Days of thumbing

I can't remember if I posted this photo or not. This was me back in 1977 up in Washington. I used to hitchhike up to Vancouver, British Colombia for a long week-end and have a few laughs. Laughs included nearly getting rolled in a motel room one night by a chick who picked me up and then later picked up another guy who she tried to convince to hit me over the head with a lamp while she thought I was asleep. He didn't, thank god.

This photo is another one of those times of great laughter. I decided to go out to Victoria Island from Vancouver. I was hanging around by the ferry dock and saw a map which I read to say that yonder ferry would take me right to Tacoma. I bought a ticket and climbed on board. While on board, I met a girl that I went to school with in Albuquerque. She was out in Washington visiting her aunt. Her aunt, it turned out, lived out on the Olympic penninsula, which was where this ferry was headed -- many miles from where I needed to be. When the ferry docked in Port Angeles that evening, the aunt agreed to give me a ride to Sequim, WA, but would not let me stay with them. I slept in a fireworks stand and, the next day, walked almost the entire way back to Ft. Lewis -- nearly 100 miles.I may have gotten a ride from around Port Orchard to Tacoma - a whopping 25 miles, but after that, it was hoofing it.

In this photo I can be seen wearing the famous cowboy hat with the cat's tail (I found it in the road) sewed to the band.

Oh, and looky here. It's a map with the route I took.400 miles round trip -- not sure if that includes the ferry travel.

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I did a fair bit of long distance hitchhiking in my day (as well as Greyhound travel.) This was more a result of lack of a car and driver's license than anything. This was my last trip by thumb to Vancouver. It wasn't long after this that I wound up with orders to go to Germany.