Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker? r/AskReddit | Reddit Jar

have you ever picked up a hitchhiker [Music] I've never actually seen anyone with their thumb up on the side of the road before truthfully I'd pick them up in a heartbeat if they were heading my direction though I've only ever picked up people in need and never with them asking I remember I just got thrashed by this girl I was interested in in high school after about two weeks of her guilting me to tell her I liked her she replied with good now that we've gotten that out in the open and nothing else she just wanted me to say it ya know cause you do right combo I see this guy who is riding his flat through Main Street towards the next-biggest area in our suburb knowing the area I pulled up next to him and asked him if he needed help he said no that he was just going to drive slowly up to the next gas station and fill up I told him to wait here and I drove ahead found out there wasn't to a station at that gas station I went back and told him and insisted he pull out on the side of the road helped him change his flat tire and we took that in his spare and loaded them up I drove him to the closest gas station and helped him pump his tires up no problem turns out he was there because he was in the area doing a job upgrading the software at a hospital and had stayed late to check in on his mother who was there in hospice his wife was at some big meeting and she was waiting on him to pick her up basically his night would have been [ __ ] without someone to lend him a hand the other time I was dropping my then-girlfriend off at 3 in the morning after a rowdy [ __ ] session and we saw some poor guy get out of his car in nothing but a windbreaker and jeans and it was windy as [ __ ] and in February after I dropped her off I went back to swing along the expressway to try and find him to see if he needed help I thought I'd lost him but he was shivering his ass off all of 300 yards from where I'd last seen him his buddy told him he'd go get him some gas but he just pocketed this guy's 20 bucks and bought some pot instead this crazy [ __ ] was about to try and walk for through a snowy city to try to get back to his house poor guy wouldn't stop thanking me the whole ride he even smoked me out on the way only time I've ever been worried was when some kid literally ran up to my car and nervously asked me to drive into his house because his girlfriend was in trouble or somesuch i hesitantly said yes i'm a sucker for a sob story and drove him towards his house it's just behind that giant superstore the one that's closed yeah just go around back near the drop-off soccer AIII then we get there he refuses to get out basically just kept thanking me then asked for money because his girlfriend needs medication at this point he's totally taking advantage of the kindness of a stranger but I'm thinking [ __ ] this [ __ ] brought me behind and abandoned superstore in the shittiest part of town now he's got his seatbelt off in my car and I don't doubt he would pull a knife on me at any minute judging by how desperate he was he got out after I'd given him my emergency stash of small bills that I keep in my visor the damn never been so nervous to pick up a hitchhiker before I've actually picked up about 18 hitchhikers in the past three years I went to Rutgers University and it all started one night after I finished a very late summer class there are four campuses and each a spread pretty far apart so the school has a very modern bus system to shuttle students around in the summer however most students go home and the buses run very infrequently at night so as I left class in my mom's minivan I noticed that the last bus was pulling away to take kids back to the Student Center and there was the Korean student running after the bus the driver didn't see him and as I drove past I could see that he just sat on the bench waiting for another bus to come the next one wasn't until 6:30 in the morning I stopped the van and did a u-turn and pulled up to the start I powered down the window and asked him if he needed a lift to the Student Center he was a bit hesitant at first I guess it's not every day a black guy call up in the dead of night to offer free rides and AC equals so we drive and we start to talk and find out that we have a lot in common I dropped him off and he offered to pay me but I just told him to pay it forward to the next person he sees in need that summer the city of New Brunswick was really hot I had to cancel a class that day because it was the last day to do so and Rutgers bureaucracy made it so I had to go to three different campuses that day in order to do it for some strange reason anyway on my way to drop off the final form I saw an older white man in his 50s with crutches and his leg in a cast walking down the street I could see that he was struggling and it was silly whoo hot outside I couldn't just let him suffer while I sat there in my 7-seater air-conditioned minivan so I pulled over and asked him if he needed a ride this big genuine smile came over his face and he thanked me numerous times and thanked God a few times too he apparently broke his leg and had a compound fracture after falling off his son's roof while trying to help him install a satellite dish nuts the next time I picked up people was May of the following year during Rutgers Fest where the school hires popular bands and hip-hop stars to perform for tens of thousands of students it was amazing I always have a great time and I always invite my friends from Princeton to come this Rutgers fest they drove their own cars from Princeton and brought a few other classmates so I was alone in the minivan again as I was driving back to the college of a new student center I noticed that there were hundreds of students that were walking back along the highway apparently they didn't feel like waiting for the buses and decided to take their chances so here I am watching this sea of kids walking back along the highway as the Sun began to set I turned the minivan around after reaching New Brunswick and sat in traffic for a while which I should have anticipated when I was finally clear of the traffic I pulled over to the side of the road and honked I waved my hand outside the window to a group of five kids I saw in my rearview mirror they looked confused at first and then one of them realized that I was trying to help them and started running to the van and the others followed him I asked if they