My first ride came from Danny, a retired psychiatric nurse and Navy vet who enjoys fishing. His preferred fish to catch is catfish, and he's caught a 76 pound catfish with 10 lb line and an ultralight rod. It took a few hours to wear it out, apparently. Not like in the olden days, when he and his grandfather would use dynamite or an old crank telephone. The phone trick I'd never heard of: apparently these old phones had a crank generator on them, and if you stuck the two lines into the water it would stun the fish long enough for them to float to the top and then be caught. Didn't kill them, though.
Second ride was with Jimmy, who along with his dog Christie was heading out to the lake to let her play in the water. He said it was too bad that his wife had decided to stay home that day, if she was there they'd probably have decided to just drive the whole way to Tulsa just for kicks :)Brian got me as far as Beto Junction, where the highway connects to the interstate. Then he was off on his way and I was on the road again. Fred picked me up next, a former Marine who'd served three tours in Iraq and had worked for the National Guard as an instructor. He told me that when he returned from his last tour in Iraq, he took his motorcycle and spent eight and half months touring around North America, his self-treatment for PTSD. It was just what he needed, and it gave him the chance to see everything he'd ever wanted to.
C------ got me through to Burlington, a city that Fred had warned me I should avoid because of an upper class snootiness and distrust of hitchhikers and anyone outside of the status quo. He was on his way to an addiction recovery center, one of several that he attends as he tries to get himself off of a number of earlier addictions. 18 days clean and counting, so congratulations to him! He was a great guy, and I hope he's able to get himself to where he wants to be.
Ted had stopped by on his way north, letting me know that he could take me a ways down the road when he was headed back home, and I was welcome to have dinner and spend the evening if I'd like. He ended up meeting me in Burlington, just a bit south of where we'd met. We headed to his house first to refresh on water and so I could check out the building (which was quite cute, and only cost $27,000!). Since there was an hour left in the day, though, I decided that I'd try thumbing it a bit longer, though I'd only take a ride if they were going all the way into Oklahoma. I'm glad I did. Joe was a very friendly truck driver who already had one hitchhiker, David, in the car. They were on their way to Texas, and would be going straight through Tulsa. And so, less than 20 minutes after starting out, I had the last 2/3 of my route covered. Those two were a riot, it was great to sit ion the bed in the back of the cabin and listen to them banter back and forth. We also managed a good bit of food sharing: Joe's cookies, David's cinnamon rolls, and my carrots.
And so, 10 hours after I started, I made it to Darren's house in Tulsa. Too late for the amazing home cooked dinner that he'd hoped to make for me, there was still some leftover Israeli couscous with pesto and Parmesan that he could offer, and it was delicious.
Trip Stats:
Total Distance: 226 miles
Total Time: 10 hours
Google Estimated: 4:07 hours
# of Rides: 6
Total Cost: $0.00
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