Hitch-Hiking: (V) To try to get a ride in a passing vehicle while standing at the side of a road. Generally by either sticking out one's finger or thumb or holding a sign with one's stated destination... thumbing, tramping, hitching, autostop, take a lift, bumming a ride, backpacking, exploring, marching, rambling, walking, wandering...
First I went to jackson. Aaron Turley and I proposed to leave and hitch a ride to jackson, spend the night there, then return the next morning. We had no plan on where to stay or what to eat. I brought one dollar with me.
We planned to leave saturday (1/23/10). So i woke up saturday morning at 11p.m. and packed for the day. Aaron and started walking up rexburg to main street, then to 2nd east until we almost hit the road leading to sugar city. We made a sign saying "jackson" hoping someone would be going there. This was the first time either of us have hitch-hiked before, so waiting 15 minutes seemed like forever. Later i learned that a 15 minute wait-time is pretty good. Especially around rexburg. The first car to pick us up was an old industrial white van. The man driving it was in his fifties with a large white beard. Creepy, but we still accepted his ride. He took us to Driggs. Well driggs is one of my favorite places i've ever been to, which is interesting because it has a population of about 1,000 and is completely flat. Although, it is minutes from Grand Targhee and nice people, and anywhere you are, you can see the grand teton range. It's the "pretty side" of the tetons (in my opinion). When you are driving with a complete stranger, it's the most interesting part of the adventure because of the things you talk about. In this case, aaron and the man covered every single small talk subject you can imagine. Small talk for 45 minutes. Can you imagine? Well it wasn't that cold outside, although it was snowing outside pretty hard. There lain about 2 feet of snow on the ground. The Van fishtailed a few times, which was pretty scary. So he dropped us off, and we hung out in Driggs. Ah, Driggs... nice clean cool air. Driggs has one grocery store, one thrift store, one of everything. Except it has three music stores/venues a
nd four outdoor shops. Nice ones, too! So, then it came time for us to continue our journey, so we held up the sign, and during that time of lifting up the sign, the only two cars in the road slammed on their brakes and rolled down their windows. We drove with young mom, and her daughter and her friend. Three girls. Interesting, but okay. They were nice and supportive and with them, we drove over the pass where it was snowing pretty dang hard. We were going about 20 m.p.h. She dropped us off past Wilson basically around nothing. So we got out, and held out our sign again. We were only 6 miles from jackson. Another girl came and picked us up. This time, she was by herself. Her car was crammed full of everything! Ropes, saddles, Flashlights, tarps, anything outdoorsy. She thought it was pretty cool that Aaron and I decided to do our little adventure just for the heck of it. Also, another thing cool about driving with a complete stranger is that you can make up whatever story you want to as far as why you are going to wherever. In this case, aarons and i said "adventure". True. Anyway, she dropped us off in the town square in jackson. We made it! approximately 80 miles! Now we have to look for some place to sleep. Since we had so much time on our hands, we decided to take our time, and find the most luxurious way to be homesless possible. We probably walked about 2 miles around town until we found the perfect location: A parking garage in a little overhead storage unit above some dumpsters. It was perfect minus one flaw, we may encounter people while up there, and they may get mad at us. So we threw our stuff up there and enjoyed jackson. We went to wendy's and the dollar tree. Both things we could have just don in rexburg. Silly, but still worth it.
We slept great! insulated by the cardboard we slept in until about 11 a.m. Getting out of jackson was pretty tough. We walked completely out of town and further for about 30 minutes until a single women picked us up. Her car was really clean. and she was listening to "experimental indie" music. whatever that means... She dropped us off in driggs, where we spent
more time. There is this state that one gets in while camping or away from civilization for a while. For me, this inner caveman mein escapes after about 20 hours from civil life. Aaron and I threw downed icicles at stable icicles trying to knock them down, then catch them for about 30 minutes. We looked like idiots. It was cool. It reminds me of children. Whenever you pass an elementary school, the kids have so much fun doing anything! Even if it's just rolling in the grass or mud. In reality, we don't need most of things we have, and that's even for entertainment purposes. I think everyone needs to experience this feeling occasionally. The childlike energy and attitude is priceless!