needed a lift and they were really overjoyed that I was helping them out they each gave me their hands to shake and I drove them back to campus where they shook my hand again and thanked me for helping them out I did this two more times and each group was really happy I decided that it may be time to go back home and take the 45-minute drive back to Hill side as the Sun had already set but something almost compelled me to go back one more time just one more time so I did and unfortunately most of the groups of kids were way too big to all fit in the van so I drove back to campus with no one but this feeling just one more time you have to go back just kept gnawing at my soul so I went back and saw this one kid by himself it was pitch black out but I could see that he was angry as he was throwing bottles under a bridge on the way back I drove past him about 100 feet and thought to myself are you really sure he deserves your help dot I thought back to all the lessons in church I had about helping people in need and not judging people so I decided to take a leap of faith and against common sense to help this kid out I was on the side of the highway now and I reversed parallel to him he was so mad that he didn't even notice and he kept on throwing rocks and bottles at the concrete in the distance I honked the horn and asked him if he needed a ride he was startled and I could see that he wasn't crazy after all he said that his friends ditched him and he was forced to walk back along the highway I told him to hop in and he thanked me a lot and occasionally turned to look at me sort of like I was a very unexpected angel I dropped him off near the Student Center and shook his hand he thanked me again and I told him to take it easy and to pay it forward to someone else in need all these events really made me feel good and reaffirmed my faith in humanity and God too they were all just simple acts of - a simple car ride but there was just something about being that unexpected stranger that Good Samaritan that didn't just think about helping others but actually gathered up the courage to turn my thoughts of compassion into reality that really had profound effects on my life those times I picked up those strangers we went from being black or white Hispanic or Asian to just being people glad to be in each other's company by the end of the trip I've always appreciated moments like that I hope you have two equals I have given two different strangers rides the first was a homeless man that had a bag full of empties and was trying to get to the store but his bag ripped a mile from his destination the second was a guy that tried to sell me some crack and pot outside a bar I gave him a ride back to his house on the outskirts of town I actually had really great conversations with both of these guys mostly about their criminal pasts and the downward cyclic spiral of the justice system forces them into I'm going into forensics so we actually had really constructive talks first time I picked up hitchhikers was when I was in Banff on a court and decided to go skiing I had reserved a small rental car but ended up with a Dodge Charger that looked like a hearse on my way back to town from the hill I saw a couple of kids with snowboards in their gear offered them a ride and they were dumbfounded reading themselves to walk quite a ways carrying their boards they told me that they always walk because nobody ever stops for them with their boards by chance I had this massive rental car and lots of time to kill the look of stunned appreciation from people not expecting a favor is awesome I have a buddy who used to drive trucks across Texas one day while leaving Austin he picked up a little squirrelly looking black dude who said he was going 90 miles north about five minutes into the ride the little squirrelly guy goes you ever had a boy suck your dick double quote [Music] yeah my then-girlfriend was feeling Randy and wanted to have a threesome this would be an old girl threesome okay no boys allowed we were on a super long drive and got ourselves horny as hell talking and laughing about it when fate sends us this cute-as-a-button hitchhiker short blonde hair looking very dusty and tired from hiking sexy as hell in other words so with halfway serious halfway what the hell intentions we picked her up found out she was from Germany and she was going around to different parks in the country and doing summits in ER and type work along the way oh I should also say this was not into u.s.a it was in a country where people can still do that sort of thing safely they do still exist anyway sorry to say the cute German was not into it she had places she needed to be believe me we were every bit as disappointed as you are right now sigh I know this will be at the bottom that's just how life goes I have somewhat similar story but different ending me and might not always pick up hitchhikers always haven't always well we decided we we're going to drive down to El Paso from Salt Lake City to see Tom Waits live so obviously in the spirit of things we were going to grab everybody we could on the way we saw two ex young punk kids outside of Phoenix so we grabbed them turns out they're on their way to stand outside the concert hall that Tom Waits was playing at this made us feel awesome the second set of people we're 2 X people who lived in the boondocks of nowhere I believe they we're 90 plus and all they we're doing was getting groceries one of them was in World War 2 and they seemed happy and [ __ ] just baking in the Sun waiting for a ride this made us feel awesome the third was a Hispanic dude in a broken-down vehicle with two other Mexican dudes he made the motions and implied it just ran out of gas we're in the boondocks till nothing around for miles we take him all the way to the gas station and buy him a thing and a gallon of gas and as soon as my dad hands it over he goes through his broken English and says thank si house and whatnot then the [ __ ] just starts walking back towards his car like a champ I'd say how far he was Belen not good with distance and there's no way I would walk the distance in the hot Sun so we grab him and shuffle his ass back to the car and give him a ride back to his car I think it was about a 15-minute drive on freeway comer when we finally dropped him off and I'll I never not hear this in my head when I think about it he said in the best English that he knew I I thank you I I love you double quote best road trip of my life edit