3.

Quote :

"I say just hop on one and see where it takes you ... I rode from durham to atlanta once and had no clue where I'd end up."

thats ballsy. i always wanted to, but was too skeered. how'd you get back?

6/11/2007 1:04:14 AM

I have a friend who hopped a train once trying to get to NCSU from downtown Raleigh. Unfortunately the train didn't slow down through campus like it usually does. He couldn't hop off until the train went trough east Durham. Bad news!

6/11/2007 1:17:59 AM

that'll teach him to take the motherfucking #4 bus next time, wont it

6/11/2007 1:54:50 AM

For the love of all that is good and sacred, don't train hop.

Hobos are the most violent of the homeless, from what I've read and heard. They are also far and away the most likely to respond poorly to a "college boy" out trying to "find himself" or whatever the fuck.

Aside from that, there is the more important and obvious danger of the fact that trains are very heavy and move very fast and have a number of parts capable of dismembering you with almost unimaginable ease.

Then there's the legal issue, also already mentioned, which boils down to poorly-regulated private-security forces used to beating the shit out of hobos without any accountability or punishment, as well as the potentially more disturbing homeland security aspect; those guys do keep an eye on trains, and someone who looks out of place on them -- ie, college boy -- is going to be pretty fucking suspect. Ultimately, you're far more likely to go to jail jumping trains than hitching, and almost infinitely more likely to get fucked up physically.

Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it.

6/11/2007 2:13:31 AM

i dont know about the "hobo" on trains vs. "hobo" somewhere else ... distinction. or if there is one. maybe there is. but considering trainhopping is rough, dangerous and highly illegal ... i dont know if thats the kind of crowd you'd want to potentially become involved with.

and a clarification:

unlike trainhopping, hitchhiking is not inherently illegal. as long as you don't do it on interstate freeways.

you could possibly get hassled going through a conservative small town, by the local yokel good ol boy cops ... but thats a chance you can afford to take, and probably would risk even if you were just hiking through with a backpack anyhow.



[Edited on June 11, 2007 at 3:05 AM. Reason : ]

6/11/2007 3:01:28 AM

There is a pretty interesting book called "Hobo" by Eddie Joe Cotton if you want a decent read on modern train hopping. He was a mid-20's construction worker who got fed up and rode the rails for a few years. Lots of very helpful info for anyone wanting to get into it and a few danger stories as well.

One thing in particular that I probably wouldn't have thought of is that you can suffocate in some of the tunnels that run through a mountain.

6/11/2007 3:14:55 AM

Yeah, I've heard some pretty bad stories. A friend of mine hopped a train in mintern, CO going through the rockies, thinking it would make a stop before it went over. It didn't, and he nearly froze to death. I won't be hopping trains, mostly because it is illegal, and I'm trying to keep this trip as legal as possible. But I do hear you get to see amazing parts of the country that you would never otherwise be able to see. As far a hobos go, I think they'd be the least of your worries when hopping trains. I've also heard train hopping was getting a little too popular a few years back, so there was a significant crackdown on the activity, now making it near impossible for someone who doesn't know what they're doing (ie. me).

6/11/2007 9:36:07 AM

Quote :

"how'd you get back?"

greyhound FTW

6/13/2007 3:51:16 PM

Getting closer, im on a roadtrip now to oregon where Ill start. ATM in Boulder, CO. The only story you all might be interested in happened in Chicago.

I went to a club with a old high school friend who now lives in the city. On the train back somehow an argument broke out between a new mother and a guy she apparently spit on after his attempts to take her home. I was functionally drunk, but still drunk enough to get involved. The friend i was visiting got up to pull the guy off the train, and the lady tried to follow, leaving her baby in the stroller to roll up and down the aisle. I grabbed the stroller with one hand, and put my other hand on the rail infront of her so she couldn't follow the guy off. The door shuts with the guy on the outside, still pretty pissed, so he punches out the window and starts to climb in. The train pulled away before he made it, and we hopped out at the next stop, but that's enough big city for me.

anyway, not the best story, but it could have ended worse. I'll be sure to stay away from that kind of thing when I'm on my own.

