# hitching lonely highways



## Wildflower (Nov 28, 2020)

Anyone else purposively choose to hitch lonely highways like highway 50? You have nothing but sagebrush and dirt from my memory and some barbwire fences.. a hotspring eventually that I never visited. When I found myself on the road and was unsure what to do I liked to choose lonley highways. I liked that stretch highway 60 through new mexico into arizona as well.. There was something clearing about it and you always had somewhere to sleep where noone was and noone would bother you. Then you could spend your days walking and just meditating on life with the thumb curious who it was that would stop and just where the hell you were going to end up?

I actually sometimes hitched in the direction of an idea or destination but sometimes hitched just to see where I might end up by chance as if some miracle of a doorway to a new adventure would start with someone or a turn of the road. I miss those old highways often. I also used to hitch the areas around the native reservations when tired of the city. I hated getting stuck too long in the city. It was a nice break sometimes to see the street art and possibly find a rooftop and some cafes. But truly it was the desert that called to me often or the tall trees, ocean and rushing rivers of california and oregon. But overall it was the desert that somehow made sense to me and i just found purity there. 

I also loved being down in the saguaros. What a magical stretch of road it is heading up towards globe or the stretch from phoenix over to wickenburg with those cacti. Then there was the wash in wickenburg as a place when you had nowhere to sleep in the area... Then you could always head over to quartzsite for the cheap desert flea market and off grid crowd. I still miss those lonely highways though. Highway 50 I believe was actually named the loneliest highway. Some garnets to hunt outside of ELY. Hated getting stuck in Reno. Then found some little mining towns headed into Cali or would reroute up to truckee. 

The sierras were nice too. Lone pine, Bishop and then Mammoth lakes... over to tahoe to camp in the pines somewhere.... Get tired of that scene you could always head down south again towards bisbee and walk for hours in the sun or camp in tombstone in the desert thinking of a time past. Ended up on the Geronimo trail quite a few times too.

I miss the road. I don't even know what to do with identity anymore. Not that identity matters but the road defined me to myself. I had become found I guess- or found myself at times with nothing surrounded by everything that mattered in creation. It wasn't about identity but finding myself or something, I had found my way I thought and my home. Nothing made sense but its movement, its promise to be never-ending and there for you in ways and the adventure of it all. Its like my soul became alive out there and when i had nothing at times i just noticed beauty more around myself. (at least on a good day) 

I loved the old mining towns too. All of them became a favorite visit. I wish everyone could just get along on the planet and people would roam around more like that and be tribe family thats true. I was more solo myself but loved meeting a kindred in passing for my lonely heart and that was enough... I was alone but not necessarily lonely often on the road just due to the constant travel and meeting people in passing but often under the stars laying there staring and just talking to people that had passed on or wondering if I would ever meet someone that understood me... But I did have a lonely heart at times. Possibly I understood those lonely highways and somehow felt at home there.. as if they understood me too.
Good times they were in many ways. Anyone else just wander to wander? It just was home to me without walls. Yet I would daydream about an off grid homestead one day even though I had little funds then. But now that I am back inside I think fondly of my travels and what it would feel like to be there again. 

I even start daydreaming about superlight gear and just being unknown again and moving. There is something about being unknown and moving that offers a freedom to just be oneself away from it all and then to meet the kindred in passing is such a nice gift as well.. 

Anyways I have had 3 cups of coffee this morning and my post was a bit jumbled. I meant to stick to writing about highway 50 because it was on my mind in ways and other lonely highways but you understand. It just was such a lifestyle. You know? It becomes almost in your blood and to your very bones.. as if you become something that the world made everyone forget yet at times its very far from perfect as well and even bad on a bad stretch. But when things are going well... those stars to yourself and the night sky and then to awake alive again to the morning dew. What a gift it was in ways to be alive and apart of all that was wild, simple and free..


----------



## Coywolf (Nov 28, 2020)

Could you insert some paragraph breaks? It would make this alot easier to read. 😁


----------



## Wildflower (Nov 29, 2020)

Coywolf said:


> Could you insert some paragraph breaks? It would make this alot easier to read. 😁


I tried to do that. I actually need to get a book on writing. I missed years of school in my youth and tons of English. I actually do not know form at all or many things about writing and then I just was on the road for years. Now that I have some down time I should study that possibly. I broke the writing up some at least. You are welcome to edit it yourself if its driving you crazy.  I just needed to write. I have been missing my life but then at the same time in another way not bc its a new chapter for me and I feel like I am where I am supposed to be. Its just adjusting to that for now because I wake up and its the same every day but there also is a different responsibility around me and on my heart yet with covid going on the isolation has been a bit much. 

Anyways sorry if it was a hard read. I had 3 cups of coffee and thought I was just going to write about highway 50 and 60 possibly and the long stretches of dirt paradises of just yourself and the openness of it all. I ended up jumping around too much in my own mind when I started to relive the journey and where I might have been heading.. Which you would think maybe thats what happened to her on the road. It really was just the movement and not having a home (i could have lived indoors one i should say) or being invited to one so moving became that and the scenery was just part of my home in the world and it became that to me. Its all hard to really explain. I just found enlightenment it felt like out there in ways of what beauty and freedom truly was as well as contentment with very little and feeling at times as though I had more than many that appeared to have it all. It was a lifestyle for sure that was hard to walk away from until my heart told me to do something different out of necessity possibly to love a new path and chapter. I may return one day..

