It was July 15th, 1996. As a newborn 19 year old, I was anxious to escape small town Montana. Originally, I had saved up money to move "properly," but my best friends insisted that they wanted to come along as soon as their checks came in. So, I waited... and waited... and waited... until my savings was gone. And still my friends did not have any money. Fearing that I would be trapped in Montana forever, my desperation kicked in, and all of our mischief was catching up with us. We HAD to go! And where were we headed? Minneapolis! The "big" city, where all of our dreams would come true.
We only had $32. It was barely enough money to buy food, let alone travel 900 miles. Steve insisted that we could hitchhike there. I had never hitchhiked before, so was very wary of the idea. He assured me that he had hitchhiked many times, and with 3 men there was little chance of anything bad happening to us. So, we each packed a bag of our most precious items and hit the road. I gave away nearly everything I owned, and only took a few changes of clothes, some books and some memorabilia.
It was quite easy to catch a ride, especially since we were well known around Havre... And before we knew it, we had traveled 50 miles to Harlem. Sam wanted to stop and visit a girl who lived there. As luck would have it, her parents were out of town that night. We celebrated our first night on the road and fantasized about what Minneapolis would be like.
We woke up with hangovers, and stumbled out to the edge of town with our thumbs in the air. Highway 2 is a very desolate highway, and few people traveled East. A police officer stopped us, and accused us of being runaways. We begrudgingly showed him our ID's, and he went on his way.
A pick-up truck with Coca-cola logos pulled up, and the driver asked us "Where are you headed?" "Minneaplis!" we shouted. He laughs and says "I'm not going that far, but I can take you as far as Glasgow." That's over 100 miles! We hop in the back of his truck and away we went. A couple hours later, we pull into Glasgow and the driver buys us lunch, and then gives us a few bottles of Coke. "I'll be heading East tomorrow, so I'll pick you up if I see you."
We wait on the highway for about an hour, until a blue conversion van pulls up. We hop into the van, and the driver asked us "Where are you headed?" We shout in unison, "Minneapolis!" "Well, I can't take you that far... but we are just cruising, so I will take you as far as I can." There were already 4 people in the van, and after we climbed in it was quite crowded. What a nice van! Plush seating, a refrigerator, plus a VCR and television! Introductions were made, and we were on our way. "Do you want a beer?" the driver asked us. "Sure!" To our surprised, the refrigerator was stocked full of cheap beer. That's when we realized everyone in the van was very intoxicated... including the driver, who threw an empty can out the window and demanded another beer. Yikes! They took us another 100 miles, before dropping us off in the middle of nowhere just past Wolf Point. They wished us luck, and gave us a 12-pack of their cheap beer as a parting gift. We stood on the road nearly 3 hours without seeing a single car drive by, and started to worry that we would be stuck. That's when we noticed a train slowly pass by. Steve suggested we hop the next train. It sounded like a good idea.
So we waited. And we waited. We decided to start a campfire, and began drinking the beers we had been gifted as we waited. "I hate my name," I said. "Destry is a made-up word that has no meaning." Sam asks me, "What kind of name would you want?" "Well, something natural and meaningful... like River or Tree." Steve says "Dude, your name has Tree in it. And since we are moving to a new place, why don't you just tell everyone your name is Tree?" "What a great idea! I will do that. From now on, I will be known as Tree."
We waited... and waited... nighttime was well upon us and we still didn't see a train. So we gathered up some hay, made ourselves make-shift beds and fell asleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up to the sounds of steel-upon-steel. "The train! The train!" I shook Steve and Sam awake, we grabbed our bags and ran for the train tracks...
To be continued...
(Part 2:
http://liveforeverdietoday.blogspot.com/2013/08/adventures-in-hitchhiking-part-2.html)
No comments:
Post a Comment