As some of you may know, my kids had a week away during the school holidays, and my partner is off being a wandering minstrel...

so I decided to take a leaf out of 'Even Cowgirls Get The Blues' and run away from home, and hitch hike to wherever I ended up.

I had the best four days!

I met an elderly (76 year old) Canadian man who made his home here in Australia 40 years ago...he had some wonderful tales to tell of his childhood in Saskat-chewan (sp?)...and we spent a lovely hour or so chatting...

Next came a really cool truck driver (who is fast becoming a great friend)..who was off to Sydney...(THAT was tempting..but I only had 4 days in total)...we yakked and laughed and sang for three hours, and he dropped me at a highway exit near to where I have a multitude of hippy friends I could bombard...

Next came an executive nerdy kind of guy who plays the saxaphone, and writes children's books...way cool!...he dropped me right where I was going to....perfect.

So all in all three different people...three lovely people whom I would have found most interesting even if I had met at a social gathering.

Four days wandering up and down the coast (a 50 km radius)with my friends, visiting a couple of multiple occupancy communities....singing, drumming, laughing, playing, marketing at the local markets, painting a canvas at the local markets with my friends... and generally raising hell....

then homeward bound...

I met this older man who had just parted ways with his wife of 36 years, and was off to Indonesia to help out after the earthquakes... he drove me to the highway...and got me around this giant smash...backroads..(should have been a bit scary and worrying...but I am too trusting or stooopid to bother getting all skeered)..
Then this guy my age.... a hoot! A dad of 4 kids same age as mine, been happily married for 26 years... looooves his wife to bits... and we swapped kid stories for an hour.

Next came a 59 year old retired concretor, off to go fishing for the weekend, out wide...worried about the potential of a tsunami after the indo earthquakes...a great and loving grandaddy and happily married to his wife for 40 years!

He dropped me in a great spot for the last leg of my trip home, and blow me down! There's my neighbours! Who dropped me all the way home to my door.

A 5 hour journey that was filled with wonderful people and wonderful stories...

and I would never have known if I hadn't taken a risk...

and if they hadn't stopped to pick up this mad woman on the side of the road.

Sometimes Randomness and Risks...are exactly what the doctor ordered!

Wow! What a grand adventure! Not many people have the guts to take a trip like this. You Rock!

It was TS....blew the doldrums right out the door!

The truck driver has since called in here for a meal, and a sleep on his way back south, and I suspect we will see more of him....a great new friend in the making!


People are just people.... if we see them with suspicion and paranoia...they will see us the same way...

I see the world full of potential new friends...and that is what I get.

Girl......you have some big Kahunas!!! Glad you had fun.

I once picked up some hitchhikers whom I THOUGHT were walking away from a broken down car on the highway. Turns out they were just released from jail for theft from some old lady. They sat in the back of my convertible smoking cigs and telling jail stories. My friend that was with me was about to have a cow as her purse was sitting in the backseat between them! I dropped them off a short while later and nobody was worse for the wear, but I really never did that again.

Yeah, Heather, the truck driver had some wild stories to tell about hitch hikers...

I pick them up whenever I see them.... however it is either a couple or a single person I pick up...

and most times they have been normal sane people, or international visitors...a few have been struggling a little with mental health challenges, but were harmless enough....nothing a nice hot bath couldn't fix...

Maybe things are different here in Australia...I dunno.... but it's something I have done since I was 15....and is a part of who I am.... if I can travel all over this amazing country and meet amazing people.... why wouldn't I?

No fuel costs, no extra car on the road... a lighter footprint, and some great memories.

That sounds great Jess..what an adventure. How grand to have the opportunity to take the time for yourself and this "road trip"...
new friends, old and new sights..
wonderful !!

wow Jess that sounds great reminds me of my ols hippie days hitchiking all over the country!!

Yeah...I'm still a bit of a hippy... Mikey.

A product of the 'free loving' days....it's inherant I think.

It is not something we are led to believe is safe to do anymore....

but then really....more people die driving cars on highways than people hitch hiking on them.

We women need time out for us... to recharge and be 'topped up' ready for our families....

If only most people understood that doing things for one's self, is a kindness to the whole family.

Hey you ... you/me you!

Once AGAIN! ... We are so very similar! ...

My past in the US was closing my practice for 4 month summers, and hittin' the road in my truck w/ my bird dog.

I'd follow all the beautiful rivers through our incredibly sublime National Forest Preserves, which are all free camping, unlike our overly commercial (albeit breathtakingly beautiful!) Ntl Parks. This went on a near decade.

Amazing! The times I had and the folks I met, all through the states and Canada ... such fun, peace and inspiration! ... For years! ... I covered this land ...

Then? I repeated the on-the-road life all through Europe, on the trains instead this time. I lived all about Europe and Turkey too. A decade all in all.

As you saw by my million dollar wish, I'm itchin' to get back in the fluid movement of bein' on the road/water again.

.. L'chaim ... to life and THE journey ...

Daughter is 11 now ... it IS gettin' closer, can feel it breathin' down my back ...

You go for me/you, until I can get my show on down the line again you/me...

Ooooh lovely....

my youngest child is 12.... and so they are stolen moments...can't stop the gypsy adventurer in me.... just have condensed adventures for now...and yes...

only so many years left to go until the little one is independent...the eldest will be 30... and it will be my time again..




meet you in the middle, Love.

... On my way!...

VERY cool! I kind of envy that kind of trusting freedom. Had a neighbor get killed by a hitchhiker...(stabbed n robbed) so that kind of ended that kind of thing for me......Ironically...anytime I have ever found myself broken down on the side of the road...people always stop to give me a lift.

My brother picked up a guy enroute from San Diego California to Texas...turned out to be a college professor..doing a social experiment...hitching across the U.S and back...my brother brought him all the way to Texas...he was a cool fellow...kind of thought he was out of his friggen gourd though....

Still....I miss the days when you could just jump into a strangers car or load up some stranded soul and enjoy the ride.

I'm a force of nature!

My force field is so strong, it's the bubble of delusional flippancy...

and ONLY really cool peoples pick me up.

Craig my new truck driver friend, said he knew exactly where I was 10 kms back up the road...he reckons the radio went nuts...

That's completely awesome, Jess!! I did a lot of hitch hiking in my teens. Lots of fun!!

Well I must say I have never been one to hitch hike and sure would not consider it now days. But have to admit it is so kewl that where you live you can be that free and enjoy life as you do.... Love to hear about your adventures you truly need to make a journal if you don't already of all your adventures......

I scribble in my journal from time to time...and one day when some archeologist digs it up....they will think it's fiction!

I guess I am staunchly refusing to be a 'groan' up....

I much prefer the peter pan life...

i like chocolate milk. ;p

I love your stories ... I am less brave though ... can I start out with hitchhiking around your neighbourhood?

I really do think things are different in Australia and you are very lucky to be able to have such a great time and meet the people you did.

In the US it's really not a wise choice to hitch hike, many bad stories, scarey.