Anyway, time to go back . We got a ride with these high school ski-bums from Poci-town (pocatello). They said they spent the day skiing at Targhee. It reminded me of my high school, when i would spend entire days climbing with a friend or two. Good times. Anyway, they were chill and took us to North of Rexburg. It was about a 4 mile walk on a perfectly straight road, so it always seemed like you were so close, then twenty minutes later walking, you picked up your head to look, and the skyline looks exactly the same. That is how it feels to walk on a long straight road. I was bored, so i threw out my thumb. This college girl picked us up and took us to the north end of the school, which was just a couple blocks from home. I felt good as i was walking those blocks. Like i wanted something, put forth effort, and got it. I believe this is possible for all tasks. That was end of my first trip, and the beginning of my hitch-hiking career. [160]
"Without faith, there is no hope,
and without hope, there is no life" - me
Saturday morning. I wake up at about 10, and there lies eric, my new roommate, saying, "what do you want to do today?" I say, "Hm.. I dont know" ... ... ... "What do you want to do?" ...
This repeats for about twenty minutes until one of us proposed to go to Driggs! Ah, driggs, you can never say no to driggs. Twenty minutes later we were out the door holding a sign saying "Driggs". We stand in the same spot aaron and I stood a couple months ago. This time it was 40 degrees warmer. (50 degrees). After about 15 minutes (again) , this nice white BMW pulled up behind us, in it were two mexicans, straight from arkansas, but originally from Mexico. They weren't going to Driggs, but they felt nice enough to drive 50 miles out of their way and drop us off. We told him we were going to a wedding. I dont know if he believed us or not being as we had street clothes on carrying no bags going to.... driggs... But it was nice, he listened to his mariachi music the whole way there. Not much conversing went on. And then finally, driggs!
We went to brouhlims and bought some snack food, then played on the roofs of the small inner city buildings. I bought come coconut milk with pulp. mistake. We then christened temple 6, attended our wedding, and decided to give ole badger a visit. just kidding about the wedding. So we threw out the thumbs since Eric lost our sign in the last car we were in. She said she was driving home, to felt. She also made it very clear that hitch-hiking was very dangerous, "'specially 'round these parts" She was a smoker and spoke very very quietly. She said she was born and raised in Victor, but move to felt, because victor was too loud. (Victor has a population of 1,000; Felt has a population of .. 100? tops?) I thought that was funny considering rexburg is a small town of 24,000. She dropped us off right in front of the LC at badger creek. We then reminisced around the ranch. Those times we've had at Badger Creek could very well be the best of times.
All the snow that was still there was melting, so water was everywhere! The little creeks that were dried up in the fall were roaring now! It is always nice to visit old places. Just walking around there made me so happy remembering all these good old memories. The sun was going down and we still hadn't decided what to do. The plan was to try to hitch out of badger, and if not, then we'll come back and sleep in the cabin, then leave early the next morning. Badger creek road is rarely used, infact it's a dirtroad for miles in both directions, so getting a ride would be tough. We went for it anyway, and after about an hour, it was pretty much dark, this old man drove by and stopped. YAY! He was driving home
to felt. He thought it was really funny the situation we were in for some reason. I twas kind of funny, but he literally could not stop laughing. For about 10 minutes, he laughed, stopped, turned back and looked at us, then started laughing again. It was weird, i thought he could have been drunk or something. But it was better than nothing considering there are only about 15 cars that drive past there on that road. We were legitimately "In the middle of nowhere" Every other house you passed was abandoned, and the houses that weren't had about 15 broken down cars in front of it and a big old dog laying in the driveway, most likely dead. It is an interesting culture out there in Tetonia. This crazy man dropped us off at the 33 / 32 junction. Also, the middle of nowhere. This time it wascompletely dark and getting really cold. I was glad I was with eric, and not alone. After about 30 minutes waiting (which seemed like forever), The professor picked us up. He worked at the school, but lived a little out of town in hibbard. Another thing that's funny about idaho. The town names are ridiculous. In Utah, it's always names of prophets, or people from the bible. In california, its named after some tree or something hills, something park, or san something, or santa something. But in idaho, it is random short two syllable names. Where do they get these names?! Hibbard, Plano, Rigby, Ririe, Heise, Arco, Elbo, Malta, Almo, I can go on and on and on, but you get it. Anyway, this man was listening to talk radio the whole time. The subject was economics. Everyone is republican out here, which sucks for eric, who is a democrat.
