Adventures in Hitchhiking (Part 2)

For Part 1, see:  http://liveforeverdietoday.blogspot.com/2013/08/adventures-in-hitchhiking-part-1.html

It's the middle of the night, and the sounds of metal on metal of a freight train jolts me out of my sleeping bag.  Hay sticking to my hair as I quickly pack my stuff and yell at my companions to wake up.  "C'mon!  Wake up!  The train is here!"

We grab our bags and run across the field towards the train tracks.  The closer we get, the bigger the train is.  Up close, it is monstrous and moving much faster than we thought.  We all look at each other nervously.  Steve starts running along the tracks, but he can't run as fast as the train was moving.  The noise is deafening and I yell as loud as I can, "I don't know guys, this looks mighty dangerous!"  Sam nods his head in agreement.  Steve yells "No, we can do it!  C'mon.  Just run, throw your bag on and grab tight!"  I shake my head no.  Sam shakes his head no.  And we start walking away.  Steve runs behind us "I'm sure we could have done it.  Should we wait for the next train?"  "No, let's just stick to the road."

Desolation is not a road you want to hitch hike.

Early the next morning, we stood out on desolate Highway 2.  The North East part of Montana is the definition of desolation.  Flat land and sparsely populated.  We waited for nearly 3 hours, seeing only a few cars that ignored our desperate thumbs.  And then, along comes our Coca-cola distributor friend.  He pulls up and says "Hi guys!  I figured I would see you out here.  Not many people drive this way.  And I have good news... my destination is Minot, North Dakota."  That's 250 miles!  Soon the wind was whipping through our hair as we huddle in the bed of his pickup truck, occasionally peeking out to catch a glimpse of the desolation.  Around noon we stop in a small town and our chauffeur bought us all lunch.  What luck!  A few more hours in the back of the truck and we pull into Minot.  Our friend pulls up to a gas station and we say our goodbyes.

After walking down the street several blocks we see a giant parking lot and tons of people.  A few blocks away we can see amusement park rides peeking over the trees.  We get closer and see it's the North Dakota State Fair.  Steve points and smiles, "Let's join the carnival!  Then we could travel for free and get paid to be carnies." Sam nods in agreement, and I shrug.  "Sure, why not?"  We walk up to the front gate and tell the ticket counter that we want to apply for a job.  She tells us, "The carnival employment office is inside, but it's $5 to enter the fairgrounds."

"Can't you just let us past?  We really need work!"

"It's $5 to get in."

"That would be $15!  We don't have that!"

"Sorry."

We walk down the street and Steve thinks we should just climb the fence.  So we start walking around the fair grounds looking for an opening.  On the back side there is a huge parking lot, and loud music coming from the grand stand arena.  Steve jumps up onto the back of a pickup and peers over the fence.  "Let's watch this concert!"  Unfortunately, Sam and I are much shorter than Steve and we had to stretch on our tippy-toes to see over the fence.  "Who is it?"  "No clue... it's definitely not metal, but it's okay."  We hunt down a flyer and we think it's the Goo Goo Dolls playing.  Sure enough, they end their set with "Name" which seemed like a fitting song for our journey.

The sun has set and we wander back out to what looks like a main road.  Standing in the dark next to a stoplight we hold out our thumbs.  A blue pick-up truck pulls up and a grey-haired man asks us where we're going.  Not completely sure, we say questioningly "Bismarck?"  The man laughs and says "Well, you're on the wrong road.  Where are you from?"  "Havre, Montana" we reply.  "That's a long ways!  It's rather late to be hitch hiking though, and I bet you're hungry.  Come stay at my house tonight.  My wife will cook you some food.  I don't have a spare bedroom, but you can sleep on the living room floor.  It's not much, but at least you'll have a roof over your head."  We all grin and jump into the truck.  After arriving at his house, we were offered chili and hot dogs.  We shared some of our adventures and the couple made a big ordeal to pray for us.  The man sits down with us and says "I have this voucher for a free stay at a hotel in Valley City.  It's a long ways away, but I won't ever use this.  I leave for work at 7am tomorrow, and I can give you a ride to the edge of the city heading south towards Bismarck."

The next morning we are standing on Highway 83 and a red beat-up pick-up pulls up.  Sam and I jump into the back, and Steve sits up front.  We ride for about 30 minutes, and the truck pulls off the highway into a field.  He offers us a beer and we sit on the tailgate talking for a bit.  Turns out he is also from Havre, Montana!  We even knew some of the same people.  After talking our ears off, he say "Sorry I can't take you further, but I gotta get to work!"  He jumps in his truck and drives off  and once again we are standing on the side of the road in the middle-of-nowhere.

Then a classic Volkswagen van pulls up.  We climb in and discover the back is PACKED with guitars and musical equipment, so we squeeze together on the one empty bench seat.  In the front seat sat a long haired man and a beautiful woman, who welcomed us on their journey to Bismarck.  They were ALL about travelling, and told us about how they had been travelling all over the country for the past year.  They showed us a map of their trip, and then asked us to write something in their journal.  So each of us took turns writing something witty and signing our names.  The radio was tuned to a country station, and we begged them to put something else on.  "There doesn't seem to be any rock stations in this area," they said, "but you can pick something out of our cassettes."  Two cases were handed back to us, and we greedily scan through the titles.  After looking through everything, we frown at each other.  It was nearly all Soul Asylum, Goo Goo Dolls and 10,000 Maniacs.  "I guess we'll listen to some Goo Goo Dolls," I say.  "Yeah, I guess that will work.  We did just see them." says Steve.  The couple turn around and say "Really?  Was it a good concert?"  We all shrug.  "Meh, not really.  I mean, they played well but it's just not our style of music.  We're more into metal.  So not really big fans of Goo Goo Dolls.  They sound a lot like Soul Asylum."  Steve nods and blurts out "Yeah, they suck."  The couple frowns, looks at each other and we rode the rest of the way in silence.  As soon as we reached Bismarck, they dropped us off at a gas station and waved goodbye.

We run inside the gas station to relieve our bladders, and then sit outside on the sidewalk.  "That couple seemed to get really mad that we didn't like their taste in music."  "Well, you DID say that their music sucked.  I would be kind of mad, too."  "What was with all those instruments?  They never once mentioned being in a band or why they were travelling."  "Yeah, that was strange... I wonder..."  I see a flyer for the North Dakota State Fair on the door of the gas station.  I run over and look at the band lineup pictures... and there... was the shaggy-haired driver of the van.

"OH MY GOD!  We just told the Goo Goo Dolls that they sucked!!  To their face!!!"

Steve starts laughing.  "We're lucky they didn't kick us out of the van right then!"

"Wow... I finally meet somebody famous, and I tell them that they suck."

"Oh well, I'm sure it's rare for them to talk to people who AREN'T fans.  It will be good for them."

Sorry, Goo Goo Dolls.


To be continued...