7/6/2007 4:40:32 PM

Yo Joe lets hear the next chapter

7/16/2007 10:50:04 AM

^ absolutely


and

Quote :

"so he punches out the window and starts to climb in."

jesus christ

7/16/2007 11:18:12 AM

i really want to hear what happened in baltimore

7/16/2007 8:21:27 PM

Yeah we need more joe_schmoe hitchhiking stories!

7/17/2007 8:54:48 AM

Quote :

"ATM in Boulder, CO."

well, that's one way to get someone to take you somewhere...just be sure to have wet wipes for afterward

7/17/2007 9:04:01 AM

we need more joe_schmoe hitchhiking stories

7/17/2007 10:48:59 AM

joe_shmoe promised me a story update over a week ago, but he didn't deliver

not like he owes me anything but still

A MAN'S WORD IS HIS BOND

7/25/2007 10:27:30 PM

Young_Schmoe's Big City Adventures -- part 3

So here I am, Cracker McWhitey from Crackertown Ohio, and I'm gonna hang with the big dogs down on E. Baltimore St. in the heart of downtown Baltimore. I don't know what it's like there now, but back in the late 80's early 90's the part I gravitated to was total ghetto-sketch. Pimps, hookers, drug dealers everywhere. all the businesses it seemed were adult bookstores, peep shows, titty bars, 24 hour diners, low-bottom saloons, liquor/cigarette stores, pawn shops... I dont think i could have found a worse place

I had been kicked out of school in my senior year, apparently because I already knew everything. My folks gave me the boot from their house for the same reason. Finally, I was gonna show the world that I was a man about town, and I knew what the score was. I had about 100 dollars left in cash. I knew it wasnt going to last long, and I didnt want to lose it here, so I hid it in my duffel bag, which I locked in the trunk. Feeling pretty smart, I kept just 10 bucks in my pocket, and resolved to not tell anyone I had more money.

I wandered up and down the street, checking out storefronts, looking for some kids about my age. But there wasn't really much to engage me, all of the entertainment was 21 and over, and it was clear that the bouncers weren't going to consider letting me in. The hookers standing on one corner didnt pay me much attention either. The adult bookstore looked interesting (I had never been in one) but it had a sign saying "No One Under 18 Allowed", so there wasnt really a damn thing for me to do there. I walked back toward where my car was parked.

Before I could leave, though, this black guy approaches me, seemed friendly, saying "Hey man, let me smoke with you". I thought he was offering me weed! "Well, sure... where, right here?". He looked at me funny, and repeated "let me smoke with you... your cigarettes, can i get one?" holding two fingers to his mouth. Oh.. disappointed, i pulled out my pack of Marlboros. He laughed, "What'd you think I meant? Are you looking for some smoke? Where the hell are you from, anyhow?" I told him the short version of my story, and that yes, I was looking for some weed. He was grinning at me like I was the funniest thing hed seen in a long time. He seemed like a trustworthy guy. And guess what? This guy knew where to get some weed, imagine that! "How much money you got?" "Ten bucks?" "Shit. All my boy sells are quarter bags ... Well, thats cool, you got a car. lets go find some money."

We drive around and talk shit for a while, I'm playing my Metallica Ride the Lightning cassette on the stereo, explaining to him the finer subtleties of speed metal. my car has some crazy old junky stereo components that i got for free from those dudes in West Virginia. I wired it all up myself: a separate tuner, a cassette deck, and an amplifier all laying on the floor, and a mess of wiring spilling out everywhere, with big metal DPDT toggle switch to change the signal to the amp, wads of electrical tape and wirenuts, and a huge capacitor that I used for filtering out most of the engine noise picked up by the big clunky switch. it's some piss-poor quality, to be sure, but it's loud. The black dude (i cant even remember his name) acts impressed with my rig.