law I'm at work and I started crying when I had to retype this P s my dad is awesome I never learned how to work with my hands or anything but he taught me how to be an awesome person just about every time I see someone I stop I kind of got out of a habit in the last couple of years move to a big city and all that my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice then some [ __ ] happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually if you would indulge me it is long story and has almost nothing to do with its hiking other than happening on a road this past year I have had three instances of car trouble a blowout on a freeway a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation all of them were while driving other people's cars which for some reason makes it worse on an emotional level it makes it worse on a practical level as well what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car and know enough not to park facing downhill on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel anyway each of these times this [ __ ] happened I was disgusted with how people would not bother to help me I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me for triple-a to show the for gas stations I asked for a gas cannot told me that they couldn't loan them out for my safety but I could buy a really shitty 1 gallon one with no cap for $15 it was enough each time to make you say [ __ ] like this country is going to hell in a handbasket double-quote but you know who came to my rescue all three times immigrants Mexican immigrants none of them spoke a lick of the language but one of those dudes had a profound effect on me he was the guy that stopped to help me with a blowout with his whole family of six in tow I was on the side of the road for close to four hours big deep blown rear tire had a spare but no Jack I had signs in the windows of the car big signs that said need a jack and offered money no dice right as I am about to give up and just hit shat there a van pulls over and dude bombs out he sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks English he conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the jeeps so we will need to brace it he produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road we rolled it over put his jack on top and bam in business I start taking the wheel off and if you can believe it I broke his tire Warren it was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off [ __ ] no worries he runs to the van gives it to his wife and she has gone in a flash down the road to buy our tire iron she is back in 15 minutes we finished the job with a little sweat and cussing stupid log was starting to give and I am a very happy man we are both filthy and sweaty the wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could I thank them up one side and down the other I asked the little girl where they lived thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome she says they live in Mexico they are here sir mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks after that they are going to pick cherries then go back home she asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler the best [ __ ] tamale I have ever had so to clarify a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you me and just about everyone else on that stretch of road working on a seasonal basis where time is money took an hour or two out of their data helps some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by whoa but we aren't done yet I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside my [ __ ] $20 bill I well around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down he sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it all I can think to say is por favor por favor por favor with my hands out dude just smiles shakes his head and with what looked like great concentration tried his hardest to speak to me in English today you tomorrow me double-quote rolled up his window drove away his daughter waving to me in the rear view i sat in my car eating the best [ __ ] tamale of all time and I just cried like a little girl it has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way this was so out of left field I just couldn't deal in the five months since I have changed a couple of tires given a few rides to gas stations and once went 50 miles out of my way to get the girl to an airport I won't accept money every time I tell them the same thing when we are through today you tomorrow me double-quote TL DR long rambling story about how the kindness of strangers particularly folks from south of the border forced me to be more helpful on the road and in life in general I am sure it won't be as meaningful to anyone else but it was seriously the highlight of my 2010 edit to VOP sorry to jack your thread this has nothing to do with hitchhiking I sort of thought I could just get this off my chest enjoy the catharsis and watch the story languish at the bottom of the page clad people like hearing the tale and I hope it moves you to be more helpful in your day to day thanks for all the hitch-hiker love on this thread I am a dedicated Hitcher have put in thousands of miles in the US and just finished to 12000 kilometres trip through Europe I've picked up my fair share as well remember if you see a hitchhiker try to put yourself in their shoes craziest story got picked up by a Nazi who was going to pick up his Nazi friend who had been unsuccessful at hitchhiking for two days from a gas station by the freeway the guy had a big ass walking stick with a big swastika like shield on it no wonder the dumbass didn't get picked up however the Nazis were nice to my girlfriend and I the girlfriend is from south of Spain so not exactly racially pure for these [ __ ] in the end the crazy Nazi with the swastika shield confessed he was in love with a black stripper and when we got out they gave us a beer TL DR got picked up by Nazis everything went better than expected they gave us a beer edit found a picture of me drinking the Nazi beer enjoy HTTP em ger cim yux 6f 3v jpg yes terrible idea I was driving back into town one day and see this car on the side of the road about 30 minutes out a little bit later I see this guy in a business suit carrying a duffel bag so I slowed down cause I figured I was close and it's just some dude whose car ran out of gas a little too soon anyway I pull over he throws his bag in the back of my car and I'm like hey were you had it he just glares