# '75 VW Vanagon with some goat farmers



## Deleted member 2626 (Jan 18, 2016)

So, i had intended to meet up with my buddy who had left Pennsylvania a few weeks before me out west( this was a few months ago now too). he was boogying getting good rides with truckers and I ended up putzing around like I do, motels, chilling in my tent due to rain and general lack of knowing what i really wanted to do. Any how, mother dropped me off at a Sheetz gas station in Gettysburg, PA right off route 15, after some heated arguments that always go on with my mom and me. I ducked around back and grabbed some cardboard and made my sign while my mutt wandered a field and did his thing. Out on fifteen I saw no sign, that all experienced hitchers are familiar with, and started walking; starting to feel pretty soberly good. I smile while turning backwards as cars pass. I am confident it was the first vehicle to come down the ramp, a stupid lifted pick up towing something. what response do I get from this piece of shit human, a direct middle finger exquisitely pointed at my face from a mean mugging faced kid. what do I do in my sometimes inability to let stupid things go, flick him off in return. But at the same time i didn't get worked up and continued tramping; knowing full well the rocket downs and ups of travel. I and the unleashed dude are walking on the shoulder when up ahead a car that passed us stops and an older couple stops and waves us. We run up quickly and work on loading my alice and kid sized geetar. The lady falls on the edge of the berm and doesn't want a hand getting up but was cool about it. they were awesome people, who even in their 60's had spent that past few days camping in tents! they take me into maryland a bit and leave on a busier exit headed south. I pick up a good friendly ride with a cool ass rednecky dude and make it to North of Winchester, VA (where me and a buddy and my pooch had walked to, from chambersburg, pa a few years back). again, dropped at a corporate sheetz. Fuck them. They are destroying small business a lot of places around Pennsylvania and so forth. A person, gives us a small bag of dog treats which I grab before the guy wants to hand feed my dog, as he is a little snippy after being fed and lays claim to things quickly. And so it goes.
We start walking. I am feeling great. Its perfect weather, pack feels light and my dog is gallivanting along sweetly and smiling. it just felt blissful to walk. I pick up change as I go and smile. I walk awhile and am headed up a hill and a truck pulls into a church and a guy walks towards me. i wave and he hands me a gift card to McDonald's and Subway. Right on! Onward Ho!
We walk, and walk and walk. Sometimes I just don't wanna stop and always say, up here I will and then make it to another visual goal. Im pass things I have seen before and a dude with a gal and kid in a dodge pick us up without hitching. Truck bed ride yeehaw! he drops us at a gas station where we had gotten a ride out of before. har har. I eat and get a tea or something, same for pooch, and ramble on. This next section wore us out and we get to the corporate out skirts of Winchester and stop at a McDonald's to partake in the gift card.
Get a kickdown on the way walking and head out of the corporate area and continue south to get picked up yet again by a wilder dude in a white, tag expired older pick up. Im in the bed again and he stops for a tall can. then says he'll hook me up right to get me on track and out of Winchester before dark. I never thought it a bad town as he so did. He takes us to Middletown, Va. He buys another tall boy and I snag two for the night in my tent, soon to be. We hike through the small town, trick-r-treat night. Trying to avoid any large crowds of people and kids, the misanthrope I can really be at times. Tried finding some spots on the edge of town but end up not and finding a giant field, right on the edge of an old Civil War battlefield. pretty wild. I set up my tent, feed the pooch and chill outside it with my first can a bit. The night ends sweetly with beer, headlamp reading of Sigurd Olson and pattering rain.

Continue later if I remember.


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## creature (Jan 19, 2016)

O man..

if you ever get to south Boston, VA, i know a place in a nearby hamlet (Nathalie) where you could probably crash for a while, if yer dog is cool with other dogs..

the place can be a bit of a black hole, but if yer down for spending some time essentially off grid (just 1 extension cord powers the house), it might be a decent adventure..

hit me up if yer looking to hang, otherwise Good Journeys, always, buddy..


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## Deleted member 2626 (Jan 19, 2016)

I love Virginia man. Always had pretty good times and people there. And he's a little fishy too. He's a misanthrope dog as well I believe. Because it is usually just us. But i always figure dogs figure it out. Maybe come fall. I am thinking this summer on a pack critter finally and walking south for winter possibly. just an idea. i'm done with corporate america and don't even want to rely on hitching anymore kinda. . .

