Day 84 - Quick Quick Quick...stop.

Hitchhiking is a funny thing, isn't it? You can get ride after ride in no time flat, then spend hours with no luck at all. Today was pretty much that situation, doing all of my traveling in the first few hours of the day, then staying on the same patch of ground for the next 5 hours.

After getting a ride out to a nearby town to begin my day's hitching, I caught a ride within minutes from a doctor on his way to work in Sanford. Originally from Pennsylvania, he moved down for the better weather (can't really blame him, I'm back to wearing short sleeves and carrying my warm gear in my pack.) He dropped me off near his hospital, then I had the chance to get some exercise and hike across town.

My second ride came from a salesman representing a contracting service, primarily involved in remodels and other projects that don't require pulling permits. He also has good tastes in subs.





My third ride came from Brother Stevie, a native american man who had went from a rather dismal life to one full of life by coming to God. Since then, he's committed an impressive number of scriptures to memory, especially around the theme of baptism. We spent the ride looking up scriptures on my phone, mostly relating to the names of Christ, the concept of trinity (his belief is very strongly that Christ is our sole God, and the concept of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are all titles he uses.) If I was going to be in the area, he invited me out to church with him this evening. He also asked that when I mentioned him, I share this reference: Acts 2:38. Reading that scripture is probably the best description that I could give of this trip, actually.

My final ride came from a man whose picture I won't share. A nice guy with some interesting stories, I'll save them for those who are curious. I'll just say that he brought my proposition count up to four.

And thus ended my rides, but not the people I met :D While I stood trying to hitch south, I had a few people come up to me who were heading in other directions. One was a Assistant Chaplain up at Fort Bragg, and overall an awesome guy. It didn't take long to juxtapose concepts from military service with the gospel, and it was obvious that he knew both very well. Talking about the concept of the physical man and the spiritual man being in opposition to each other, he made an important point. The one that wins is the one that is fed the best. The world constantly feeds the physical/natural man, filling it with ideas and actions that are contrary to the will of God. It doesn't take any real effort on our part to do this, we just have to let it happen. To combat it, we have to feed our spiritual side, through scripture study and prayer, to the point of making it a habit. I wish we'd been heading in the same direction, I would have liked to spend more time listening to him share his feelings and belief.

I also met a couple on their way back to San Diego from Deleware. The woman said that she'd left with only $150 in her pocket, needing to make the trip to take care of some business out on the East Coast. And with that and her trust in God, she's made her way safely here and is now on her way back. The kindness of strangers and the kindness of God provide for her until she can return to work in California, and it's a kindness she shares freely, knowing that it's a temporary gift, to be spread not kept.

It's now late, and time to go set up camp. I haven't had a need to camp since leaving Chicago, and I've been glad for it. Much too cold up north. But down here? With a low in the high 40's, it looks like an excellent evening to be under the stars :D


Trip Stats:
Distance Traveled: 150 miles
Total Time: 10 hours
Google Estimated: 2:54 hrs
# of Rides: 4
Total Cost: $0.00