Picking Up a Hitch-Hikers...

Tweet

Yup, I do that! No, I guess I didn't learn anything from the Manson Family, the Doors song "Riders on the Storm" or a string of those B movies I enjoy. This trip I kind of promised myself I would pick up the first hitch hiker I saw. Kind of a reversal of the experiment I announced, then denounced awhile ago. People have told me that they only pick up hitchhikers if the Spirit guides them to. I listen to the promptings of the Spirit also... but I see it a little differently... I don't pick them up when the Spirit warns me not to. Since I flew out to Utah instead of taking a grayhound, I didn't have an opportunity to meet new people along the way. As many of you know, airplane people rarely enjoy making conversation inflight, in fact, it's my experience that most of them resent anything beyond the initial niceties. In character, the people sitting in my row said hi back, but then quickly pulled out the "survival kit" of things to busy themselves with at 40,000 feet. Things that normally invite anyone and everyone to leave them alone. After a couple of days with my family, I rented a car and headed up to Rexburg to pick up my daughter. Somewhere in the southern desert of Idaho, sure enough, there he was. A scraggly 40-something with a bag bound in twine and his thumb in the air. Ok, there are basically three kinds of hitchhikers. There are the ones who just want to go with you as far as you can take them, and a quick "thank you" as they hop out of the car is as much as they have to say. Then there are those who make good conversation, not only helping you stay awake, but make the trip a lot more fun than it would be if you didn't pick them up. Then there was the kind I picked up that day... Sadly, some people seem to live to perpetuate stereotypes. His first words were about how he can't seem to get anyone to hire him. Then he went on to blame everything from his ex wife to the president for his problems. Since he was a veteran, I began my attempts to help him with finding out if he knew that he wasn't too old to get back in (being prior service). He responded by asking good questions that led me to believe he would be up for that if it got him off the streets. However, as I started to tell him what to do to be able to, out came the excuses and contradictions. As you have probably figured out already, the future he had planned for himself was more about complaining about the past than working towards a future. But then again, it was conversation and I literally had nothing better to do... so I went with it. If the biggest thing he needed was a ride and a chance to vent, who am I to deny him. Then came the 90th mile. He had to be dropped off there to take the highway going east, and I was continuing north. Apparenly a 90 mile ride wasn't sufficient help for him. No problem, go the extra mile, right? He asked me if I had a few bucks for lunch. I don't carry much cash, because I prefer to use debit cards. I did have a 5, which I offered, as I pulled into a gas station/C-Store. I figured he could grab something at the C-store before heading east. As I filled the tank he told me that he'd been looking forward to a real meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He also said that $5 wasn't enough for a buffet, and asked me if I'd go into the C-store and get some cash from the ATM, then help him find a buffet. As you can imagine, when I told him I was just going to fill my tank and head north again, he got pissed at me and walked off. I wished him luck with the rest of his trip and got back into the rental. I guess if I only picked him up to hear a "thank you" and see a look of gratitude as he kissed my ring and grovelled at my feet, the whole gesture would have been wasted. But hey, I was just picking up a hitchhiker, not curing cancer. He only got 90 miles closer to where he was headed in an air conditioned car. I got someone to help me stay awake. I got pretty much what I wanted out of the deal, he was left $2 short for the dinner he looked forward to, and still had to hope for a ride to get the rest of the way to his destination. Most of my travel tales include fun and interesting people I've met along the way, I guess I was due for the other kind. Anyway I got everything I expected from the deal, but he didn't... so I was the one who came out ahead.