Kick Downs

[Jordi Napalm]

A saw a thread on hear about interesting trains, and i wondered to myself if anyone has ever gotten any interesting kick downs... so i decided to wonder out loud, and now i'm asking!

 

[IBRRHOBO]

weirdest kick down (due to the situation) i ever got was a c-note and a ride to kc from a bull in lawrence, ks after a cop called in seeing me on the porch of a grainer. he ran my id and loaded me up and drove me to the 7th street yard in ks (armordale).

 

[Jordi Napalm]

a c-note, as in, a hundred bucks?

 

[Bendixontherails]

I think a c note's gotta be up there on the list.


I guess the best I ever had was a ride from Toronto to Baltimore who kicked me down an '86 chevy astro van. sold it for $1600!!! that money got me a fuckin season pass to greyhound.

 

[marc]

i got a 380 dollar kickdown from some old lady when i was hitching the 101 to frisco. and i also got a 100 dollar kickdown from some lady when i was in naples,fl riding in a van to miami. ive also had countless weed and beer kickdowns.

 

[desaparecido]

oddest kickdown for me was a handful of change and then a fat joint of chronic from a blonde with a nice car. kind of confusing

 

[marc]

i was in frisco on haight st. and me and a few people were playing music and yelling and spanging really obnoxiously and some lady came up to us and set down a piggy bank and said here now shut the fuck up and walked away. it ended up being like 40 dollars in change. we got drunk as fuck that night

 

[IBRRHOBO]

a c-note, as in, a hundred bucks?

yup, a) i've only received two c-notes in my life; and b) it was from the bull.

 

[Jordi Napalm]

oh yeah, it definatly is impressive, i just wasn't sure what the word meant!

 

[spud]

i like how the bull took you to another yard

 

[jokey_bogus]

me and a friend were hitching to Ga and on the way sitting on the sidewalk in front of a walmart, we got kick down 65 $ and a case of beer. and a pizza delivered to the sidewalk. all during about 3 hrs after we had just crawled out from the bushes in the morning. milidgeville GA, or something like that about 150 miles from jacksonville FL

 

[simpletoremember]

countless weed kicked down hitching the 101. i've gotten my fair share of the $100 kickdowns too, but the most odd kick down i was busking in missoula, montana and this girl i had conflicts with the prior night mased me, and tossed the rest of the can in my guitar case.

 

[condemnedtodrift]

A lady approaches me in Charleston, SC, and says that she's been saving some christmas money, but she'd like to give it to me. She slaps a hundo in my hand and gives me a big hug (I was covered from head to toe in a friends vomit from the night before). During all of this, my friend is in the Earth Fare getting $50 worth of groceries and another $20 from another chick that kept asking us if we were crazy and going to kill her. The woman that kicked down the c-note comes back 20 mins later, and says her kids wanted to donate their school snacks for the next 2 weeks and two of their baby blankets.

I was staying at an infoshop in town and ended up buying coffee, cigs, and booze for everyone there. I was broke two days later, but we all had a fucking blast! I usually give away the excess cash I make to homebums and other traveling kids.

 

[katiehabits]

i think the most interesting kick-down i ever got was while flying a sign in one of the suburbs of ottawa with a friend of mine & our friend's dog.
a little background info on this story: traveling with my friends band bass player get's appendices ends up in hospital then two members of said band take off to montreal leaveing one original member of tour with the van & then two random friends and me no money no tour & we need to get back to vancouver......
this women saw the dog on the meridian with us & started crying & gave us $20. that was the biggest drop we had gotten all day..... then she comes back like half a hour later & we've made like $8 more dollars or something stupid like that & hands us two cloth grocery bags with this inside- a bottle of red wine, like 5 cans of fancy wet dog food, a bag of dog food, some tuna, sardines, a few cans of cola, two cans of V8, some chocolate bars, granola bars, two water proof cloth dog bowls, some sort of rope toy, granola bars & $20 MORE.
turns out her dog had just died & looked exactly like my friend's dog. she didn't stop crying the whole time....

 

[NickCofphee]

That's awesome! I think the personal kickdowns like that are always better. As opposed to someone just dropping money your way, barely acknowledging you otherwise.

I've gotten a greyhound ticket bought and a very nice amtrak ticket through the Denver-Sacramento route. I felt my heart tug at seeing freights pass by though. That same guy gave me $100 too. And coffee, breakfast.

$100 another time panhandling.

Hitching on the 4th of July, a shitty day on the 101 south of San Fran. A cop decided to park at the end of the onramp and do speedtraps. I sat there for over an hour in the sun with my head down. A very nice local woman came by, heard my story, then went home to make me a vegan sandwich straight from her garden! It made my day so much.

Been invited back, me and the big group of smelly punks, to houses TWO nights in a row in Berkeley panhandling on Telegraph. That was cool.

Motel once when hitching through Idaho with a friend. Houses invited back to several times. (like last night with the sweet elderly couple in New Zealand!)

 

[dVEC]

Walked to the ramp outside Jacksonville with two other guys and got a ride before even sitting down...

It was a woman and her two sons aged about 3 and 6, and everything they owned filling the whole car. I had to ride shotgun with the six year-old between my knees.

When she dropped us off, she put a string of rosary beads in my hand.

 

[Shoestring]

Right on! I once got a kick-down from a bull in Little Ferry, New Jersey. I rode in on a hot-shot from Selkirk to NJ and he saw me underneath a trailer and got me out and drove me to a restaurant then gave me a $50.00 spot! (I had my DD-214 on me then), and this always has kelped me out with kick-downs!
Also several engineers have given me money. The most ever was from one in the Strawberry Yards. He actually whadded up two $20.00 and threw them from the jeep down to me as I was almost off property.
The yard-workers in Conway Yards have been known to kick-down to me too. I even had one worker give me two cans of beer he had saved back for his lunch in his lunch-pail! Ha ha!

weirdest kick down (due to the situation) i ever got was a c-note and a ride to kc from a bull in lawrence, ks after a cop called in seeing me on the porch of a grainer. he ran my id and loaded me up and drove me to the 7th street yard in ks (armordale).

 

[Kobet Pahana]

me and my girlfriend were sittin under the toronto ebd, some woman came by, asked us if we were gonna ride. when she saw are expresions she said it's all right you can tell me. she got really excited, said she always wanted to meet riders, went back to her home in the suburbs brought us blueberries and $20

 

[dVEC]

I got a blueberry kickdown in Maine once... sooooooo goooooooood.

 

[Jordi Napalm]

best kickdown i've ever gotten was, uh... two days ago.
i was bumming for change on the sidewalk, and a young looking girl (my age?) came up, and asked me if i needed an clothes. So, she brought me:
A Studded Denim Vest
A Mischief Brew t-shirt
A Fleas and Lice backpatch
A little bag of studs
A Zipup hoodie
A Handful of band buttons
and an Against Me! patch

best.