Hitchin stories

We left Baton Rouge at 7 am, bound for Starkville, Mississippi, 5 hours away, and got some fun rides...

Our second ride had ritually bonded himself to his ouija board in a ceremony of blood. We saw the scars! It subsequently told him he was the right hand of Satan. He was pretty ok overall though, not as crazy as that makes him seem... his girlfriend was with him, and they gave us an alligator claw on a keychain. They were out of gas money, trying to get to Florida. We gave them $5 and wished them luck.

The next dude that picked us up seemed so everyday that I immediately felt that I was speaking with the country America. This made the whole set of conversations really entertaining for me. We found out he was an oilman, but that he had been unemployed for several months. Oil work was good money, but you were unemployed every now and then, and he never could figure out how to save up. He argued a lot with his wife -- a "fiery" half latina. Really nice guy, drove us an hour out of his way.

He dropped us off an hour before dark. We were 100 miles south of where we wanted to be -- and the storm clouds were gathering -- but on a road where all traffic was bound for there. We hitched furiously but the sun set and the clouds opened. We were in a real bind. Hitching after dark is impossible. We pitched the tent and tossed our stuff in.

Unfortunately, Kat's boyfriend had taken a tarp out of Kat's backpack before we left, and we didn't have enough rain cover. It rained and thundered and lightninged fiercely for hours. At one point there was a small stream running under my body, and the low end of our tent had a four-inch-deep puddle. We were in ponchos, so our chest was dry, but our legs and arms were soaked through.

Even as we lay there trying to sleep, I wasn't really miserable. There was something pretty meditative about it. And funny too. Hey, did I mention we hadn't eaten since noon? We hadn't eaten since noon. Oops. I slept a bit, then woke up shivering at 3. Then I was really miserable.

We packed and started hitching at 7 am. It was bitterly cold and windy and nobody picked us up. That day just sucked until 3 pm. We got dropped off at a Mennonite bakery and ate delicious cornbread. We were in serious danger of missing our 6 pm show so we called our Starkville host and asked if we could pay him to pick us up, which he did. (Thanks, Ricky and McRae!) Next up: Starkville.