Hitchhiking out of the south.... a cross section of society

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On Wednesday the 17th of March I was dropped left in Asheville after deciding to take a step off the beaten path and hitchhike from Western North Carolina back to DC. A decision that worried a lot of friends and even me, one that I decided not to pass on to my parents knowing it would only give them days of worrying over something they could not change.

From Asheville, I found my way to Blue Ridge Parkway with hopes of climbing the tallest mountain in North Carolina and that's where my adventure began it was the most real and intense two days of my life. I have been lucky enough to travel to foreign countries and spend months there, but I have never had to be so alert, worried, excited, and fascinated for 40 straight hours as I was hitchhiking through the south.
(The last two pictures are from hitchhiking in Chile but really hitching anywhere is similar so I thought I would include them)

Ashville -------> Asheville (20 miles)
Jobless Michael picked me up in his beaten up green car and we headed north east toward the Mt Michel. Michael had bundles of grass, fungi, and a paper wasp nest on his dash board. He was quiet and had a look of thoughtfulness on his beard covered face. He had work in Hawaii with permaculture where he had done some hitchhiking as well. The Parkway was closed and I decided not to walk the 15 miles to the high point and get stuck there so we turned around and Michael went out of his way and dropped me by Interstate 40 leaving his goodwill shopping for later.

Asheville -----> Hickory (70 miles)
Only minutes after being dropped on the on-ramp to I-40 I was picked up by a small blue truck with a very obese x-army character who was happy to have me on board to keep him awake. Nuts is about the perfect word to describe this chuckling loony. From the moment I got in he started talking about all the free medication he was on, not to mention the oxygen was hooked up to. The 50 year old was taking 6 pills 4 times a day because they "amped him up" and were free because he has served two years in the army partying in Hawaii. His first wife left him because of the pills so he cut way down and was only taking 4 pill 4 times a day. That is until his second wife left him for the dog catcher and he had to go back to his usual dosage. "If the dog catcher tells you he is your best friend don't believe him haaheehehe". He had kind of a low giggle that was present after almost everything he said. He also loved having grand kids and got a kick out of baby sitting them. He thought it would be great if you could have grand kid before you had really kids hahahehehe. He thought it was the funniest thing when he walked in on his 4 year old grandson who was watching Sponge Bob and humping some rolled up towels. The kids response apparently was "Papy im not hurting anyone, I'm just humping." This story kept him giggling for minutes before he started in on how to get revenge on someone that punched you for dating and then marrying his sister. "Ya I just went to autozone and got some of them you know valve removers hahahahee and pulled out every last one of his valves from his damn truck hahehaeh. The 70 miles to Hickory went quickly simply wondering how many characters like this there may be in the world. Never got his name but the fact that he wished he had another oxygen bottle so I could try it out made think he was a good guy all in all.

Hickory -------> Connaway (5 miles)
The world thought it would show me both sides of the spectrum so for the next five miles I rode in a nice rental car with a very calculated, 50+ year old software trainer who was in the south for business and thought he would live a little and pick up his first hitchhiker. Five miles later he told me to be safe and left me at another on ramp. Good fellow.

Connaway -------> ? (15 miles)
A mexican picked me up and turned out to be a good guy, but was confused over what I was doing and initially kind of sketchy. The way he looked at my stuff and the question he asked were not exactly settling. His low rider truck was about and Latino as they get with broken mirrors, tinted windows, Jesus stickers, and energy drinks and cigarette butts littered the bed of the truck. He was headed to work and after asking if I had a cell phone, if people were waiting for me (both yes) and if I was lost? We stopped at a gas station to fill up and he asked if I was thirsty and offered to buy me a drink. People are good.

?--------> I-77 (5 miles)
Shawn was a computer teacher for middle school and high school. Average

I-77------> Winston-Salem (10 miles)
From rags to riches. Tom was in marketing for medical equipment like MRI machines and other neuroscience research tools and commuted an hour to work each day. As we started talking he got a phone call and simply pushed a button on the steering wheel and started talking business. Real business - what they had to do to make money, whatever it took. Stay ahead of the game and don't get fooled by anyone. When the call was finished and commented on the cool phone system he started telling me all about the car. How he could push a button, say a command like "music" and the "artist" and the "The Who" and it would start playing after only one push of a button. The car was a Ford, imagine that. The future is now and we will be seeing a lot more like it. We talked for a while and he finally asked what my plan was for sleeping because it was getting dark and when I told him I had a tarp and a sleeping bag and was going to find a place in the woods he told me I was insane and offered me a place to stay. Making a judgment call, I accepted and it turned out to be better than a 5 star hotel. Free dinner, free shots of Crown Royal, big screen TV, huge bed to myself, first shower in 6 days, free breakfast, and a ride to next on ramp the in the morning. A weird, but not bad St. Patty day.

Winston-Salem -------> I-85 North (50 miles)
Making it 50 miles took 7 rides and added a handful of friend to my list.
----> There was another Tom a librarian
----> Jade a pudgy blond on her way to class at community college who took me to the completely wrong place and was completely unaware of it.
----> Jim and x-hitcher who kept saying "Oh boy June 6th that’s when school was out and I suck my thumb out oh man!"
----> Anica an Asian nurse in a jeep late for work.
----> Ronny Mac a bass fisherman who with a sad look on his face said "I aint traveled much outside NC my whole life really. I've gone to Vegas and Atlantic City, but I ain't traveled much else really"
----> Kevin who was the first black person to pick me up. Had tattoos and wore silly big glasses, but could tell he was a good guy from the start.
----> Charlie Miller called himself "the oldest teenager ever". Was in business and had done well for himself, but liked the no obligation, single, do what I want life style.

I-85 --------> V.A border
And then there was David. Looked crazy and was, but like the rest of them it was easy to tell he was a good guy. White trash, x-army, quick to smile. Offered me a beer right away and after insisting I take it I enjoyed a 24oz Fosters. I helped him with some errands and we got 20 bags of soil for his neighbor, got his car registered, and another 12 pack and he bought me some jerky and cheese that he made me put in my "ruck sac" for the road. He tried to find me a place to stay for the night with a girl friend of his that "owed him something", but what he left me with was the idea of "once you know someone well you are going to find that same person in another country. You'll be like I know this person and you have to stick with that first instinct its always right."

V.A. boarder -------> DC
I asked Jeff as he was pulling out of a gas station if he was going North and he took me all the way to DC. He was tame, calculated, and boring for everything he had done. He went to the naval academy for undergrad, Duke for his masters, and now UVA for his law degree. He had trained Iraqi police and done his six years in the Navy, but still wasn't that exciting of a person. He thought there was plenty of outdoors around DC and didn't want to move west like his wife did, he just like comfortable old DC. It seems easy to get stuck in the comfortable mind set and I hope it never happens to me.


So, that is a brief explanation of a couple hundred mile trip that taught me more about life than a year and a half has here at Hopkins. I tried to explain the people the best I could, but without hearing their laughs, or seeing the looks in their eyes there is no way to portray them accurately, but at the very least I hope it was and enjoyable tale.

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