Well he was nice enough to drive us to the our very driveway. And we made it home that night, safe. Now THAT was a good saturday! [260]
"Society lets you do what you WANT to do,
and not what you DON'T want to do" - aaron turley
In March, i took a trip to Montana. On this trip, i did not have the adventure of using my thumb, although i had the comfort of being with my friends the whole ride up and down. I LOVED it so much. Montana is such an amazing place. The people are nice, the scenery is beautiful! On that particular trip, I went to Kalispell and stayed with my roommate, Cameron for the weekend. Kalispell is very north. Almost to Canada. We went shooting and had good fun. Another time, i went ice climbing with a group of friends in Bozeman, Mt. Bozeman is more southern, but still awesome. If you ever have a chance to visit Western Montana, DO IT! My second favorite state, right behind California. I promised myself as well as cameron that during spring semester, I would visit before returning home for summer. Well since i decided to come home to california early, I had to visit montana to keep my promise. Also, i had nothing to do, and it was supposed to be beautiful weather. So i made a plan. From Rexburg, ID to Kalispell, Mt and back. A total of around 850 miles. I planned to leave on tuesday, (5/11/10). So i pack for the worst, I was almost expecting to sleep under a freeway and having to make a fire to boil water and cook food. So with my big backpack, early in the morning, i walk across Rexburg. I walk past an elementary school as kids were arriving to school. Mom's thought I was crazy and/or homeless. Well i walk about 3 miles pass the 20 freeway junction and hold up my sign that said "salmon" I wanted to take the scenic route through salmon, then darby, then missoula. After waiting for about 40 minutes in the cold random raining weather, this young guy picked me up. His name was Logan. He said he felt sympathy for
me because right when he turned 18, he was homeless for a year living anywhere and everywhere until he settled a little bit. He still looked 18, but he had a car and a job, so he had to be at least 20. He was driving to his work, which was on a farm by the 15 /33 junction. He dropped me there. The only thing around there is a weigh station for trucks and A farm. Everything else was BLM land. There, i crossed the freeway, and waited holding a sign saying salmon for about 70 minutes. I've lost hope on the salmon route, so i decided to take the more populous route, which went north on the 15 to Butte. Then i waited on the freeway entrance for someone to pick me up while holding another sign saying "Butte". This old little truck picked me up. It was this old man that lived in Dubois. He had a big gun and hunting gear in his car. He said he hunted Bear, then offered me some Triscuits. He also said he went the same school, and hitch-hiked home on some weekends. Dubois is about 30 miles up the road. When he dropped me off there, I decided to walk in the gas station to clean up and thaw out. I already looked as homeless as ever. As i walked out of the gas station I looked around. Deja Vu... In the movie Cars, the setting for a large portion of the movie is in this small "Ho-Dunk" town. This town was EXACTLY like it so much that i laughed out loud. People filling up gas definitely thought i was crazy. It was a very small town with basically one street going through the middle of it. Population, maybe a couple hundred, and outside the gas station was being played slow honky-tonk country music. It was all quite a scene. Anyway, i walked to the freeway, held up my "Butte" sign and the first person that saw me pulled over. It was a new small black car with a young guy driving it. He spoke quietly, not very much at all, and smoked a lot. He listened to rap and hard rock. He made about 14 phone calls on our way to Butte. All of them, he was angry and cursed a lot. Being the mischievous little eavesdropper that i am, i listened to some of them finding o