So he has me stop at this housing project. Black Dude says its not safe for me to sit in the car, so I follow him inside. he knocks on a door and a skeletal-looking woman with hair in curlers opens the door. Shes not happy to see him, even less to see me. He insists that she let him in, and tells me to wait out in the hall. i hear him arguing with her about money she owes him for about 5 minutes, then finally comes out cursing "damn crackhead bitch ain't never got no money." So we drive around some more looking for some other people he knows in various slummy neighborhoods.

On the way out of one housing project, we get hollered at by a group of about 5 or 6 black teens who look like gangbangers, they're calling to us, "HEY! SALT AND PEPPA!! YO, COME BACK HERE, BITCHES!!!". Now they're following us and we wind up breaking into a full run for the last 30 yards to the car. And they're running after us, and I'm really scared because Black Dude is scared. His obvious fear told me this was serious. We get in and I fired up the engine (Chevy 350!) and lit up the tires on the pavement. the gangbangers are still yelling at us and throwing rocks (and maybe bricks??) at my car. One hits my trunk and one hits the roof and rolls down the windshield onto the hood. I almost crashed into a fire hydrant as i fishtailed the Nova out of the parking lot.

I swear, I dont know how I didnt wind up shitting my pants. I have to pull over to calm down for a minute. Then we laugh and get back to looking for "this one guy" who owes Black Dude some money. A few minutes later going down a street, he says "Hey, stop the car. stop here! I know that guy." he points at some guy staggering down the street. "Back up"... so i back up the car to this guy he points at, and Black Dude jumps out. The guy in question is an old white guy, shaggy hair, beard, ragged clothes... hes a typical homeless bum. Black Dude is talking to him like he knows him. the bum is kind of dazed, then he looks like he recognizes something, almost terrified, and tries to run away. Black Dude grabs his arm and pulls him to the car, talking in a calm voice like you might to a scared child or an injured animal. He pushes the bum in my car's back seat.

Black Dude is talking to the bum like he knows him, but its apparent to me now that he doesn't know him at all. He's trying to get the bum to calm down like hes his friend or something. The bum is really wasted, and smells like rubbing alcohol. He's babbling nonsensical stuff. Black Dude asks him for money. Bum says "mwah mwah lah lah blah ain got no money gah gah gah". Black Dude punches him in the side of the head. "Gimme your fucking money". Bum says "blah blah blah blah fuck money". Black Dude punches him in the head again. Bum says "blurble blurb" and lays down on the back seat and closes his eyes.

I didnt know what to say or do. Black Dude asks me "you got a knife or something?" No, i aint got a knife. "Goddammit do you got anything sharp, anything at all?" I look on the floor of the backseat. theres a long flathead screwdriver. I point at it. He grabs the screwdriver, and pushes the blade against the bum's temple. "MOTHERFUCKER YOU BETTER GIVE ME YOUR GODDAMMED MONEY OR IM GONNA DRIVE THIS INTO YOUR FUCKING SKULL!" Bum mumbles some more, opens one eye then closes it again. I swear i think I hear him start snoring.

"Shit!". Black Dude throws the screwdriver down starts reaching around in the bum's pockets, pulling out four wadded up crumpled dollar bills. "Damn," he says, "too bad it isnt closer to the first of the month." Black Dude stuffs the bills into his pocket. He turns around again, reaches back shakes the bum violently. "Get out of the car motherfucker, you stink!" Bum says something that sounds like "sleep" and snorts. "Fuck it, I say. leave him be. we'll get him out later."

so we've got fourteen dollars, but need 40 for a quarter bag. Black Dude has an idea, he says a guy who works at the truck stop off the highway owes him some money and should have it now. He directs me to this truck stop south (i think) of downtown. there are a bunch of trucks parked here, and we get out and go in. the place is filled with overweight white rednecky looking guys (and a few gals) milling about, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes. Black Dude speaks to the guy working the counter, then I follow him towards the back of the area where there are more truckers relaxing, some playing video games, some are watching TV in the TV room. I notice a bunch of pay showers.

