Hitchhiking: Â Â minimalism / "zen" method

[Raus]

I can be proven wrong:

http://www.digihitch.com/usa89.html

But honestly, I've never had a problem hitching in any state. The most I've ever had happen is a cop pull over to run my ID and that includes Wyoming.

[Tadaa]

"According to Wyoming state law, it is illegal to hitchhike on a highway. State and local police will enforce this. However, many hitchhikers have had successful trips across the state by either hitchhiking from on-ramps or by using a highway loophole which many cops allow..."

what is a highway loophole?

[Raus]

I apologize ahead of time for taking this thread so off topic, but I believe the highway loophole is that it is legal to walk on the highways in Wyoming. So, technically, you can't stand in one spot and try to hitch, but as long as you are walking while trying to catch a ride, the cops will let it go.

[Sawman]

Tadaa:

As a veteran of the Wyoming Hitchhiking Wars, I believe the "highway loophole" is: you can walk down the road and let someone give you a ride, but don't stick out your thumb. Also, you can stand on the side of the road, but don't stick out your thumb (observe and study Succat's Zen method of hitchhiking--also, read Succat's story "The Messenger"--it is excellent).

I have been stopped many times in Wyoming by the Highway Patrol or the Sheriff and they would usually say, "It is illegal to hitchhike in Wyoming, but we really don't enforce it." One Highway Patrol told me I could hitchhike, just don't stick your thumb out when the Highway Patrol drives by ( I have done this a number of times). In some states, the Highway Patrol would give me a ride to the next town. I guess, my problem has been that I would be walking down the highway and I would hear the sound of a car approaching: as I turned around, I would stick out my thumb before I would see the car. Some people would call this stimulus and response or hitchhiking by reflex or hitchhiking by the seat of your pants or hitchhiking by faith or just plain hitchhiking.

I like Wyoming a lot. Beautiful, rugged desert; great people, dry air. I think Dubois, Wyoming is my favorite place. Hitchhikers never die: they just move to Wyoming.

[Succat]

 
Greetings, my friends . . .

[quote:fb8fad4926="Sawman"]

. . . read Succat's story "The Messenger" . . .

[/quote:fb8fad4926]

Thank you for your kind comment, Sawman

An interesting and untold aspect of "The Messenger" story — insofar as it relates to the [i:fb8fad4926]minimalist[/i:fb8fad4926] technique — was the attitude of Mr "P" towards hitchhikers which I only learnt about following my arrival at his home in West Auckland

According to his wife, our Mr "P" actually [u:fb8fad4926]hated[/u:fb8fad4926] hitchhikers, considering them nothing more than lazy lay-abouts who should get a job and pay for their transport; or words to that affect. She was astounded her husband had stopped for me

My guess: our Mr "P" may have got a [i:fb8fad4926]tap-on-his-shoulder[/i:fb8fad4926] that afternoon when he saw me standing beside the road

Go well . . .



Succat

[TeotlOnion]

I can't count how many times myself the missus and the dog were preoccupied and had to run 75 yards cus someone pulled over, waited like 3 mins, we didnt see em, and then thay horn blasted us. LOL just from standing there talking. The backpacks and such could have helped, though.

[anthonya13]

Succat,

Yes, I consistently have people that stop for me and tell me that they have never picked up a hitchhiker before, but decided to pick one up for the first time when they pulled over for me. I have also consistently experienced receiving aid when I needed it most in some of the most seemingly unexpected circumstances.

My personal take on this is not that there is some being somewhere that answers the needs of specifically human forms (-although I am open to it)-
but that the universe and particularly the earth are far more abundant with possibilities than we are taught to think. I believe that these possibilities have always been here, and that it is just a matter of noticing them and allowing them to occur. The more aware we become, the more likely we are to set ourselves up to be in a favorable postion, and the more likely we are to notice the abundance of these possibilities around us. The magic is not somewhere far off in an "other world", it is right here with us, and has always been here. Good thread. Hasta

[theoris]

how subtle and profound though.

My first hitching trip last month consisted of this "reversed effort" sort of thing, accidentally. I had a sign strapped to my bag, but when i would set my mind fevershly on getting a ride it just wouldnt happen.

All three of my rides that day happened when i sort of lost myself in the scene and wasnt really concerned over it. Then I would find myself, as Teot said, frantically reaching for my bag and things running to a car that was stopped for who knows how long.

[Grandaddy24]

One time in Kansas i was sitting on a guard rail with my thumb out.. well.. for probably two hours or so before i was hassled by a highway patrol officer. He basically told me to use the zen method, so i did. i got a ride within five minutes.

Not only that, but as i was getting out of that car, another pulled up to offer me a ride.


Another time i had been walking for a bit, then i saw.. hmm.. i think it was a dragonfly.. perched on some tall grass about 20 feet away from the road. i walked out into the brush to get a closer look, because i thought that this particular dragonfly was exceptionally beautiful. after i had observed it for a bit, i stumbled back out onto the shoulder just in time for an older gentleman, a former hitcher, driving a truck to notice me and stop. He told me that he had almost missed seeing me.


i suppose that when you show nature a bit of appreciation, it returns the favor in a timely fashion. It's all about appreciation.

[mxnnz]

[quote="Succat"]Greetings, Evs . . .

[b:9d85d588de]*[/b:9d85d588de] When asked what he thought were the best tips 'n tricks for writing signs or catching rides, [b:9d85d588de]Bernd Wechner[/b:9d85d588de] had this to say: "...[i:9d85d588de]Nothing I can think of to be honest. Any guide book and dozens of on-line advisors all have their list of essential tips, but I've always shied away from them, a firm believer that my ride will come[/i:9d85d588de]..."

[b:9d85d588de]* [/b:9d85d588de]And, this from [b:9d85d588de]Scrappy[/b:9d85d588de]: "...[i:9d85d588de]Your ride will stop for you at precisely the time it's supposed to, so don't try to hurry it, cause it has a schedule of its own. If you don't have the patience to deal with that, take a bus[/i:9d85d588de]..."

Fascinating!


yes, so true
that so fits the definition of hitch hiking,

"the hitch hiker is there so you can do your good deed for the day", max