back, and night was falling. I couldn't say anything besides the name of the town to the people who picked me up, but it was cool

Originally posted by: LoKe
I never understood why you'd pick someone up on the side of the road. I mean, anyone that desperate can't be that great of a person...

Wow, LoKe, did you know that I actually thought you were an OK person until you posted that? But, from now on, don't expect a speck of sympathy from me.

 

[paulney]

I hitchhiked a couple of times. Once my friend and me went backpacking in Sierras from Sonora to Ebbets pass. It's around 40 or so miles by trail, one way. We planned that we would hitchhike back to the point where we started (around 125 miles or so by roads). We only had 3 days for the trip, so we couldn't do it there and back by foot.

The key was to look nice and presentable. And although we were dog-tired from the trip, not shaven, etc., we did have a spare fresh t-shirt just for this, and we did our best to clean up.
Ten minutes into the waiting at the Ebbets pass turn-off to camp parking, two girls in RV pull over and tell us, they'll give us a ride in a couple of hours, unless someone picks us up earlier (they were just heading out on a trail)

We wait about 20 more minutes, and Toyota Sequoia, fully loaded with bags and camping gear, pulls over. The guy behind the wheel asks whether our car is broken and we need a ride to the nearest pay-phone for tow-service. We honestly tell him we'd be happy if he could give us a ride as far as it worked for him & us, but since he is so fully packed, we are sorry to have flagged him down, and don't want to waste his time.

Well, lo and behold: the guy, his wife, his three kids (from teenager to a little girl) get out and repack their stuff, so that we could fit our 2 backpacks in the back. Then they squeeze on the seats and make room for us. The guy gave us a ride for almost 80 miles or so, to the intersection where he continued to Nevada, and we hitched another car up to Sonora pass (California side). He gave us his card: he had an auto-shop in Las Vegas.

The second car stopped after about 40 minutes. The second guy was a paraplane flyer. He was coming back from a long weekend with all the gear in the car, and had only 1 seat available. So my friend went up with him, and then came back with the car to pick me up. While I was waiting for him, I witnessed another interesting incident, but that's another story.

Overall, we were pretty lucky: traffic in that region is fairly light, and we could've waited much much longer. But if you are nice, and greet people with a smile and honest upfront attitude, you can get a long way.

 

[WildHorse]

I've hitchhiked all over for about 1.5 years when I had no car.

I never pick up hitchhikers though.

I also rode freight trains from California to New Orleans & back. Truly wild experience.

Edit to add:

Once a girlfriend & I hitchhiked in private airplanes. We went from Calif to Arizona & all around.

 

[Glavinsolo]

I used to have a 91 Thunderbird. That thing broke down so often that you never knew when it was going to blow up. Well 3 times it left me stranded and all 3 times I was picked up by a stranger so I guess I hitchhiked. It was quite odd that I was picked up within minutes from when the car blew up. One was a college student another was a guy on his lunch break and another was a semi driver.