at me and says just take me into town so I was a little nervous and pretty annoyed then for some dumb reason I asked him what he had in the bag and he said none of your [ __ ] business so the whole rest of the drive I'm just thinking this can't be real thank God it was still light out I was getting more and more nervous we get into town I stopped at the first gas station cause I want him out of there as soon as possible at this point and I Drive away and make it home alive then later I go out to get my [ __ ] out of my car and realized the guy left his [ __ ] bag I was dropping a friend off at the airport and some middle-aged guy with luggage came up to my car and asked for money for a taxi to where his hotel was he kind of didn't know the city's geography and the taxi would have cost around $80 he didn't look too happy when I told him that and explained that he had just flown in from a job interview in Detroit and was in town for another job interview the following day after hemming and hawing I let him jump in and drove him the 40 miles to his hotel he was apparently an engineer who I kid you not worked on Rockets the space shuttle and other various flying things he said he was on his last and these job interviews were the last bit of hope for him we just talked the whole time about his previous jobs and various 3d rendering software technology it was my first time picking up a hitchhiker and he wasn't creepy at all TLDR picked up a hitchhiker didn't even get a hand [Music] that is the sweetest hitchhiker story I've ever heard major props to you and your determination to help this guy I've picked up plenty of hitchhikers in my life one I remember was a 28 year old guy who was trying to get to Madison to be a test subject for a new a DD medication apparently they lock you up for a couple months regulate your diet and exercise then give you a few grand and set you free you know if the meds they're testing don't kill you anyway I got him another 50 miles down the road before I had to turn south he was nice though this past June right before our wedding my no ex-husband picked up three crusty kids and their dog they were hitching their way to a Rainbow Gathering so he brought them home to me we fed them and pack them goodie bags full of aspirin and hand sanitizer along with ten pounds of dog food then drove them to the next state they were a nice bunch of kids I've also not picked up hitchhikers who I thought were suspect but I usually go to the nearest gas station and put together a bag of water gatorade and granola bars and bring it to them even if I think they look creepy I still don't want them to go hungry when I was 12 or 13 my dad and I were on our way home from somewhere a few hours away and he decided it would be a good idea to pick up the hitchhiker on the side of the interstate holding a cardboard sign with the name of our town on it as soon as we picked him up it was obvious that he was homeless he smelled terribly and when asked him where he lived he asked just to be dropped off downtown his name was Steph's he turned out to be very nice and down-to-earth he told us about hitchhiking all over the country and what he had seen before we dropped him off we bought him some McDonald's and there never saw him again my dad's first words when he got out of the car were don't tell your mother about this double-quote hitchhiking into ax acti years ago I ran out of gas in the rain so I started walking an old guy in a beat-up truck eventually stopped even though I wasn't hitching I was soaked and still had a few miles to go so what the hell I was grateful then asked for the gas station of the next exit he said his home was closed and he had gas there he seemed kind but I was young and pretty freaked I think he sought had kept me on high alert on purpose like he had a lesson he was trying to teach me we got to his home without incident he found a five gallon gas can full of fuel then drove me back to my car I was amazed I offered him the only 10 dollars I had in my wallet but he declined when I shook his hand he palmed me a crisply folded $50 instead hold on to this for me if you need it go ahead and use it but if you can hang on to it for a while pass it on I'll be grateful he left me holding the crisp $50 and a full gas can and I never saw him again act III a dozen or so years later I'm driving home sometime after 11 o'clock at night on a Sunday it's been snowing all day and the interstates I'm on hasn't been played in hours I'm doing 20 miles per hour and it's really coming down very few other idiots like me out on the road I see red taillights way up ahead of me then they float to the left then right then slip down below what should be the road she slid right off the interstate and down an embankment it took me a few minutes to finally spot her the car was in one piece right side up for some reason I shut my car off when I pulled over I remember because when I got out it was that weird whispered quiet of a midnight snowfall then she started screaming later she told me through sobs that she thought I was going to kill her at the time all I could think of was that she was pinned inside the car and seriously injured so I go stomping down through the snow as fast as possible which causes her to scream even more it was at least 15 minutes before she'll even roll down the window to talk to me she bumped her head but otherwise was okay her car wouldn't start and was very stuck anyway I get her up to my car and she gives me rough directions to her home but is still really emotional then her cell phone rings the guy on the other end is pissed she's not home yet his yelling sets her off again and then she's trying to explain the car wreck to this [ __ ] at first he doesn't believe her calls her a cheating [ __ ] she finally manages to convince him but then he wants to know how the hell she's getting home she explains me stopping to help thinking I was going to murder her and that now I'm driving her home [ __ ] wants to know who I am I offer my first name for the first time am i demanding a [ __ ] as payment just all kinds of madness eventually she hangs up the phone even more a mess if it's possible then when I found her at the bottom of the ditch the next half hour to her place doing 20 mph was actually pretty amazing she was trying to go back to school get her [ __ ] together dump that sorry sack she was going home too she said in the first few minutes after the rag sitting lonely in the silence of snowfall that she