He
was twenty-four, footloose and free.
Poor.
Yet
not unhappy.
It
was the winter of 1972.
Beautiful
Boulder, Colorado was blanketed with snow and ice.
But
he had to escape this season of the freezer.
He
headed south.
He
didn't return to Colorado until the next Spring.
*
After
warming up in Florida, he headed back to Colorado.
He
had never tried hitchiking.
He
spent a long time waiting for rides.
Quite
boring.
His
first rides were as different as day and night.
One
was from a young man who kept asking if he was a Christian, and if he
had been saved.
The
young man kept accelerating when no answer was given.
It
started to feel like a ride to hell.
He
wanted to get out.
The
young man finally slowed down.
He
got out.
He
must have said, “Yes, I've been saved! I've accepted Jesus into
my life! Praise the Lord!”
*
The
other ride was from an old timer.
The
old timer gave him his lunch, then said “Good luck” and
“Goodbye”.
It
was an apple and some kind of sandwich.
*
Denton, Texas.
A
large cockroach was walking across the cement floor in a filling station.
The
filling station guy STOMPED the cockroach as he was giving
directions.
*
New
Mexico.
He
spent all day on the interstate.
No
rides.
It
was already night.
A
car stopped.
He
walked up and tapped the window.
Inside
a man was looking at a map.
He
jumped when the window was tapped.
He
rolled down the window, and said in an English accent, “Yes?”
“Can
you give me a ride?”
The
man hesitated, then opened the door.
The
driver said that he rarely picked up hitchikers.
He
asked if it was ok if he drove fast.
He
worked for People magazine, and he was in a hurry.
Whoosh!
*
Lordsburg,
New Mexico.
It
began to rain, so he crawled beneath one of the parked container
trucks.
When
the rain stopped he waited for big trucks to stop.
After
a short time, a North American driver said to hop in, and that he was
headed for Tuscon.
The
driver offered him money, but he said, “No. Thanks for the
ride.”
He
had a dollar and seventeen cents.
*
Tuscon.
He
walked into the cafeteria on the University of Arizona campus, and
ordered a cup of coffee and toast.
The
toast was cold and soggy, so he went to get a replacement.
One
dollar and seventeen cents.
Coffee
and toast.
*
Somehow
he bumped into the same guy who had once “crashed” in his
apartment in Colorado.
He
was a son of the vice-president of Johnson & Johnson.
His
nickname was Road.
Road
loaned him ten dollars, and let him sleep on the roof of his
apartment building.
While
in Tuscon, and before heading back to Colorado, he met students,
poets, potheads, and Satanists.
And
he decided that he never wanted to hitchike again.
IT'S
ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!
