There’s a lesson that you learn when you research hitchhiking: listen to, but don’t rely on the advice of non-hitchers when trying to find the best place to thumb.
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| Hot chocolate while using wifi in Portland |
I forgot that lesson, and spent the first few hours of the morning walking along a freeway to get to the place I should have begun, and could have reached in twenty minutes by bus. My CS host mentioned that there was a fairly busy onramp to I-5 within walking distance of her house, and without studying it via Google maps and streetview I took off. It was a fairly busy onramp…but for local traffic. I decided to follow it, not knowing how far from the actual interstate I was. Five miles of walking, first with a not-so-wide shoulder, then loud traffic that gave me a headache. Not turning around because the main freeway could be right around the corner, or someone could stop and pick me up, but no luck. Within a minute of getting to the onramp I’d originally planned on going to, I had a ride all the way to Portland.
The moral of the story is simple: the suggestions of others are no excuse to not think for yourself. Ask for advice, get help when you can, but remember that in the end, you are the one responsible for what happens to you. Think before you leap, or accept the consequences.
Incidentally, the walk also gave me another chance to eat blackberries, and I met a guy who’s been camping in the bushes near the shoulder for the past year. He invited me to a BBQ he and some others who lived there were going to have, after he’d turned in a few bags of bottles. I turned him down, but it was a nice offer from a cool guy. So you can have fun even when you do something dumb :)
Trip Stats:
Total Distance: 113 miles
Time Traveled: 2 hours
# of Rides: 1
Total Cost: $8.00
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