thought she was going to die either because of the weather or because she should just go ahead and take her own life when she first saw me and thought I was going to kill her she realized she wanted to live and that she still had a life worth fighting for she grabbed my hand started sobbing again and thanked me for saving her life we pulled into her driveway and she hugged me and thanked me again I pulled out my wallet and gave her a crisp refolded $50 hold onto this for me if you need it go ahead and use it but if you can hang on to it for a while pass it on I'll be grateful double-quote I've had low times when I've needed it and used every last penny but eventually I'd get ahead a bit and restock with a new crisply folded $50 I've been carrying the same $50 for probably five years now this thread reminds me that I keep it for you not me I think it's time to pass it on again Thank You Opie I doubt anyone will read this but here it goes a couple of years ago I was catching a bus to go home from my last class of the day and I got off to switch buses at a station I see this man with grinning hair looking around obviously lost he was carrying a clear plastic bag with something wet inside upon closer inspection I noticed that he's pretty dirty and wearing some sandals that are very common in rural Mexico he has graying hair he notices me looking at him and figured I spoke Spanish too which was true he told me that he had recently crossed the border and had been traveling in a van that was to drop him off in Yakima Washington apparently his family couldn't pay the toll in time and the driver kicked him out in Tacoma where we were without telling him where he was or anything apparently they would have probably killed him but it was daytime so they just left him stranded I was expecting him to just ask me for money but instead he asked me to tell him how to get to the Greyhound so he could get to Yakima if not he wanted to know how to get to Seattle to stay in a shelter someone else told him about earlier I explained to him that if he waited for a minute I would find out and tell him I tried calling several people to see where he could stay that was in town and not too far I also tried to figure out where the Greyhound was eventually I ended up giving him directions on how to catch a bus to Seattle because that was what he decided to do I tried to give him about $15 for food and he would not take them I even offered him a room in my house for the night so he could shower and change clothes maybe try to contact his family in Yakima he said he had worked for everything in his life and couldn't take things for free so I wrote a note in English explaining that he was on his way to Seattle and and he did not speak English I even wrote my number on it so if he got lost or stranded again he could call me I kept wishing that I had a car so I could give him a ride to where he might catch a bus to Yakima I never heard from him again but I hope that he made it to where he was going first time I offered a person a ride was when this big girl was sobbing her eyes outside a city bank I go to regularly she was surrounded by a lot of adults and seeing if that I was the youngest and didn't have any job duties I volunteered to drive this young lady home so she sat in my car still crying and saying I don't want to get hurt anymore repeatedly I'm not the best person to cheer someone up but I managed to say it'll be all right so as I drove her back to her place she started opening up and saying bits and pieces of what happened from what I understood she was 26 years old got pregnant in high school 16 her parents disowned her she's pregnant again hence the big part and her boyfriend is now leaving her at this point she was really comfortable about telling me her life story and she asked if I could drive around some more or stop by a park so we can talk being the nice guy I said sure and then she asked another favor to buy her a pack of smokes and a few drinks I was 20 at the time and then she asked me to drive her to a cellphone company forgot the company's name to add more minutes to her temporary phone by this time I felt like a [ __ ] anyways I said I had to go back for dinner because it was getting late and she sorta hinted that she didn't want me to go low I insisted and I finally drove her back to her place then this Mexican guy comes out of the apartments who I believe to be her boyfriend and she says to me oh [ __ ] he's going to kill you but yeah I didn't care and he came up to my car she got out they hugged and he looked at me and said thanks my first time giving someone a ride FML second time I offered someone a ride was because I was over generous I work out late at the 24-hour Fitness gym usually around 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. I saw this guy leave at the same time as I was but he was carrying a suitcase so I shouted at him because he was pretty far in the parking lot do you need a ride now he turned around immediately and headed straight for me I felt a little happy thinking I was going to help someone out tonight he came up to my face and said are you gay you shouldn't be asking people if they need rights and he walked away there's more stories but these first two are probably the most mineral I also had to hitchhike when I hit a deer in Jasper and was 200 miles from civilization it was minus 30 out and I had no signal luckily a family stopped and drove me 200 miles to town otherwise I surely would have died overnight the guy turned out to be a Mountie I was in the car with my brother when we picked up a hitchhiker his name was Cameron was trying to get to the local bus stop to get on a bus to see his girlfriend I think he was 18 or so no complications whatsoever it was a five-minute car ride we just made some small talk after we dropped him off my brother said to him have a nice life I thought it was funny at the time but then I realized that I was never going to see that guy in my life again which is still a ridiculous idea to me whenever I think of it sorry mine isn't as interesting as some others spoke with a tourist I met here in Australia and he was telling me of two backpackers who decided to travel up north separately but by hitchhiking they would be picked up by random cars and trucks and sometimes the one would progress hundreds of kilometers ahead of the other while at other times they discovered they were in the same town there was even an instance where one had been given a ride in a