What inspired you??

[johnyflowerpicker]

Talking to the hitchhikers I have picked up, and taken in, in the past has inspired me. I did my first very short hitchhiking trip from northwest arkansas to saint louis not long ago. . . and here in a few weeks I will be heading to Salt Lake City.

The idea of travel in which the journy is just as important to me as the destination is appealing. Wanting to meet the locals, and the cultural exchange that can potentially take place is exciting.

[HillY]

I was inspired to hitchhike after attending a music festival in the summer of 2000. The "Full Moon Dream Dance," which was held at Horning's Hideout near Portland, OR. The band String Cheese Incident was a main draw to the event. This festival changed my life. I never felt such a beautiful feeling, or met such beautiful people. After the festival, I decided to part ways with the company I was with and hitchhike. And how amazing that month on the road was for me! Unbelievable...

[jsax]

Kerouac

[DrunkRose]

I`m a person who likes to plan whole life. every day, every week... and quite often i get tired of myself doing that... then you always know that you always have something to do...somewhere to be... hitchhiking sets me free.... i can`t plan anything... and can`t do anything... I just walk along the road or stand with my thumb up and feel free.

[wanderlust5649]

I have dreamed of traveling for as long as i can remember but it never seemed possible for me to do. It felt as if my life was planned and controlled by someone or something other than myself. I went to college for a couple years and did quite well, finished all of my general education courses and i couldnt stall any longer. I took a good look at my classmates who had graduated, most of them could not find a job and the ones who did were making about the same as they were working for tips. Most of them just picked a major so they could graduate and get that $20000 slip of paper. An investment that has not returned much. I was not going to do the same so i dropped out to take some time to figure out what i wanted. After about a year or so my father started to pressure me to either go back to school or to get a "real job". I got a job. It was about this time i lost all interest in pursuing the life which had been laid out for me. I had no interest in selling away my entire life away for 10 bucks an hour to stand in a factory 70hrs a week. so i quit and was broke for a long time. A friend i went to high school with died of liver failure. He was 1 year younger than me. I had never realized how short life really was or how it could end at any minute. An old friend came in town for the funeral. He had hitched and train hopped across the country 3 times and had so many stories of the places he had been and the people he had met. He had done more living in the last 3 years than i had done in my entire life. So faced with my own mortality and wanderlust i decided it was time for me to go. Thats what inspired me.

[Laurie]

It's funny how many people were inspired by Krakauer!
I'm a 20 year old girl who read the book last year. It hit me so hard that I decided then and there that I was going to hitchhike across Europe. No more than 5 months later, I had some cash put away, flew to Cannes and hiked/hitched all the way through France, Germany and Switzerland. It took 3 months to complete, and I was completely broke by the end of it, but every day that I'm now back in the working world I miss those experiences. So many people claim that the film/book changed them or was a huge inspiration. It's the kind of lifestyle that not everyone can lead (myself included), but I strongly agree that everyone should test themselves once. For a month or even a year, just to live that way, changes a person immensely and opens your eyes to the world. I'm not a huge fan of the film itself, but the book has really changed me.

[brotherjohn]

Probably a combination of things for me one being when I was about 10 I got lost from my family while on vacation in the Ozarks but found the road back to the Hotel and remembered how to get back. The instant I realized I knew my way back a sudden rush of freedom hit me as I stood on that strange street corner in a strange town, I could have gone anywhere. I guess Ive been chasing it ever since. Plus my dad was a traveler, he would save up his vacation and sick days just so we could take off for weeks at a time. I had been to 40+ states by the time I was 13. One other instance sticks in my mind all these years is a trip to California and going through the Sierra Mountains I saw an old grey haired guy on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with a pack that had cooking utensils hanging off it and as we passed our eyes locked and it was like he was talking to me.

[TheWindAndRain]

Romanticism of the road life in song inspired me the most; that and the fact that I have always loved the outdoors.

[Lightfoot]

It's funny how many people were inspired by Krakauer!
I'm not a huge fan of the film itself, but the book has really changed me.

I agree the book was much better than the movie. The original Krakauer article in "Outside" magazine was a stunning read.

[Thenoob]

Wanderlust and may dads stories