[at-l] Most interesting hitch?

[Carla & Dave Hicks]

My story is not trail related -- albeit about half of the trip more or less 
paralleled about 450-500 miles of the trail and crossed it.

Back in the late '50 before the interstates, I was hitching from the NOVA area 
to Memphis.

I did real good hitching down VA 28 and then US 29.  One or two hops.  I might 
have crossed the AT on the Rockfish Gap Turnpike over the mountains to US 11. 
However, I'm thinking that this trip my 29  hop took me all the way to 
Lynchburg and 460.  [You learn when hitching that a long hop in the generally 
right direction is a keeper.  If I had been dropped off in Charlottesville, I 
would have taken the first hop either west or farther down 29.]  Anyway, I 
made it to south of Salem in about three hops.  Then quickly caught a ride on 
down US 11.  What a great day!  When the average speed was around 40 mph, 
three hundred in a day means very little time with your thumb in the air.

Somewhere just short of Marion VA, I spent the night inside a old fashion hay 
stack, trying to keep dry.  No use trying to hitch in the rain, much less the 
dark.

Rose to the sunshine.  Did OK down to Knoxville TN.  One hop.  Feeling great 
about the distance I was making.

Then swung west along a road more or less along the route I-40 takes now.  It 
might have been US 70.  Anyone know?

Then it hit.  Got stuck between Knoxville and Nashville.  Spent most of the 
day going nowhere, much.  Just about dark, an old (pre-WWII vintage) Ford 
stopped.  A guy said he had seen me there a few hours back, when he was going 
the other direction into town.  Asked if I was a musician head to Nashville. 
I allowed I was no musician, but would love to get to Nashville, as I was 
headed on through to Memphis.  He said he had to head that way the next 
morning and I could sleep in his family's barn, if I wanted.  Took me home 
somewhere around Lebanon.  All the way he keep talking about running a gas 
station, the need for better accommodations, restaurants, clean gas stations, 
etc. Fed me a great meal and put me up in the barn.  After breakfast the next 
morning (best food the whole trip), we were off to Nashville.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, unless you count another night sleeping 
in a field.  Dry starlit night on top of the hay this time --warm enough to 
not need to burrow down to keep warm.

Now for the interesting part (to me) and what I often wonder about.

Fast forward a dozen years and I stop at a Shell Oil station/restaurant/store 
along the new interstate just outside Lebanon.  Great true southern style 
food.  The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store made me remember and wonder.  Nah, 
what are the odds?  It's got to be just a coincidence.  But then....

Chainsaw

BTW -- I still eat at the chain from time to time when traveling -- even if in 
the mid '90 they switched from true southern style food to southern like/lite, 
or California southern style.

Maybe sometime I tell ya'll about the time a friend of my family nearly went 
broke trying to open/run a true Cajon restaurant in California.  Wised up and 
switched to Cajon lite in time to save his shirt.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Hudson" <mvhudson at gmail.com>
To: "at-l" <at-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:52 PM
Subject: [at-l] Most interesting hitch?

>>
So Clyde got me thinking this would be a good thread; what was your most
"interesting" hitch?
SNIP
<<