The first two guys who picked us up, were headed to class at Montclair State. They were sipping some store bought coffee, in paper cups. They perked up when we said we were headed to the West coast. We were in age, their contemporaries; except they were jersey boy, college commuters, and apparently stuck in their parent's houses, in north jersey. They were facing some grim summer jobs.
They dropped us off at their exit in Paterson. We nailed another ride quickly.
This ride was a young woman of 24 going to work in Parsippany. She too, appeared a little commuter sleepy, and from where I sat, her hair was still wet from her shower. She told me, I looked like one of her brothers. She dropped us off, and BAM!, two blue collar guys in coveralls picked us up next, and they were headed to a job in Stanhope, just past Lake Hopatcong. These guys fired up a joint, and it was only 9 a.m. God bless the working man.
They passed it back to us, and we too were "flying the kite" We were so excited, answering their questions as to where we were headed. The driver continued west to their time clock. Rock music boomed on their car radio. We were rocking out on a sunny morning, on Interstate 80.
There is honor among the hitchhiking society, and from what I hear, with hobos. At the next exit, there was a large graded, grassy hill on the northern side of Route 80. Unfortunately, there were 4 individuals hitch-hikers ahead of us. When you are hitching, say on an entrance ramp, whoever gets there first, has the spot closest to the inbound traffic. If we would start hitching in front of them, nearest to the oncoming traffic, we could easily be hit with stones or a good sized stick.
We took up the 5th position way down the road, head nodding a stoned hello to these cats. We looked pretty clean cut, almost collegiate, next to these guys. After a half hour, and no one being picked up, we hiked up the hill, or knoll, and laid back in the sun. I fell asleep for maybe 30 minutes, and so did Bob.
When I awoke, I was a little disoriented. That was some potent stuff we inhaled with the blue collar guys. We scrambled down the hill and now, we had Route 80 to ourselves. In five minutes, we had another ride, this time a real estate guy headed to Pennsylvania to look at some property. He took us through the last miles of western NJ. I used to go to Boy Scout camp up hear in a village near Blairstown.
The milestones for me on this trip were "natural" and geographical. I had accumulated in my mind what the Mississippi or Missouri rivers looked like. For a history buff, Samuel Clemons had shown me the currents and soundings beneath iconic paddle wheelers in 1883. Lewis and Clarke described immense buffalo herds and trading with native Americans in 1806. What exactly would the Rocky Mountains look like? I had never seen a desert or the Golden Gate bridge. My excitement was off the charts. Bob said he had to visit Disneyland!
This Delaware Water Gap is so very pretty, anytime of year.
Today is was clear and sunny, like this photo.
We were now over the Delaware River in three hours, and into the Poconos of Eastern Pennsylvania. Our driver dropped us off just outside of White Haven, PA. A few minutes later we nailed a big ride. A late model Plymouth stopped and in it was a balding, middle aged Italian guy who checked us both out, and then asked us if "we could drive for him". You bet your ass we could drive.He was headed to Cleveland, and had to be there for an appointment around 6 or 7 pm. He said in an accent: "I would love to get us to Cleveland in time for dinner!"
His car had a big engine, and it was an automatic. He let me have the wheel, In fact, he gave us the front seat and he climbed in the back and said "Wake me when we need gas". I got in the driver seat, and cautiously opened it up to about 80, and maybe 95 on a few stretches.
He assured me to drive fast, saying: "I will pay any tickets you get, just make sure you get me there in time. "
With that assurance, he was soon snoring away. Funny how wearing seat belts was just not happening in 1974. I drove 350 miles in just about five hours. We stopped once for gas and he made a few phone calls.
He never said what he was doing in Cleveland, and we didn't ask more after he said "business" and settled back down for a nap. As we crossed the Ohio state line, mostly Ohio license plates dominated the traffic. Just below Cleveland, Route 80 and Route 90 merge as one. The clouds were getting thicker, the afternoon grew darker, it was now overcast as we were moving into some spring thunderstorms. He dropped us off in a rest station, we thanked him and hit the rest room.
Cleveland
It was now about 7:30 pm, and we had our third state in the hopper for the day. We had intentions of pushing it, stay on the road and hitching through the night. Sleeping in a hotel was out of the question, That scenario would be for some candy asses. We could smell rain, and we walked out towards the two exits of the rest station, One left the rest stop and the other was out by the gas pumps. I left Bob near the inside and thought it would be brighter under some streetlights and win us a ride before the rain.
Bob worked the one inside lane, closer to the restaurant and I worked a lane coming out of the other exit. We were about 60 feet apart, like we were flyfishing on a roaring stream.
A purple VW Bug downshifted, and a hippy looking guy rolled down his window and I smiled at his long hair and leathery sweatband. I asked: "Are you by any chance, headed west this evening?" "Yes, I heading to Yellowstone" he smiled.
"Got room for two?"
"You bet"....
I yelled frantically to Bob, who had seen the conversation and was bumping into me trying to get in the VW. "You won't believe this, He's going to Yellowstone!"
We pushed the front passenger seat forward, and I reached in the back, and handed Bob an inflated spare tire taking up much of the back. I jumped in the back, and Bob handed me back the greasy rim, I shoved my pack, his blue duffel bag over me, behind the driver. ""Go!" yelled Bob, as he jumped in the front, and the driver shifted like a bandit and we were back on the road on a stormy April night.
As the rain came down, We were racking up miles but still no where we wanted to be.
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