Black Dude says hes gotta talk to someone in private, and for me to wait out in the car. Im feeling a little odd about this interaction, somethings not right. But no sooner do i get to the car and sit down, Dude comes back, running, jumps in and yelling "Start the car, get the fuck out of here! Now! Now!" I look back and see two or three trucker types coming out the door, looking at us in the car. One guy points at us. the other two look uncertain. and they just stand there. I drive off.

"What happened?" Black dude is laughing, and pulls out a $20 bill. "How'd you get that?" I was incredulous. Black Dude laughs some more. "I took it from that faggot." Then, from the back seat, I hear a voice, "Where are we goin?" Black Dude and I look at each other, eyes wide open. I about shit my pants. Bum sits up, looks at us, and says "Hey, who are you?"





[Edited on July 26, 2007 at 5:13 AM. Reason : ]

7/26/2007 4:49:09 AM

that's awesome. this feels like a mission on GTA or something

7/26/2007 9:20:49 AM

hmm... im thinking about this more and more -- maybe i oughtta try and put all this in a book. Cause i'm just scratching the surface so far, and I cant keep writing this here.

i have no idea how to go about writing a book, though. my writing is all sloppy and disorganized. not to mention grammatically atrocious.



[Edited on July 27, 2007 at 1:09 PM. Reason : ]

7/27/2007 1:08:08 PM

just sit down and pound it out like you do here, don't worry about grammar/spelling etc., because spending time on that will kill your stream of thought and cause you to change what you're saying. then at the end you (or someone else) can go back and clean it up.

it's a lot harder to change storylines when you go back over it all at once than if you try to clean it up a chapter/paragraph at a time.

but keep it up, this is really cool

7/27/2007 2:56:15 PM

I'm addicted.

7/27/2007 3:29:55 PM

No update really, no time. But Im alive, and have some stories to tell in a week or so. Thanks for the updates joe, hope I helped bring back some good memories.

7/27/2007 9:01:53 PM

Bro... I've travelled a bit in my day, and have my fair share of stories, but this shit is great!

Joe you have to write it all down. It would be a dis-justice to your experience not too.

Best thread!!

Cheers!

7/27/2007 10:40:27 PM

joe



keep writing!

8/16/2007 1:52:51 PM

I couldn't help but imagine the role of Black Dude being played by Chris Tucker as I read that, and maybe Joe Schmoe played by Jay from Jay and Silent Bob.

[Edited on August 16, 2007 at 4:39 PM. Reason : .]

8/16/2007 4:38:13 PM

So I was hitching west on highway 1 through Canada. I had just stayed the night on a winery up in Kelowna. It was a commune of sorts, transients from all over the world would come to work in exchange for lodging, food, and weed. The guy that dropped me off here said I would be taken care of. I ended up sleeping in a old school bus that night, it had been converted into a couple rooms with a kitchen and bathroom. I helped them for a little bit in the morning around the farm, bathed in a lake in town, then headed out west for Victoria. got a few sort rides out of town, and then this beat up red sedan pulls over with these two high school kids, heading to victoria. the trunk is full with a huge ass speaker, and I dont want to spend the next 5 hours with 50 lbs of my gear on my lap, but I wasn't going to get that good of a ride again, so i hopped in. They must have smoked 15 joints between kelowna and vancouver, and Im pretty sure they weren't over sixteen. We got onto the island at around 10 pm, and they couldnt figure out where to dump me, so I asked them to find a forest and I'd be alright. They pull down some dirt road where one of the kids says they smoke sometimes. It's some old logging road right outside nanaimo, but Its late already and I wanted to get out of their car, so I thank em and start walking into the woods.

8/27/2007 5:44:45 PM

[Edited on August 27, 2007 at 9:00 PM. Reason : .]

