Anyone ever hitchhike? How did that work out for you?

I’ve hitchhiked to school. That doesn’t really count, since the people who pick me up are people I know, seniors with cars and whatnot.

But it’s fun standing on the side of a road holding out your thumb.

Aaaaaaaaa i could never do that! Because of course I would be the only paranoid person who would think “what if the person is a crazy stalker/rapist/murderer??” and so walk i must. good thing i have a car though.

I once hitched from the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge down to College Park Md.
Took about 9 hours, most of the way from the GWB to a rest area in Maryland in one vehicle. Then another one to somewhere near College Park and the last ride took only about ten minutes.

I should mention that I was with two fellow Fraternity pledges so there were three 18 year old guys traveling together which certainly kept us from being picked up by the lone crazy dude with the machete.

We took the bus back to NY at the end of the weekend because we had to be back for class on Monday morning.

SRM

The only time I have hitchhiked was on vacation in thailand… we missed the last bus back to the main town and the other option was sleeping overnight on the road. needless to say, it was more complicated than expected and involved a lot of hand waving and broken english (it turns out that you only wave the palm of your hand up and down NOT your whole arm). but it all worked out fine.

I’m not so sure I would do it in less extenuating circumstances though…

Hitchhiking is great in this country if you don’t mind being heinously murdered, raped, sodomized, tortured, and / or a dozen other equally horrific outcomes. All it takes is someone macing you. And you are done. Hitchhike with friends, not with strangers.

I used to hitchhike every day to and from school (back in the 70’s) after getting kicked off the bus my freshman year in high school. Getting home was easier, there was a lot more traffic. There was a mileage sign just on the edge of the city limits that was used known as the “hitching post.” People would just stop and pick you up there, anyone who lived there knew what it meant if you were standing by it, you didn’t even have to stick out your thumb. Mornings were trickier because there were fewer travelers.

At that time it really wasn’t that unsafe, the town had a population of about 15,000.

I’ve done it to get around town, around National Parks, and grew comfortable enough to eventually rely on it as a primary form of transportation while travelling. I’ve never had a bad experience, though I’ve excused myself from situations I realized I wasn’t 100% comfortable in. I’m not naive enough to believe that there aren’t some twisted people out there, but I’m not paranoid either. Most people really are good people, and the people willing to pick up a person on the side of the road, usually more so.

It’s a great way to get around, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into. I take certain procedural steps for safety, and am confident in my own ability to deal with a bad situation. If you’ve got those things going for you, it’s a beautiful way to travel and the best way to get to know the true character of the place you’re in.