ut that his mom was getting surgery in Helena and he was meeting all of his family there. After a long ride through idaho, then montana. He dropped me off west of Butte at the 15/90 junction. Here, I crossed the freeway underpass, and celebrated montana by eating a yummy pb+j sandwich. Then i found cardboard, where i made yet ANOTHER sign saying Missoula on it. I walked for maybe 20 minutes until i hear a car pull up from behind me. I turn around in excitement and what do i see? An ambulance Car. My thoughts, "....." . I slowly walk up to the window and see a jack russel pop up to the window and the driving yelling, down boy, down. So i hop in. His name was Al. Right when i sat down, his dog hopped right on my lap and stayed there the entire time nice 'n' comfy. I asked him hesistantly what he was driving. he said, "well... an ambulance car. haha!" . "Yeah i know, but.... why?" , "I won it in an auction". Probably the most interesting dialogue I've ever been a part of. He said he takes it camping and it's awesome because there's lots of storage. I look back and in all the drawers, there was tape, and rope, and tarps, and knives, and basically everything you need for any survival situation. He also talked on his phone a lot. Keep in mind throughout our entire conversation his jack russel was still sitting on my lap. I was far enough from Rexburg to where no one recognized the name at all. When i said i was from idaho, they thought Coeur d'Alene, which is at the north tip of idaho, hundred of miles from Rexburg. Anyway, He dropped my off at Deer Lodge, Mt. I get out and continue to hold up my sign and walk. I learned, then to hold it in one arm And stuck out my thumb all in one easy and comfortable arm pose. Gave my left forearm quite the workout. Next, these two hunters in a big truck picked me up. They smoked as well and didn't say much at all. But they both were wearing the same exact hat. All hunters wear this hat. A camo hat. It's a huge style up there. Has been for years... They dropped me off at "The Y", which is on the north end of Missoula. There, i used the restroom at this little diner place, then made yet another pb+j sandwich. The essence of high class, really. It was raining in Missoula while i was there. I left missoula by 3:30 or so and held up my same sign, but on the back sign i wrote my final destination: Kalispell. I walk, and then this man picks me up in an old astro-van. I'm Not going to lie, this guy looked like a creep. Essence of creep, and when I opened his backseat to put my stuff in, I felt natious. The back was completely empty, but covered in dirt and mud and trash and more things that I could not tell you what they were nor give a nice description. Only a gross description. I was very hesitant about getting obviously. But I decided to anyway, he still looked human. He turned out to be a very nice man actually. He said he owns a book store is Missoula (Zoo-town) and lives at the base of these beautiful mountains
north of town, which is where he was driving me. He was a nice guy, very human. Enjoyed life in it's most simplistic way, which I respect highly. He told me how he had to hitch-hike from Missoula to Glendale, ca. and back. He said he got stuck in Nevada for 16 hours one time. Right when he dropped me off and i held up my sign again, The very first car that passed picked me up. It was this really cool guy! Immediately, he gets out and clears out his back for me to put my bag in. I forgot his name, but he said he was born and raised in St. Ignatius, Mt. , then recently moved to Polson. He said he likes summers because all the "college babes come back". He was in his early twenties, decided not to go to college, but worked construction. He helped build this 18 million dollar bridge by Missoula. It was made so animals can cross the freeway without being hit by a car. He said a camera was set up and they saw bears, elks, moose, EVERYTHING cross that bridge and it worked very well. He said he makes 29 an hour doing fences. When we were driving, he talked to me like he was a tour guide. "Now, we are entering Ronan"... He stopped there and bought a couple beers. One for me. I declined, but he drank his as he drove. He was only taking small sips probably just for my sake. He told me how all the lakes get super hot over summer, but this one lake in the canyon gets smooth and this giant 1000 foot rock face is on the side and you can climb up as high as you want, then jump off into the cool lake. He also told me how he was ice-fishing in Flathead Lake and went about 4 hours without catching anything, then at the end of the day catched a 45 pound 27 inch Lake Trout. He also told me how this one burger shop gets a lot of service, but it's weird, "cuz it's disgusting mannn". Anyway, we had a good talk and he showed me the entire area very nicely and dropped me off in Polson.