semi-trailer and found his friend walking along a remote highway reunited yes I did it once and I'll never do it again I just got off of an 11 p.m. work shift and had to drive 15 minutes home I stopped at a gas station and a 30 - 35 year-old african-american male said he was stranded and needed a car ride back to his house to get money I knew the story sounded weird but I said hey what the hell let's help this guy out I had half a joint left and sparked it up and offered him some he took a hit with me and we continued on our way as we were driving - he was really fidgety and anxious he kept rubbing his leg back and forth and rubbing the back of his head as if he was waiting for something I thought to myself god damn it this guy is going to rob me my son was a few months old at the time and his rattle was rattling in his empty car seats in the back I told the guy about it and talked a little about my son the dude was making me nervous fight his body language I told myself I'd flip the truck over before he'd steal my [ __ ] I had my seat belt on and he didn't I ended up taking the guide to this neighborhood and he was looking at all these houses I kept asking if that's the one or not because the dude had me on high alert at this point just a weird situation anyway he asked me for some money so I gave him $10 I'm pretty sure he wanted to rob me by his behavior in the car I'd like to think between smoking him out my sons rattle making noises and me giving him $10 he changed his mind I still remember his face and looked for him on the news or newspaper never again will I give a stranger a ride home [ __ ] that on my road trip to LA from NJ I happened upon a hitchhiker he was old maybe 60 and walking in the middle of the desert in Texas he had no backpack no nothing just the clothes on his back I passed him at first but quickly slammed on my brakes and put it in reverse I figure an elderly man walking in the middle of the desert isn't looking to rob rape or kill anyone once I pulled over he began jogging toward my car but with a limp I could already see the damage the son had done to his unprotected face through my rear view mirror once he got in the car he immediately thanked me you could hear the desperation and dehydration in his voice I gave him a bottle of water and then asked where he was headed before I could finish my sentence he had finished the water he said he was headed to Phoenix to go back home to his wife he had this deep southern accent akin to Boone Hall from king of the hill since I had family in Gilbertson was headed that way to begin with I figure what's the big deal it was only going to be an extra hour of driving at first he was very short with answering the questions that I asked not that he was rude just exhausted when asked how many miles he had walked since his last ride he replied with relief only 60 years if expecting to walk 200 I had a McDonald's gift card that my girlfriend sent me for the road trip which I didn't consider using because McDonald's is a diarrhea factory and I wanted to make good time without having to [ __ ] on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere every five minutes but this guy looked like he hadn't had a meal in a day or two I pulled to the drive-thru of the next one I came across and asked him to order anything he liked he seemed to become more chipper and have more energy once the opiates from the cheese hit him and I must confess to the purchase of some French flies for myself after that McDonald's stop there were no more rest stops or gas stations for miles about two hours into the journey through the desert my car began to stall out looking at my quarter tank of gas I couldn't figure why my car was acting up before my road trip I had my uncle mechanic his whole life look over my car a fix everything that needed to be fixed change the fluids the whole nine I naturally had a GPS and ran a search for the nearest gas station which was twenty-two miles away trust me when I say my car sounded like it couldn't even make one more mile I immediately started going in the direction of the suggested route keep in mind there is nothing but deserts and mountains as far as the eye can see my car kept on put putting its way like those sickly cars will you see in cartoons at that moment I realized why getting cheap gas doesn't pay off in the long run clearly it was a bad mix and my car was trying to burn something that couldn't after stalling several times I eventually reached my destination and it was the smallest [ __ ] town I had ever seen the gas station was there just like the GPS said well at least what was ever left from the fire that hit it maybe about five months prior well while this is getting on my guest just kind of sat there quietly probably too nervous to say anything and fear of possibly adding to my frustration I stall again I get out and walk a little bit taking my keys of course I don't walk more than 50 feet before finding the first sign of life a man watering his pavement yes he was watering his pavement again small [ __ ] town in the middle of nowhere I asked if the gas station that burned down was the only one in town and to my delight it was not there was one more about a mile into town I got in my car and with a put-put putter my engine turned over and got me the rest of the way once I got to the gas station I loaded up on some snacks and drinks knowing I still had about ten hours of driving ahead of me by the way at the checkout in the gas station bar grocery store I asked the attendant how many people live in town he said three hundred and fifteen he knew the exact [ __ ] number they had a population smaller than my high school anyway having that old man hitchhiker in the car while all that was going on made it seem much more like an adventure it gave me a little more motivation to solve the problem rather than just calling triple-a don't really know why just did from that point on it was smooth sailing once we got back on the road we began to your color dance of finding a common musical interest that we can tolerate for the next 10 hours until we reach Phoenix I mainly enjoy music like justice and Kavinsky on these long road trips electro keeps me awake being the southern type he liked country I'd rather be raped lo and behold there was one group we both shared a common affinity for leave it to the Beatles with there only being about two hours left until we reached Phoenix I began to pry about why an elderly man such as himself was