[at-l] Hitchhiking 101

[readyhiker@yahoo.com (Sanne aka Ready)]

One of the things Spur and I concluded was that all persons willing
to offer a ride to a hitchhiker are ax-murderers.  That all seems to 
work out just fine, since all hitchhikers are serial killers. ;-)
(One woman slowed, speeded up, slowed, speeded up, then finally 
stopped for us. She got out of her car and opened with, "Now, I'm
pretty sure you two aren't murderers, or else I probably shouldn't 
have stopped."  We all had a good laugh about that as she drove us
out of town to the trailhead. She was way cool.

The longest we had waited - ever - for a ride was 8 minutes.  And *I* 
thought that was a l-o-n-g time!  It helped to a) remove a hat so that 
drivers can see your face, b) smile - and at the same time, try to look 
pitiful, c) try to make eye contact (guilt has a way of slowing down drivers 
who, without making eye contact, would just keep on driving by you,
d) lay down your poles/hiking stick(s) [they are tools for us but can
appear menacing to would-be pick-ups, e) don't expect that a lone
female (or even several females) will offer you a ride BUT don't be
surprised if some do!!, e) try not to take it personally as car after car
whizzes by you, and finally, f) if you can, hook up with a female
hiker when you need a ride [somehow, it's less threatening to pick up
a hiker or two if at least one of  'em is a female. (Spur always had me
doff my hat, make sure my cute little pigtails were in plain view, and 
try to look as "sweet as can be."  Oh, we also had written "hiker needs
ride to town" and "hiker needs ride to Trail" written in big letters our 
ground cloth and used it to get our message "out there." It worked -
I guess that drivers' fears were assuaged when they understood our
intent.

Ready (to ride)
BTW - hitchhiking was without exception the thing I hated MOST about
our hike. I absolutely HATED it!

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