8/27/2007 8:59:27 PM

you left something out man

the last thing you mention is walking into the woods - but now you're posting on the internet.. i suppose we'll have to wait wait a few weeks to find out the rest of the story :/ Thats one hell of a journey to be in Victoria...




best thread I've read in a while btw.... this is the stuff i read TWW for - excellent stories Joe

[Edited on August 28, 2007 at 12:34 AM. Reason : asfd]

8/28/2007 12:33:05 AM

Two days ago I was just west of Sisters, OR. The weekend was coming up and thats when the best rides come, so I wanted to try and make my way back east as far as I could on the Saturday travel. I had met this girl in Salem that had mentioned in conversation a free haircut in downtown Denver if I was ever in the area. Well, it's been a couple months since I've had one, and the rides come easier when you look clean cut, so I figured that was as good of a reason as any to point my thumb in Colorado's direction. The first ride pulls over, "get in get in, im in a hurry, get the fuck in."

I'm way out in the Eastern Oregon desert and this guy was smaller than me, so I jumped it. The plates were from Ohio. The guy was late for a meeting because he'd gone home for lunch and got a little too drunk. Trying to make conversation, I asked him if he was from Ohio. "Naww, I ain't never been there, Stole this off some tourists coming through. Mann, you said you was from North Carolina. I'm gonna drive this fucker out there, driver into the chatatuga river, fuck em." He only took me ten miles before his turn off. I jumped out and he peeled off, shouting "Iowa or Bust!"

A couple rides later and Semi pulls over. I had gotten good rides in them before, so I didn't think anything getting into this one. The driver seemed normal enough for the first few hours, then we come across this stretch of desert in Idaho thats for sale and he says to me "Man, I'd love to have that land. You know what I'd do with that land... (pause for me to guess) . . . I'd use the free energy device that I'm going to make once I get this diamond operation going, then I'll de-materialize the sand and melt it into glass tetrahedrons so's that I can build a huge geodesic dome. I want the dome so I can have a nice garden."

Turns out this guy was bat-shit crazy. Along with his free energy device (made from vortexing water or mercury vapor) and his dematerializer (made from orbiting meuons around a sphere), he's also invented a hoverbike (that uses hes free energy battery), a diamond constructing device to make diamond processors that operating at over 100 tera hertz. diamond fiber tires for nascar drivers, a laser based digital storage device that warped glass for binary digits. The hardest part was that he would fade in and out between actual science and lunacy. The trains of thought would proceed "copper is great for conducting electrons... but the problem is it can't take the lighter particles like the tao-leptons with it. I've invented a way to fix that, you have you use diamonds. once I get this diamond growing process, I'm going to be so rich. I just need investors..."

Of course, he was abducted by aliens and what not, but the most disturbing part had to be his views of love. He was bi-polar with his attitudes towards women. The guy was in love with a girl he saw in a grocery store seven years ago in Prineville OR. Every year he goes back to see if shes still there. "I think this summer I'm going to take some time off work and head up to prineville to see if I can find this girl. She was a desert flower. But if that doesn't happen, there is this girl that works at Fry's Electronics in Sacramento that wants to fuck the shit out of me. Maybe Ill just have a kid with that bitch."

Half the time, I had no idea what to say to him, he didn't ever seem threatening, but i never want to provoke anyone who I'm riding with. You really learn to keep your opinions to yourself and mold into the person that they want you to be. There was no way I was going to fit this mold, so I just plastered a smile on my face, and nodded to everything he said. I get the feeling he was talking more to himself than to me. We stopped halfway to Denver at a truck rest in Idaho for the night, I layed a tarp out in a wheat field and tried my best to fall asleep. Ironic, but that morning was probably the best I've had on the road, because I was finally, completely at the mercy of humanity. Mike drove me the rest of the way to boulder, with the same stories repeating for the next 10 hours. It'd better be a dammn good haircut.