Polson is also one of my favorite places. Small little lake town by Flathead Lake with a lot of gift shops and family owned restaurants. A "cute" little town. Flathead lake is the cleanest lake i've ever seen. You can see straight through it. I ended up driving by it for the next hour with Fernando. He was from San Jose, Ca. and was just doing business in Kalispell. He flew in to Missoula, rented a car, and drove the rest of the way to Kalispell. He was quite the blabbermouth. He told me everything about his life. He dropped out of high school in 9th grade and bought a house, fixed it and sold it for more. Continued to buy and sell property and land, until he was a millionaire, then continued. He invested about 3 million into this new coffee thing he is doing now. He takes trips down to Mexico and wants to get his company legitimate so he can sell global. I think he could do it. That man is very persistent, smart, risky, and very full of himself. He told me sooo much i can write a lot more about him, but you get the point. I told him (as well as most people driving me) that I lived in Kalispell and was going home, just so I seem as least kind of normal. Well we bonded enough to the point where he was willing to drop me off at Cameron's house in Kalispell until I realized i didn't really know where exactly his house was, so he just dropped me off in a corner. Then Cameron and Quin came and Picked me up and took me h
ome and fed me dinner and it tasted amazing! a lot better than a dusty pb+j for sure! While in Kalispell, I spent a lot of time with Quin, and Mark, and obviously Cameron, and his family, and met some of his other friends. We went hiking in Lone Pine State Park, longboarded ALL over Kalispell. We went down this one hill in particular. It was this farm road that no one drove on, but it was recently paved smooth; it was a nice long gradual hill. When we finished the ride, we were still in kalispell, but on the outskirts of town. There were farms around us. Then cameron said "This is my favorite part of Kalispell, no. This is my favorite place in all of Montana" I looked around and saw farms. Straight lines out of the dirt, beautiful abandoned house, lit up farmhomes, you could practically smell the fresh stew made with love in the homes. I saw small patches of new trees. Scattered old trees on their last couple years. I saw time and history preserved. I saw nothing i'd ever seen before. I looked over at cameron, he was looking around with a big smile on his face. I have places like that in California, so i understood him.
The next day, we went to Glacier National Park. It is a 35 minute drive from Kalispell. It is so beautiful! Just like every National Park. Lots of rock, mountains, big rivers, but what i liked most about it was how clean it was. Yosemite gets lots of attention and so do most National parks, but this one was different. The water is clear. The trees are green. The ground is brown. The rocks are rugged, exposed, and untouched. The animals are hidden, not in fear, but in silence. The air up there is different. You breath it in like candy as it massages your throat and lungs. You find yourself running the trails, and driving the smooth roads with nothing in your way except the wind blowing your hair around, but you don't even care. All you care about is soaking in the sights. Hoping it will scar your memory, so whenever you close your eyes, you vision this! I, yet again, have been inspired from Glacier National Park. So thank you, God once again. [690]
"I am glad I never let go of anything I held as precious. I am not giving up being passionate about life. Forget acceptance. Freedom is attainable.
