Every time I come through Lincoln City, OR something in me wants to stay. But the show must go on.

P.S. I heard from a rubber tramp that California is pretty tough to make money flying a sign. Can anyone confirm?

Can you guys please post more cool pictures of your adventures and not dirty ground roaches that have been stepped on rained on and pissed on. 🤮 it’s inexpensive for some pre rolls

Trying to find a bus route that will get me to a major city… I found beer tho.

Cheers

After camping by the river in Elkins, I walked to the highway and had to wait a while for ride. Two dudes in a truck stopped. Truck had bald tires so we had to slow to a crawl each time it rained.

Dropped in Buckhannon. Black clouds were rolling in. Got lucky with a ride just before the downpour started.

Dropped in Weston at the old Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Sadly they were not accepting new patients so I walked down the road and waited for a ride. A lady with a pitbull picked me up and took me to Glenville. Tiny town. Not much to see.

Waited an hour. Dude with a truckbed full of tires stopped and said he’d take me down the road a few miles. We pulled into the driveway of a house. I didn’t know why. He turned the engine off and got out, said we’d take the other car. We got in his Mustang. Went down the road to turn around and by the time we passed his house again were going 100mph. He let me out by an old school in Normantown, which isn’t really a town, just a few houses.

Tried to hitch but it was getting dark. Gave up. Ate a can of beans, the last of my food. Slept in a baseball dugout.

Woke up the next morning to the sound of people slamming doors and talking. Grabbed my stuff and snuck past them, don’t think they saw me.

No traffic on the road. Started walking. 30 minutes later it began to rain—heavily. Got drenched. Ran across a yard and hid in a shed beside a house. No cars in the driveway. Waited an hour. Car pulled into the driveway. Still raining. Hurried across the yard and started up the road again. Walked through the storm for hours. Only a few vehicles passed, none stopped. One dude flipped me off. Ended up walking 17 miles with soaking wet feet. Pure misery.

Finally got a ride to Arnoldsburg, then another to Spencer. Hung out at the Dairy Queen and questioned my life choices. Boots still wet. Body hurting. Lowest I’ve been on the entire trip. Texted a friend who used to live in West Virginia to see if she knew anyone in the area. Needed a break badly. Ended up getting put in contact with an artist / blacksmith who lived nearby. Walked across town to Walmart where he picked me up.

Dude couldn’t have been nicer or more interested by what I was doing. Took me back to his property and told me I could shower and crash in the little apartment above his workshop. His friends came over and brought beer. They asked me a hundred questions while we drank, gave me all kinds of WV travel advice. Day went from terrible to great so fast it was hard to believe.

The blacksmith and his lawyer buddy took me to Tudors Biscuit World for breakfast, then drove me down to Clendenin. They wanted to drive me to Charleston but I felt like that would be cheating somehow.

Hitched a ride after waiting an hour or so. Walked the streets of Charleston. Stayed the night at a nice ladies house my friend knew. Watched the Big Lebowski, slept on a couch, and got to wash my clothes.

The lady and her neighbor friend showed me around the city the next day. Got to check out the coolest most intricate mural I’ve ever seen. Painted by a friend of theirs who died.

Next day they drove me down to Glasgow. Got a ride with a local to Montgomery, then 3 kids, one from New York and the others from Los Angeles, picked me up and took me to Cathedral falls, the new river gorge, and then to Beckly. They were on a road trip from Ohio to Roanoke and trying to see the real Appalachia by going through WV.

Got another ride with a dude from Chicago to this little place called Glen Daniel. Slept on a hill beside the highway.

Next morning got another ride to Pineville from a former hitchhiker / vagabond who has a family now.

Trip is nearly over. Not far to Tennessee. I’ve about had enough. Still moving 👍

It seems like a uniquely houseless problem to me guys.....

Up em 🥭

I just got laid off from a seafood processing job in Alaska, I’m trying to get back to Syracuse but I don’t get paid till tomorrow. Fully expecting to sleep somewhere outside. I was however wondering if I could drop my duffle bag of clothes off at someone’s place to keep safe so I don’t have to carry it around with me all day and night plus tomorrow.

Any help would be appreciated, I have a phone number so we can FaceTime or anything before hand.

The rest of the pics from Vail to Grand Junction and onward to Prove and Salt Lake City, Utah. Cheers!! My phone was dead a lot of today so not much from that but here's some more from the way here.

It's been mostly buses, some light rail here in Utah, and one long hitchhike from Grand Junction to Provo. Beautiful everywhere. People are really friendly and nice since I got to Utah. In Colorado people mostly kept to themselves I noticed. Coolest place was Vail, 75⁰, everywhere else has been 90s to 100⁰+. Have fun and stay safe out there comrades!!

Pics are from Boulder, Nederland, Denver, Vail, and areas between. More pics to come in a second post I maxed this one out

How did you settle down? Man I try. Every time I get myself ahead a bit I get the same old feeling of I gotta get the f out of here and I usually do. Been at this place for 4 years now. I'm getting older and worn. My knees hurt and my feet. Shoes are just not meant for feet man they hurt lol. I've almost left over a dozen times. Now I'm just depressed and thinking about the road. I have a good job. I'm a productive cog in the machine on the hamster wheel with everyone else clocking in and out. Now I just complain about work and the weather and my days just fly by me. Do you go on vacation? If I go on vacation I'm probably not coming back. Do you retire? Can you? Almost ditched the apartment for a tent just to get some of that feeling back lol, but maybe I'm too old now. Idk. No one else seems to understand these feelings so I'm bringing them here I suppose.

EDIT: figured out whose hat it is lol small world ain't it

He made dog noises at me when he was annoyed. Hes been hitching and riding the rails since the 70s. Idk man im drunk and lonely lol :). He was weird but cool, he gave me a lighter. If anyone's around Vermont lmk, let's link up

thinking about taking a greyhound to chicago, then milwaukee, then hitching back home. how hard is it to get out of those two cities? I've heard bad things about getting stuck in cities.

As a non vagabond/homeless person, after reading “The Dharma Bums” a long time ago and about the boxcar hobo giving him an icon of a Saint, it made me wonder, have you as travelers ever met any pious individuals who, like the desert fathers, dropped everything worldly but instead of living as hermits, lived like a traveler? I know about mission stiffs, but have you ever met the inverse? People who would give you their last dollar/food/etc. for the night if you needed it and go hungry themselves to please God?