Final Thoughts concerning Kerouac
You know i've always been sad that i didn't actually hitchhike from British Columbia to Toronto 2 summers ago. I did the best i could. I got to do alot of the Province of British Columbia, and my hitchhiking in ALberta consisted of Calgary to Banff to Jasper to Edmonton, which is way longer than just going horizontal. but the prairies were by bus, and towns i couldn't get out of were by bus, and big cities were by bus (usually).
I had always wanted to master the Onramp hitchhike. Stand on an onramp and have cars start speeding up, seeing me and picking me up. But that was really dangerous considering there was very little room to stand, and cars speeding up to get to highway speeds. I did get rides standing along the road of highways with my thumb out. Signs were pretty useless because by the time the car read the sign and figured out what it said, it was 2 miles down the road already:)
This one time in Newfoundland, during my 400km hitchhike in 1 day (it took 10 hours and consisted of 7 separate hitchhiking rides, (oh i rarely rarely tell stories involving this day, but i really should), anyway i got dropped off at a gas station. Now i found out that day that gas stations are gr8 gr8 places to be dropped off! Gas stations in nfld have cafes attached to them and liquor stores inside. WOW talk about convenience! So i had some eggs and orange juice, not having much to eat that travel day and went to stand out on the road. I was about 50 metres from the gas station on the road. There were trucks parked there and i figured i'd get a ride with one of them. But it was raining outside. I found out quickly that people didn't want to pick up the wet hitchhiker. But i was having fun, i was on the open road, i dumpster dived at the gas station to find cardboard, and i made me a sign. I was singing and dancing and playing my sign like a guitar. After about 40 minutes or so, a car full of old ladies picked me up. They said that they saw me on the road and thought i was really having a good time. And though they don't pick up hitchhikers, they went to the cafe-gas station to eat and saw me outside from the window and decided if i wasn't picked up by the time they finished eating they'd pick me up. and they did.
And i made it from Gross Morne to St. John's that day partially because of them:)
If you'd like to learn more, both the Newfoundland and BC journals are available, while the Mississippi journal is still being typed, i can't believe how many 1000s of words i can write for one story!
I had always wanted to master the Onramp hitchhike. Stand on an onramp and have cars start speeding up, seeing me and picking me up. But that was really dangerous considering there was very little room to stand, and cars speeding up to get to highway speeds. I did get rides standing along the road of highways with my thumb out. Signs were pretty useless because by the time the car read the sign and figured out what it said, it was 2 miles down the road already:)
This one time in Newfoundland, during my 400km hitchhike in 1 day (it took 10 hours and consisted of 7 separate hitchhiking rides, (oh i rarely rarely tell stories involving this day, but i really should), anyway i got dropped off at a gas station. Now i found out that day that gas stations are gr8 gr8 places to be dropped off! Gas stations in nfld have cafes attached to them and liquor stores inside. WOW talk about convenience! So i had some eggs and orange juice, not having much to eat that travel day and went to stand out on the road. I was about 50 metres from the gas station on the road. There were trucks parked there and i figured i'd get a ride with one of them. But it was raining outside. I found out quickly that people didn't want to pick up the wet hitchhiker. But i was having fun, i was on the open road, i dumpster dived at the gas station to find cardboard, and i made me a sign. I was singing and dancing and playing my sign like a guitar. After about 40 minutes or so, a car full of old ladies picked me up. They said that they saw me on the road and thought i was really having a good time. And though they don't pick up hitchhikers, they went to the cafe-gas station to eat and saw me outside from the window and decided if i wasn't picked up by the time they finished eating they'd pick me up. and they did.
And i made it from Gross Morne to St. John's that day partially because of them:)
If you'd like to learn more, both the Newfoundland and BC journals are available, while the Mississippi journal is still being typed, i can't believe how many 1000s of words i can write for one story!