I love checking out my surroundings after finding a crash site in the dark. a giant old farm house two hundred yards away and one other house across the road over a hundred yards away. I slept in due to rain. I wake up and make a warmish cup of instant on me pocket rocket and then lean back on my Alice and read again. One reason as well why I kinda of fell in love with it after a buddy gave it to me. They are some fucking tough back packs. though a bit heavier but pretty good packs. We pack up the wet Eureka, I crush my cans AND PUT THEM IN MY PACK TO PACK OUT> NOT LEAVE IN MOTHER EARTHS GRASP> And start tramping down 11 South. It becomes desolate as we walk in misty moistness right past the Cedar Creek Battlefield. i was hoping for some kind of ghostly experience that night but to no a do. I hitch every car and don't even get a look. Now starts the kind of pissy-ness that finds me sometimes. We put some miles on in scattered spritzes of rain. With hitching no rides is normal but what usually gets me heated is no one even looks or just a fucking smile or hand wave can change a mind set. We are almost out of water too. I cross a creek and thought of filtering some but didn't. Here comes a gnarly hill. We trudge up it. And the pack begins to feel heavy.
Almost to the top. I stop and me and the dude polish off my military 2L canteen and I smoke a hand rolled. I love my felt hat but damn it is warm and I expose my sweaty balding head. A fancy car-which I hate stops and a trying to appear younger than actuality, woman stops and tosses us a 20. What? "I can't give you ride but feed your dog." "Oh thank you mam." Perking of the mentality.
We barely get started again, if we even did and an older Explorer driven by a sweet black man stops and says his wife sent him back. Skip of dialogue. He takes us up to 81 (11 and 81 run pretty parallel Penn. till Tenn.) and to a truck stop. Up there I get a sub and oj with the gift card, and a midget made my sub and fly my hitching sign. I hit up two hipster looking kids who are fully loaded driving to Arizona. they give me 5 bucks all in change haha anyhow as they were too full for us. Awesome dudes they were. We go to the exit. despite my hatred for highways, figuring if no rides, 11 is right there and we'll walk again. A cop passes me and doesn't even look over. Sometimes its luck or my appearance which isn't punk or crust(nothing against it but it helps to be in Dickies and a flannel and felt hat sometimes I think) and just as he passes an older couple again picks us up in the pick up and I ride down the highway to Woodstock in the bed and get a piece of wood in my eye. They drop us at a gas station where I ask the Indian dude if I save money on coffee by using my own cup and he totally amused at my fire scorched cup thinking its just dirt.
Our next ride comes rather quickly again, as i scratch at my eye. Gotta love good ole Virgaaania. We cram my back in with her two kids and my 70 pound dog sits on my lap. they are headed to church and feels the need to help people which her religion calls for. A little genuine decency. thanks to @creature for again reminding me of my love for Virginia. She takes us like ten miles and drops us at the end of the entrance to the exit. I decide to tuck my shirt in for some reason to hitch. I feel fucking great and amuse myself watching the dozens of yellow snails crawling around. Doing all i can to avoid hurting any, the life lover of nature I am.
Continue?


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## creature (Jan 20, 2016)

this thread is absolutely great, man..
& yer writing is fucking awesome..

a lot of life detail stuff i'm dealing with at the moment..

hope i get to post a decent follow up..

but man, if you have more on yer story, it's been an absolutely great read, so far..

thanks!


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## Deleted member 2626 (Jan 21, 2016)

I'm in the mind state of bliss I get sometimes from nature and freedom or a much needed motel-tired and cold or wet. This older guy in a single cab Colorado passes with some ackowledgement, then only minutes later, comes from the same way he had, to hit the highway and stops down the exit a bit. He is kind of in the way for other cars, as a lot of people do when picking hitchers up and waves me down quickly, rushing. I scram over and tosss my pack and guitar in and tie my dude to the frame of my pack and we are off. He had double taked because going dow the highway he discovered his burger had no burger, just bun. HAHA . He is headed to some dirt track race further than my intentions, as I have found a discounted motel coupon for Motel 6 and am going there. He gets us there, my dog's thick fur blowing in the wind going 70 down the highway. He drops me off in Harrisonburg- college town- and I go to the Motel 6. Wrong motel for the coupon. Fuck it, I had work funds and get the still 50 dollar room. Good food around and beer and it was a good excuse to dry out my soaked tent and rain fly. Do as we do, little day drinking, Taco Bell, dumpstering and walking around. Met a tramp couple with a dog headed to almost exactly where I had left in Pennsylvania for court. The next day I walked the 2 miles into downtown Harrisonburg. It was a neat little town, met a guy who had gotten out of prison that day, walked by the college dorms and university and right out of there. Read across the road from a Wendy's and some dude came over with a meal and then right after an older guy gave me some money. Virginia. Get the original Motel I had planned the next day, and the next day before even hitching,not even to the exit, sign in arms I get a ride. Italian dude from NYC. Drops me off where hgihways split, no exit, it helps but kind of fucks us too. Start walking the highway. Not long, we are boogying and hot and sweaty. "SIR" somethig something. a Statey, I drop my guitar and hang onto my dogs leash and tell him straight up what happened. He's cool as shit! Thinks people doing this is awesome and loves my dog. Who I kind of, after he petted him past his sometimes point, that he can be snippy at times. No sketch, nothing, he's cool with even that info. He tells me to keep hiking be safe and have fun. Awesome fucking cop. I walk not a few minutes. Another one. God damn. I tell what happened and about the other cop two seconds ago. Okay go to the exit. He departs. Neither of them even ran my I.D. The first asked if any warrants and I assured him of my cleanly I.D. Good enough. Fuckin Virginia. That exit we make it fucking hoofin and chill and water at a McDonalds. Hike south again, a lady in a Toyota pick up gives us a ride 10 miles or so to a truck stop in the bed. I love truck beds when kind of hot. Felt so damn good.


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## LuckyDog (Jan 21, 2016)

This is a great read. Please keep going when you have time.


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## creature (Jan 21, 2016)

"My God.. It's full of Stars..."

shit man..!!

Good cops???

Two in 1 fucking day???


go fucking you..


Amen & God Almighty bless Them..

& keep them safe..


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## creature (Jan 21, 2016)

& those whom they Love..


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## Fanatical Steward (Jan 21, 2016)

I appreciate reading the posts on this topic. Please continue with the narrative at your convenience.


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