| The pros and cons of hitchhiking? Pro: cheap. Con: | | | | hitchhiker cooking a driver's heart over a |
| dangerous. It's convenient, but unpredictable. No car | | | | campfire.Ten years later I caught an item on the |
| repair hassles, but the hassle of standing in the rain, | | | | news: They were releasing the canibal hitchhiker, now |
| waiting hours for a ride. I hitchiked 20,000 miles when | | | | that he was sane. You can see why drivers may be |
| I was young, sleeping under bridges and fighting off | | | | hesitant to pick up hitchhikers. The lesson? Try not |
| sexual predators from Canada to Mexico. I loved it, | | | | to look like a Psycho killer when you hitchhike.One |
| but I wouldn't consider hitchhiking as a primary mode | | | | circumstance it may be useful to hitchhike, even if |
| of travel ever again.There are still times when I put | | | | you never have, is when you need to return to your |
| out my thumb. The most recent was in the | | | | car after backpacking. Trails often come out of the |
| mountains of Ecuador. My wife and I were visiting | | | | wilderness in a different location than where they |
| Las Cajas National Park, hiking along ancient Incan | | | | start. Since there probably won't be taxis there, |
| rock walls. We missed the bus back to Cuenca. | | | | hitchhiking could be your only way back to your |
| There may have been another one coming, but we | | | | car.This is relatively safe and easy, in these |
| didn't want to wait until dark to find out. Out went | | | | circumstances. National Parks like Yellowstone are |
| the thumb.To hitchhike is "Ir a dedo" in Ecuador; to | | | | almost the only places we've even seen hitchhikers |
| "go by finger." The third vehicle to pass, stopped for | | | | lately, and drivers are comfortable picking up people |
| us. It was a meat delivery truck, and we were in | | | | that are obviously backpackers.Hitchhiking |
| Cuenca in an hour. When the driver refused to take | | | | SafelyFollow some basic safety guidelines. Be |
| any money, we left him with a large avacado.If you | | | | prepared for many possible circumstances. Have |
| ever consider hitchhiking in other countries, ask the | | | | rainwear, in case you can't get out of the rain. Have |
| locals about it. In Ecuador, for example, I've been told | | | | food and water, since you never know how long |
| you can't get a ride in the southern part of the | | | | you'll wait for a ride. Bring warm clothing if cold |
| country. Also, in some areas it's customary to at | | | | weather is possible. Also, always have a highway |
| least offer something for the ride.Hitchiking In The | | | | map with you.Use intuition and common sense when |
| United StatesThe pros and cons of hitchhiking are | | | | hitchhiking, and don't be afraid to say no to a ride. |
| obvious, and the balance is on the side of the "cons." | | | | Maybe I shouldn't have taken a ride with that |
| It's difficult to get a ride now. However, it's still legal | | | | cocaine-snorting guy in Idaho when I was sixteen. |
| in most places in the U.S., except on freeways. The | | | | Then again, maybe my intuition wasn't so bad. He |
| point on the entrance ramp where you cross the | | | | turned out to be a decent guy, and brought me |
| legal line is decided by the police officer that tickets | | | | hundreds of miles closer to home.Steve Gillman hit |
| you.At sixteen, I was stuck for hours on a Montana | | | | the road at sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico |
| highway. A nice old lady picked me up and explained | | | | alone at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, |
| why I couldn't get a ride. On that same stretch of | | | | whom he met in Ecuador. |
| highway, a few years before, the police found a | | | | |