Its been the most inspiring thing that happened since I first smelled cold fresh air, when I was a little kid. I love the smell of cold fresh air so much.” - david graham
Thursday morning came, and it was time for me to say goodbye to Montana. Cameron made me a nice smoothie, then dropped me off in Somers, which is right by the Lake. On our way there, we saw another hitch-hiker also going to missoula. funny... Well we made our goodbyes in somers and from there, I walked holding my sign for a very long time. I heard a car come up from behind me, and i turned around to see a cop... He stepped out of the car, and told me someone complained about me, saying i looked way too young. Asked me my age. 18. Asked for my license. "California?.. what are you doing around here?", "Uh.. just visiting a friend..", "hm..." Then he did the normal routine, went back into his car and sat there doing who knows what for a long enough time for you to kind of forget what was happening, and then remembering by him finally stepping out of his car 20 minutes later. He gave me my license back, and said "well michael, travel safely", and that was the end of that, i think. And i keep walking. I walked then for the longest time. Miles. At least 5 i would guess, and not one person had picked me up. Then this one lady picked me up in a nice car. She said she saw me walking as she was dropping her daughter off at school, and still saw me. She took me to lakeside right down the street where she lived. Lakeside is beautiful as well. The name fits its apearence. Then from lakeside, i kept walking for a long time once again. A couple more miles until this one car literally slammed on its brakes right in the middle of the highway, and when i opened the door, loud rap music was playing from the car. I threw my stuff in and he slammed on the gas until he got up to 110 m.p.h., then set it in cruise control. He said he needed to go to Missoula by tomorrow. As we were driving past Elmo by the la
ke, we saw him again holding the sign out. He asked me if i knew him, i said no. So i asked the guy driving me, "so if you're not going to missoula today, where are you going today?", "He said, "hm... well i suppose i can just go to missoula today. Im supposed meet a girl there". So we were on our way to Missoula. I got good at reading people and guessing their current lifestyle. Married, single, rich, poor, etc. I noticed this guy had a buzzed head, and listened to "Tool" music, BUT he had just a plain white T-shirt on. I guess the army. And it turns out i was right. He just got back from Iraq for 15 months. He said he started out giving "special people certain foods", but got bored with it, so applied for a promotion to drive vehicles. Since it's so flat out there, they take these huge cars in long lines of about 350 and they drive over 100 m.p.h., which is why he drove so crazy. As we were almost to Zoo town, he asked me where i was from. I said Rexburg, ID. He didn't recognize it, but obviously knew where idaho was. He then said, "hm.. well i could visit my Aunt who lives in Idaho. she lives in Wendull" ... "cool" ... "okay ... yeah... let's go to idaho". Interestingly enough, i have convinced him to drive 300 miles out of his way. Cool! Directly after passing Missoula, he needs to stop for gas, so we stop at this bar. This bar was such a stereotypical bar. In front were two old guys with big beards and beers mumbling to eachother about who knows what and on the door to the bar was a sign saying "NO WIMPS" ... Welcome to Bonner, Montana. He kindly bought me a coca-cola, and offered to buy me lunch later in Drummond, but instead i busted out another pb+j . And we kept on driving. We stopped in Spencer to get
more gasoline and he bought his girlfriend some earrings and showed them to me and said, "honestly, tell me what you think of them". We kept driving going record speed and when we cross the montana/idaho border, he stops, puts it in reverse and backs up to the sign and then takes a picture with his phone, and says "This girl didn't believe me when i said i was going to idaho..". Then he asked me to type in his texts for him. I gladly did, because i felt safer that way. I think i might have helped him break up with someone, because i was saying some nasty stuff. The music he listened to was pretty funny. It was feminine hip hop, hard rock, and patriotic country music. Eventually we get to Rexburg, and he gets on the 33 and the speed limit says "55", but he goes 120 and asks if me and my friends race on this road. I say no, because i don't have a car. Well in 4 hours he took me 415 miles ALL the way home to my driveway. I got home at 3 p.m. that day. It was a beautiful day. A lucky day. no, A blessed day. A blessed trip. A blessed Life. Many more adventures to come. Maybe not through hitch-hiking. Maybe i'll be rich enough to get a bus ticket. [1120]
"Boys climb mountains... Men climb mountains, then ski down" - Cameron Clark
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