Mesa → Pine
An ex military helicopter pilot named Buzz picked me up. Regailed me with stories from his youth, and about how much Arizona has changed over the decades.
An ex military helicopter pilot named Buzz picked me up. Regailed me with stories from his youth, and about how much Arizona has changed over the decades.
single woman evangelist pickup
A woman pulled over and told me to hop in the back of her pickup. She sped the whole way to the I-17 and handed me a Bible tract when she dropped me off.
Another pickup truck. This one belonged to a hunter who wanted to help me out. He drove me to Flagstaff and offered to buy me McDonald’s if I was hungry.
Matt, a young libertarian picked me up. We discussed anarchy, politics, feminism, and he was open minded and engaging. He is ex-military, grew up conservative. Interested in quitting his job and sailing around the world. Has hitchhiked from time to time in the past.
Amélie, a woman from Paris, picked me up. She lives in Mexico most of the year working as a scuba divimg instructor. Now she’s on a solo roadtrip around the states. “I feel like the world is my home.”
I had the longest wait of the day in this spot. It wasn’t the optimal time to be heading East, most of the traffic was heading to the national park. A Russian hitchhiker named Maxim walked up to me while I was trying to catch a ride. He said the U.S. is the worst place for hitchhiking— very contrary to my experience. He then said that the fastest way to hitchhike is as a man/woman couple. I disagreed… having experienced both solo, pairs, trios, etc. by far hitchhiking as a solo woman is the fastest, followed by a pair of women, followed by a woman and a man together. It was weird he was denying this experience, since he has obviously never hitchhiked as a woman. Anyway, he decided to continue down the highway. A bit later a man stopped and offered to drive me to Boulder- he is working a construction job there. I let him know about Maxim down the road, but he wasn’t interested in stopping for a second hitchhiker. The ride was fine- quiet- until around Escalante, when the driver pulled out some beers and wanted to start drinking. I decided to get out of the car. At that point it was close to sunset.
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