Sorry for the difficult read!


----------



## ali (Nov 29, 2020)

I really enjoy the writing you have shared here, keep it up!

I am not a professional writer, but the best piece of writing advice i got was to use small words, short sentences, brief paragraphs. Especially on the internet, where you have readers from all over the world, mostly using their phones, keeping it simple is key.

On the other hand, i wouldn't overthink it. I believe it's more important to get your thoughts and emotions out there than to fuss too much over the style. If you write a lot, that will improve by itself in time, i think.


----------



## Potts (Nov 29, 2020)

Wildflower said:


> Anyone else purposively choose to hitch lonely highways like highway 50? You have nothing but sagebrush and dirt from my memory and some barbwire fences.. a hotspring eventually that I never visited. When I found myself on the road and was unsure what to do I liked to choose lonley highways. I liked that stretch highway 60 through new mexico into arizona as well.. There was something clearing about it and you always had somewhere to sleep where noone was and noone would bother you. Then you could spend your days walking and just meditating on life with the thumb curious who it was that would stop and just where the hell you were going to end up?
> 
> I actually sometimes hitched in the direction of an idea or destination but sometimes hitched just to see where I might end up by chance as if some miracle of a doorway to a new adventure would start with someone or a turn of the road. I miss those old highways often. I also used to hitch the areas around the native reservations when tired of the city. I hated getting stuck too long in the city. It was a nice break sometimes to see the street art and possibly find a rooftop and some cafes. But truly it was the desert that called to me often or the tall trees, ocean and rushing rivers of california and oregon. But overall it was the desert that somehow made sense to me and i just found purity there.
> 
> ...


Drink more coffee and keep these beautifully jumbled thoughts coming. Please.


----------



## Wildflower (Nov 30, 2020)

Thanks both of you. I will have to be in the mood to get into writing more. I went through a breakdown of sorts that took me off the road for a while. My brain isn't firing correctly just yet again.
For quite a while I could not write at all and then I found myself staring at the walls after returning indoors after living on the road mostly since I was 18 and I am in my late thirties now. 

Glad someone enjoyed it. That life at times was just the simple beauty of nature and having nothing but the movement within and around it that just was neverending and became my life. I do not even know how to write about it in ways. There is only so much about sagebrush and stars one can write. I suppose its about the inner journey out there for many and the shifts that happen after you walk away from the world and it is so simple in some ways its hard to even make it complex enough for words.

It was having enough with nothing and looking around me and somehow not feeling like I was not lacking at times. But I was full from what nature and the lifestyle offered. Possibly we all wandered once like this and resets the human soul and body or something. I ponder this as well. Possibly I just made the most of things that happened and found myself in beauty and then the whole road culture I just fell in love with. From nature to even the lights and roar of a truck stop or the beer in the tiny desert town that somehow was fine to drink outside the gas station and exhale that noone was going to bother me because I was innocent to do it and just passing through... 

Anyhow thanks for all the comments and the read!


----------



## Eng JR Lupo RV323 (Jan 22, 2021)

You totally have the makings of a featured thread here. It's just a little jumbled and needs formatting but I super dig the shit you're laying down. 

I was also terrible at school and never really learned the proper way to write. I just write from my memories and lay it down the way it sounds in my head. 

I hope you keep writing though. I'll still read through it all, even if it's not formatted the best. The more you write, the better you'll write.


----------



## SoftMachine (Jan 29, 2021)

Wildflower said:


> I tried to do that. I actually need to get a book on writing. I missed years of school in my youth and tons of English. I actually do not know form at all or many things about writing and then I just was on the road for years. Now that I have some down time I should study that possibly. I broke the writing up some at least. You are welcome to edit it yourself if its driving you crazy.  I just needed to write. I have been missing my life but then at the same time in another way not bc its a new chapter for me and I feel like I am where I am supposed to be. Its just adjusting to that for now because I wake up and its the same every day but there also is a different responsibility around me and on my heart yet with covid going on the isolation has been a bit much.
> 
> Anyways sorry if it was a hard read. I had 3 cups of coffee and thought I was just going to write about highway 50 and 60 possibly and the long stretches of dirt paradises of just yourself and the openness of it all. I ended up jumping around too much in my own mind when I started to relive the journey and where I might have been heading.. Which you would think maybe thats what happened to her on the road. It really was just the movement and not having a home (i could have lived indoors one i should say) or being invited to one so moving became that and the scenery was just part of my home in the world and it became that to me. Its all hard to really explain. I just found enlightenment it felt like out there in ways of what beauty and freedom truly was as well as contentment with very little and feeling at times as though I had more than many that appeared to have it all. It was a lifestyle for sure that was hard to walk away from until my heart told me to do something different out of necessity possibly to love a new path and chapter. I may return one day..
> 
> Sorry for the difficult read!



Beautiful post, inspiring and authentic. I appreciate the conversational flow, which relates a sense of presence.

Quartzsite is a gem


----------

