Art of Hitch Hiking

     I briefly touched on the art of hitch hiking in my last blog, but I firmly believe that there is a fine art to it. I suppose that you can make the argument that people that hitch hikers are destitute or down and out. However there are, or there once was, a group that did it because it was fun. Even if you are destitute you have to present yourself as someone who you would pick up. You don't have to wear your Sunday best, but being filthy is not the answer. The rules as I see them are Look like you want a ride. Be attentive to the road and traffic so that you can make eye contact with your potential driver.
So that when and if they are going to pick you up you are at least aware of it happening. Circumstances put people in all kinds of positions, I never thought that it was beneath me to hitch a ride. Once I hitched on old route 20 from Albany, New York to Rochester with my old dog Dusty. We actually did well and got good rides. Although he was a very cool dog. It was a great experience.
     Many of my short stories have the central character as a wayfarer. In fact I once got a rejection letter telling me my central character should have obvious means of support to be a role model for young children. I think that only fueled my Pied Piper Complex. If traveling and hitching were truly to be an Art. My characters would be stellar examples of it.
     So I will continue to make The Art of Hitch Hiking a theme to write about. For all the children out there I will leave you with one of my Poems from Of Mountains and Men.

                                                       Upon The Mountains


Go upon the mountains
My beautiful innocent children
Leave the cities far behind.
For they in their ingratitude
Condemn themselves to their solitude!
Today's Song
Take To The Highway, James Taylor

The Traveling Man

There is a fine art to being a successful traveler. My greatest asset was my Tough Traveler Backpack.https://toughtraveler.com/
It was every Hitch Hiker's dream. It was so long ago and unfortunately I don't remember what model the pack was. However I do remember that the zipper broke on the pack and I brought it back to the company and was ready to pay to have a new one installed and they said that they would warranty the zipper and install a new one for me for free. They are Tough Traveler of Schenectady, New York. I was so impressed that I have had my character Tyler Thompson pic up his Tough Traveler backpack in several of my ski bum stories to date. You can search my stories on back blogs and count the times. There is no substitution for quality workmanship in the market place today. They didn't need to send me an email and ask how they were doing they just delivered. The Art of Being a good Hitch Hiker is directly related to the Art of Traveling and I hopefully can conjure up some new stories to showcase them. The memories are all you get.