9/9/2007 12:40:42 PM

joe_schmoe you need to write a book, I'd seriously buy it

[Edited on September 9, 2007 at 2:04 PM. Reason : f]

9/9/2007 2:03:38 PM

hey, you, pay attention. ^^ 1985 is telling a story. I'm interested in hearing more about what he's been up to.

Hey, you were in Victoria, then went to OR? damn, dude, did you go through Seattle and not try to contact me. I thought I I PM'd you my cell #. o well, one less beer i have to buy someone




[Edited on September 9, 2007 at 3:58 PM. Reason : ]

9/9/2007 3:51:22 PM

Joe, you're taking credit for my stories

I didn't actually go through Seattle, I hitched a ride on the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. (met a family on the ferry that took me in, fed me, and lent me their kayacks to take out on the water between the olympic peninsula and Seattle ). I just went south from there without hitting up any of the tri-cities. I'll make it back there sometime though.

P.S. the haircut fell through, heading to Milwaukee tomorrow.

9/9/2007 8:47:11 PM

hey! i'd never try and take credit for your stories.

you seem to have already packed quite a bit more hitchhiking and sightseeing in a shorter time than i ever did. i always seemed to get bogged down in the sleazy nightlife districts and/or ghettos of the worst fucking cities. if i had to do it over, id probably try and do something more like what you're doing.

be safe.

9/9/2007 11:38:52 PM

joe's stories remind me of catcher in the rye

9/11/2007 7:46:40 AM

^ I give up.

9/11/2007 12:10:17 PM

id like to nominate this thread for thread of the year

9/11/2007 12:14:18 PM

I love this thread.

Much of joe's and 1985's stories remind me of On the Road and Drop City rolled into one. I am living vicariously through these tales.

9/11/2007 5:28:05 PM

Good stories both of you guys

But Joe about the book, just do it man. Just write down every story you can remember. Don't worry about formating or whatever, just write down every detail and story you recall. Then once you have drained the well of your stories, worry about putting them into a book format. The formatting and editing is the easy part once you have quality content.

9/11/2007 5:54:47 PM

dont give up '85. i'm really enjoying hearing about your ongoing adventure. i dont have time to type up anything for a while, anyhow.

9/11/2007 6:09:00 PM

It was around 2:00 a.m. when we came to the turnoff for Interstate 90 from 35. My driver was heading north to the twin cities and I was trying to make my way east to Madison, WI. A street light was flooding the area, so it was impossible to hop the fence that kept me from getting further from the freeway. I found some grass to lay my tarp out, curled up as close to the fence as I could, tied a shirt around my head to block out traffic light and sound, and went to sleep.
The morning is bitterly cold. I'd never been up to Minnesota, but I had thought that it would still be moderate in september, instead there was ice on my pack. I stood on the on-ramp, fighting the cold with only a flannel shirt for two hours before a car pulls over. It's a soft spoken hispanic man driving a mustang, with the heater all the way up.
We get to talking, and the conversation goes how it usually goes when I dont feel much like talking.
"Have you ever hitchhiked before?" - Its my standard question, usually they have, and love to talk about the experience while I listen and warm my hands. Maybe though, with this guy, I shouldn't have asked.
"Oh, a long time ago, when I just crossed the boarder from mexico I did. And you know, sometimes, they would ask me to do things... sexually... And you know, I would, because I really needed the money."
That put an end to the conversation for the next 20 miles until he points to an exit and says calmly, almost shyly, "That's where I was supposed to turn off."
"Oh, you don't have to take me further, I appreciate any distance, why didn't you turn off?" I kind of stupidly ask. He just grins and shrugs, and for the first time on the road, I reach into my pocket and clutch my knife. A minute or two later, he wonders if he can tell me something.
"yeah, go for it."
"I'm a gay man," he says. I had gone over this scenario repeatedly in my mind on the road, what I would do, how I would react. That all went out the window in this moment
"Oh, I'm not. I mean, that's cool that you are, I don't mind or anthing. But I'm not." I'm just babbling at this point, while my mind is racing, wondering if im going to need to jump from this car.
" Do you want to make a hundred bucks? and a plane ticket to wherever you are going. I know you need the money."
"Naww, I dont need anything, you can just let me out at the next exit, I appreciate the ride."
"Come on, just let me suck your dick, how long will it take, 10 minutes at most?"
" No, I'm not into that, thanks for the ride, you can just drop me off."
"Why not, it's not going to hurt you?"
"Pull over, please."
Fortunately, he did and even popped the trunk so I could get my backpack out. Some part of me still felt it nessesary to thank him for the ride, so I did.
"Don't mention it."
I don't know if that was in response to my thanking him, or a threat to keep his advances quiet. I took off in the opposite direction, I needed to sit down somewhere and re-evaluate this trip.