hitchhiking in the first place turns out he was younger than he looked he was 53 but man was his story sad having lost his job of twenty years as a janitor he moved to Tennessee to work at a construction site at his age I guess maybe due to budget cut about a third of their workers got shit-canned only after about seven months after the start of the project probably to be replaced by cheaper labor in these economic times I bet people would work for just about any wage he had no other choice but to head back home with his last check in hand he headed to the back to cash it in order to fund his trip back home with a good chunk of change in his pocket he purchased a Greyhound bus ticket and gave a call to his wife tell her he is on his way once the bus started to board tragedy struck two guys jumped him probably having seen his cash while he was paying for his ticket he put up a fight defending of course the only money he had left to his name only then to get stabbed twice in the chest he almost died and had to spend about a month in the hospital to recover without having any health insurance whatsoever he mocked of Bill I am sure in the thousands sidenote I raged when he told me about the fat [ __ ] security guard at Greyhound that just witnessed all this without doing a god anthing he showed me the scars on his chest the hospital kicked him out as soon as they could because [ __ ] the poor and destitute America rules his wife was volley making the rent certainly decided instead of burdening her with the cost of having to buy him a bus ticket he decided to hitch it from Tennessee to Texas only truckers picked him up and dropped him off at whatever rest stop they stumbled upon before diverting in a direction other than West I was the only passenger vehicle to stop for him I am glad that I picked up a hitchhiker it made me feel good doing something for a complete stranger in need for no reason other than for the common good just remember there are fucked-up people in this world people who will do bad things in the face of charity and kindness but there are also people who are just down on their luck looking for a ride home wherever that may be and for those of you who are wondering his name was Walter today you tomorrow me just makes my heart sing probably no one will read my story in a thread this size but I feel like telling it anyway I was driving home for Christmas from college once and about 30 miles from home at an intersection on the outskirts of a midsize town I saw what was unmistakably a body it lays some distance from the road on a snowy field motionless I pulled over walk to the edge of the road and called out hey are you okay not expecting an answer but I had no idea what to do I had no cell phone and it was quiet and freezing and I was alone as soon as I called out a head popped up out of the snow a dude dressed in a soldier uniform carrying a big rucksack starts running at me full tilt yelling ride ride I was thoroughly freaked but told him of course and he got in I cranked the heath to try to warm him up and we started down the road while he shook and shook it turned out he was heading for my tiny hometown where his wife was living but couldn't find any bus or train routes that directly connected to it it's really just a bump in the road he'd been out there in the cold for quite a while before getting too cold and tired to even stand a uniformed soldier couldn't get anyone to stop and get him a ride in winter on a rural road the only reason that made any sense although neither of us said it was because he was a very dark-skinned man in my home towns in a very white state it made me feel sad and ashamed I also felt ashamed because I was scared of him too I'd been in sketchy situations with dudes and every time I felt so stupid and now I was driving alone with a man who'd in a corpse in my mind just moments before I started to hear a true crimes narrator in my head saying her family was waiting for her by the Christmas tree but she was never seen again blah blah blah so I was scared and hating myself for being stupid and also hating myself for being scared just like every other jerk who'd left him there to freeze I started leaning heavier and heavier on the gas pedal and then out of nowhere there were police lights in my rearview pulling me over I was dumb enough to be relieved until the cop signed his light on us made a face and then shined his light on the soldier's bag where an open container of jacks at clearly visible I explained in my scared little white girl way that I didn't know it was there that I didn't know the man in my car but he'd been freezing by the road and I was just trying to get us both home and that [ __ ] went and wrote me a ticket then he drove off in the opposite direction instead of taking the Soulja home himself of following us on the desolate road to be sure everything was okay my internal monologue started right up again at 4:53 p.m. her vehicle was pulled over by Officer [ __ ] who observed a large male in her passenger seat dick head was the last person to see her alive now he's being sued by the grieving family for 1 billion dollars then I looked at the soldiers face and it was sadder and more scared than mine soon enough we get to my little town and I Drive him to his wife's house we've barely spoken but he takes out a fistful of cash and insists on paying for the ticket I started crying but he wouldn't let me give it back when I got to my family and tried to tell them what happened they just gave me that all too familiar you're too stupid to live look because obviously I'd narrowly escaped certain death by picking up a man who would have certainly been dead otherwise for the life of me I don't know why I told them I knew better I still stop when someone needs help and I've been lucky that people have always stopped for me I live 2,500 miles from my hometown now now in Oregon as a matter of fact we're Rona just become my favorite neighbor I don't know I didn't go back for holidays I like Christmas a lot more these days I live in Japan and I once picked up two guys hitch King they had come from Okinawa at the very southern end pitched all the way up to Hokkaido and were now hitching back when I dropped them off they gave me a candy bar and we posed for photos because they were collecting pictures of everyone who gave them lifts along the way this was kind of a paid forward thing for me because in Australia our Japanese exchange student got lost one time and some random guy picked