I began at a little before 10am, just as snow started falling. My main goal on this trip has been to avoid snow, but it looks like that was not entirely possible. I'm glad I didn't have to wait nearly as long this time as I did the last time I was leaving from this point. Within a half hour I was on my way to Twin Falls with a group of county officials on their way to Boise for a meeting on taxes. Pretty cool guys, one of which had a number of awesome stories about his own hitchhiking adventures. Back in the late 60's, he'd decided that he was going to go LA and make it big, and so with no plan he took off from small town Idaho. It didn't really work out. He knew that he had an uncle in San Francisco, though, and he had an address, so he stuck out his thumb again and was off on his way. He found his Uncle's place at about two in the morning, somewhere in the Haight area, not having had any opportunity to let his uncle know that he was even coming. He knocked on the door, but unknown to him the building had two apartments, and the outer door only knocked to a corridor. He sat down on the doorstep to wait till morning, when the neighbor across the street got up and called him over to see if he needed help. He ended up giving him a place to stay for the night, and in the morning he was able to get in touch with his uncle. His uncle was a bit freaked out by the idea he'd spent the night with a complete stranger, and my ride was introduced to the idea that in cities, people often don't know their neighbors. Anyways, this guy's uncle was gay, and lived with his partner. And for the number of months that my ride stayed with them, he was introduced to the gay scene of San Francisco. Not a lifestyle that he was interested in, but he said they were an excellent group of people to hang out with. He had some great stories. Also, after mentioning that I was returning to California to take a job in the architectural field, they said that they were looking into designing a centennial park in some little town, and they'd be interested in getting in touch if I had some ideas for the project. I told them it might make an interesting portfolio piece, so shoot me a message. I hope they do, it could be fun :)
My next ride had an elk in the back. The driver had just driven up from Wells where he'd been out hunting for the past few weeks, and finally had what he'd wanted to get. Too bad I hadn't met him a few days earlier when he was on his way south. Still. he got me to the other side of Twin Falls, onto a junction heading south.
The next ride was very short. I wanted to get into the next little town, to a junction where all of the south bound traffic would have to pass. The two guys (mechanics, actually) who picked me up said they could get me close. Close meant about 7 miles away, or about half way between where I was and where I was flagging for. I was a little irritated at when I first looked at the spot, since where I'd been had had a pretty solid shoulder and slower traffic speed, and they'd had to drop me off at a side road with no shoulder and 60mph traffic, but as always, it worked out. And probably helped me, actually. The next ride to pick me up was a couple coming through back roads from Oregon on their way to Wells. They got on the highway below me, headed the wrong direction, passed me, then realized their mistake, turned around, and picked me back up on their return. I'm sorry that they had to lose time by going the wrong way, but I'm glad that I was able to get a ride the 90 miles or so to the next truck stop.
Wells, NV is pretty much nothing. It was a few truck stops for people heading east and west on I-80. I think there's a small town a ways off from the freeway, but I've never actually seen it. Still, pretty good place for me. I hung out by the truck stop for a bit, then got cold (snowing again) and headed to the on ramp to try and catch car traffic as well. This was a time of getting lucky, I was a bit worried that I'd get stuck here for the night, and I do not have the gear I'd want for the temperature it was. Luck was with me again, though, and as it was getting dark a truck pulled over for me and gave me a ride all the way to Reno, where I had some CS friends I'd hosted at the last minute the year before. He was a very Christian person, and we talked about God and religion through most of the trip. He didn't agree with my faith, but was very respectful as offered his thoughts on why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was not 'truly' Christian. Overall, it was quite a good trip.
A successful day. Later than I'd planned, but exactly where I'd hoped to be on the eve of the day.
Trip Stats:Distance Traveled: 562 miles
Total Time: 12 hrs
Google Time: 9:03 hrs
# of Rides: 5
Total Cost: ~$5
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