9/19/2007 11:47:13 AM

bttt for all the subscribers!

9/20/2007 12:01:15 PM

^^ yeah, that's happened to me.

it's one of the things that freaked me out about hitchhiking.

9/20/2007 4:43:17 PM

I've got a thousand stories, but I think I'm going to stop writing them, on here at least.. You can probably tell that I'm not the best writer (my major was, afterall, math), but more than that, it seems to cheapen my experience. The only things Im tempted to put on the internet (because they are the only things I think you'll want to read) are the stories where Im in danger. However, the vast majority of my rides have been good hearted, beautiful people. Most of them have never picked up a hitchhiker before, some of them cant even look me in they eye, they're so stricken with fear. But something compells them to pull over and help me in whatever fashion they can. Those are the rides that I set out for on this trip, and those are the ones that I want to last in my memory. I made it into Raleigh yesterday on the back of a canteloupe truck, and in another 200 miles I will have hitched from the pacific to the atlantic, 28 states and over 70 rides, some of which I've developed into a lasting friendship.
I've tried to eat off of six dollars a day for food, as that is what a working father will make on minimum wage supporting a family. Ive slept in ditches, under bridges and picknic tables, eaten snakes, bathed in rivers and in gas station bathrooms. I've had people confess both love and murder to me, and everthing else that falls on the gradient inbetween. I've never had to use my knife, and only once did I see a gun. Some days I'd get picked up my the first car that passed, and some days I'd end up sleeping the the same spot I woke up in.
It was by far the most humbling and exciting experience of my life. Ill finish the last 200 miles and hop on the greyhound back to oregon for the winter.
I'm not opposed to telling stories if you want to hear them, I'd just rather have a conversation than a monolouge. Feel free to ask me any questions (preferably on here so there isn't repition of questions). Or, if you're thinking about doing it, for advice, I'd love to help. (Ill even hitch with you for a bit, to get you started). Thanks.

9/30/2007 12:42:41 PM

I'm interested in hearing stories but don't really have any particular questions.. I just like reading peoples real stories about shit like this

9/30/2007 1:45:46 PM

^^ thats awesome dude. thats pretty damn impressive, actually. you've packed a lot of experience in a few short months.

and i understand what you mean by not "cheapening" the experience. its hard to talk about, i think, until youve had time to reflect on it.

its been 15 years since i did a lot of the shit that i talked about, and ive not really expressed it much before now. not because of a conscious effort to conceal it, but maybe because i didnt know (and maybe still dont know) how to express the complexity of it without making it sound trite or juvenile.

hmm.

ima think about this.



[Edited on September 30, 2007 at 3:00 PM. Reason : ]

9/30/2007 3:00:04 PM

if you make it to Madison you can suck my dick for room and board.

9/30/2007 3:37:58 PM

Tell us about the murder confession(s). What'd they look like, did they look crazy/normal, did they look poor/rich/middle class, what kind of vehicle they drove, etc. In other words, do they look like the type of person who'd kill someone.

9/30/2007 4:04:05 PM

what state did you have the best/least luck in? were the friendliest people in the south, midwest, etc?

10/9/2007 2:12:50 PM

i too would like to hear more.

10/9/2007 3:33:45 PM

set em up

10/9/2007 5:07:04 PM