him up and drove him to her house dropped him off and drove off again without ever saying anything this kid spoke no English either I used to pick up hitchhikers with my friend in his old beater car the key would slide out of the ignition when it was turned on it was so worn out so we used to pick people up give em a beer and converse until they asked where we were going then we told them that we just broke out of jail Nokia loss stole the car once a guy jumped out of the car at about 20 miles per hour he was so scared my room mate a straight-laced straight-a girl and I were at the college grocery one night at about 1:00 a.m. buying foodstuffs when a very skinny woman approached me she said she and her husband had their car repossessed in the lot and will I give them a right to their apartment about three miles away so I tell them sure let me finish up and I'll give them a ride my roommate was having none of it and was very upset I told her it's okay [ __ ] happens to people sometimes you should just be nice double-quote so we finish at the checkout get the bags and the people go to my car and drive them to the apartment they get out no harm done about two weeks later I'm back at the grocery with my roommate and the same woman with a different man comes up same story car repossessed etc I tell them sure I'll give you a ride just don't lie he's not your husband you use this line on me a couple of weeks ago I don't know what he is and I don't want to know but sure I'll do it she was taken aback and seemed surprised but accepts anyway again roommate is pissed again no incidents I suspect the woman was a prostitute and these were her John's but who am I to judge as long as they don't hurt anyone I didn't care for the past year I've tried to pull over when I see someone buy a broken-down car I don't drive much but I've probably pulled over about 15 times this past summer I was on my way back to school and saw a guy who was sitting in his car on the side of the road so I pull over to see if he needs any help he was broken down had no phone and was two hours from his home so I let him use my phone to call whoever he needed I've always thought that I wouldn't pick up a hitchhiker because I don't know what would happen but after he got off the phone I asked if he needed anything else and he asked for a right to the nearest gas station 20 minutes away I didn't even think about it and told him to get in the car if I had thought before answering I doubt I would have offered but I gave him a ride and no trouble came to me I felt terrible for the guy he was 25 and was already divorced and lived three hours from his kids so every other weekend he drove three hours in his early 90s piece-of-shit car to see his kids I knew he hated his life except for his kids good god I could tell he loved his kids I can only hope that someday I'm as loving of a father as he is I used to give rides but I have since stopped after one crazy encounter I picked up this young white dude who was probably around 20-25 on the outskirts of Memphis heading south I was on my way home from work so it was late in the afternoon I typically stopped on the way home and got a 6-pack from time to time I'd crack open a cold one for the ride since it was a better part of an hour the young man said he had been hitching since California and was on his way to his sister's in Florida with a job lined up at Disney I asked him how his journey had been thus far to which he started in on why he left California this is also when I realized this dude was batshit crazy and I needed to drop him off sooner rather than later he tells me how his wife cheated on him with a lawyer and eventually left and divorced him for said lawyer after the wife lawyer team cleaned him out he decided to get the [ __ ] out of California as the lawyer was using his connections to try and get dude thrown in jail then he described how the lawyer had hired privatized and other non savory types to try and entrap him as he crossed the country he even said a one-man whirlybird had followed him across most of Arkansas and he had to travel at night to avoid being spotted by it the further he got into the story the more agitated he seemed to become it was troubling to say the least I always carried a pistol in my truck and it was easily within reach but I figured my best bet to avoid being stabbed by this dude was stood out crazy him I cracked open a brew offered him one and started with my story I was making up as I went I told him I knew how he must feel having been cheated on I went on that I had been out of the joint for about six months and was adjusting well he asked me what I was in for and I told him I'd gotten really drunk blacked out and when I came to I had went crazy with a box cutter on my ex and the dude she was cheating on me with he got really quiet and didn't really say anything else until we got to my town I dropped him off at the truck stop near the interstate and never saw him again TL DR out-crazied a hitchhiker and most likely won't be picking up another one I have I picked up a guide down in Dayton and drove him 30 miles north he smelled funny but was nice he was telling me about this driver in Tennessee who purposely hit him with their car he had a huge gash on his arm that look Naldi as chance would have italia had recently got a piercing so I had a tube of neosporin with me it wasn't much that I gave it to him when I dropped him off I was a tad nervous picking up an older male hitchhiker since I am a female and at the time I was maybe 19 but I am glad I did it when I was younger my mom brought home two hitchhikers and they stayed with us for a few days so maybe its genetic I picked up some guy by my school once who needed a ride to his apartment about 10-15 mins away not really as cool a story as yours but he needed to get back to his apartment because his brothers kids were being dropped off there by a bus and he would have missed them otherwise he ended up talking to me about how DNA is like a programming language I'm a software engineering major and like all programming languages someone needs to give it meaning for it to do anything that's why he believed in God someone had to give the N a meaning or else it wouldn't do anything at all I thought it was a pretty interesting concept though I still don't believe in God [Music]

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Id: q2kzNjpKL8Q

Length: 58min 23sec (3503 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019