Lone Pine to Los Angeles

[nibot]

We hitchhiked all the way across the Mojave today, four rides from our campsite in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine to my grandparents' house in Camarillo, completing our hitchhiking tour of US-395, Bridgeport to Los Angeles.

The first car to pass us on our hike out of the hills gave us a lift. The driver, coincidentally enough, was "Rochester born and raised." The couple described themselves as "vagabonds, gypsies, or wanderers, whatever you want to call us," camps in the high desert for the summer, Yuma for the winters, gets by by selling toy binoculars and telescopes, refers to their friends by CB handles ("some because they are hiding, us just because it's fun"), dropped us off at the town library.

Thirty minutes thumbing from the sidewalk in central Lone Pine got us a ride with Lee in his old Ford Ranger XLT to Olancha, more just a highway juncture than any municipality, with a downtown consisting of exactly a Mobil station and a beef jerky stand and an icky hot spring (not visited on this trip) aptly known as "dirty sock." There on the highway with the hot wind whipping through and the traffic zipping along without so much as casting a sympathetic glance, I thought we might be there for a while. Out of the high desert, it was hot and I couldn't help but think of the crazed hitchhiker in Fear and Loathing. You have to keep the faith when hitchhiking, it will work, it's just a matter of time.

I held a sign that simply said, "LA." It wouldn't do to get halfway there, get stuck in the morass of LA that's spilled over the hills. One driver got out to take our picture; she was going North anyway, she explained. After an hour all the rides came all at once. We turned down two rides who weren't going all the way to Los Angeles, who were turning West at Tehachapi, one car a single woman who looked like she was commuting to work, the other a foreign-accented family off to Sequoia.

We waved off that car with thanks-but-no-thanks, and then there was another car waiting there as if from no where. "Burbank," the driver said when I asked where he was going in a little, I don't know, Honda Accord perhaps. This was that promised car you have to keep up the faith for, going exactly the right place and with air conditioning. "Really? Via highway 14?" "Yup." We nestled our backpacks on the back seat next to his hung-up button-down shirts and were happily on our way. We'd gotten out of Olanacha after all. The driver kept us smiling as two hundred odd miles rolled by with tales of adventure. That Yugoslav freighter he happened to be aboard during the Cuban Misile Crisis. The time he hopped freight trains across the country, Bakersfield to New Jersey on $20. The year he lived in Tangiers. The best part of hitchhiking has been the people we've met.

Tomorrow: Amtrak through Los Angeles to Orange County.

Comments

[cassiusdio.livejournal.com]

I think it's awesome that hitchhiking is still doable these days. I bet it helps a lot that you were hitching as a couple, rather than just a single person. No matter how you look, if you're by yourself people are more inclined to think you could be really wacky or dangerous. Did you end up paying anybody for rides or was it totally free?

I'm envious, wish I could be out on the road like you guys!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a female who travels solo by hitchhiking. I've been doing it for ten years with no problems. Sure, a few people think I'm a weirdo or suspect the worst, but I rarely wait longer than 30 minutes for a ride, and I turn down plenty.

didn't mean to be anonymous

[erinmack.livejournal.com]

sorry, that was me

[paisleychick.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful adventure!!!! Even as we're on our own adventure, I'm jealous of you and your courage. Have a wonderful trip and as my dad keeps on saying to me: be aware. ;-)

[aepfelx.livejournal.com]

wow, you people rock. i had _almost_ decided to hitchhike my way back from LA to the bay area this week when i found out i need to drag my car down here with me to haul stuff north. good to hear it's still reasonably doable though.

any hints for getting from a center of a metropolis out to somewhere rural enough for people not to recoil for hitchhikers? (not that you had this problem =))

[nibot.livejournal.com]

We took the train (Amtrak) from Oakland to Modesto where we stayed with my uncle and his family. The next morning he was kind enough to drive us out to the outskirts of town, where highway 120 heads up into the hills. Our last ride took us all the way into the city, and we met my grandparents at Mission San Fernando. Getting in and out of the metropolis is the hard part. In Mexico we took random little busses. Here I think the train will get you most of the way. You might have to wait a while at a rest stop or gas station to get the first ride. Then I think US-101 or CA-1 should be easily hitchhikable.

[nanomonkey.livejournal.com]

Are you going to be in Oakland again any time soon? I'd still really like to meet you in person. I also have an extra bed if you need it.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I was just there. I should have announced our trip more loudly. We're flying out of southern California in a few days. But I'll surely be back! It'd be great to meet up.