When you’re looking to travel across America, do you book yourself a flight or would you prefer to spend hours on a train as the countryside flashes by? If you don’t fancy either and prefer to not fork out the cash for an expensive ticket, you could try hitchhiking. That’s exactly how 89-year-old Hilary Bradt has spent the past few decades getting around, and it sounds like it’s been a hoot.
The founder of the Bradt travel guides series has been hitchhiking since she was in her late teens, and even claims to have hitched a ride in every decade of her life (except for the first one.) Now, she has taken stock of her time flagging down rides all around the world in a new piece for the Guardian.
In the piece, which you can read in full right here, Bradt shares stories from her experiences hailing rides everywhere from Switzerland to the Middle East over the past 70 years. As the piece explains:
“I reflected on why my enthusiasm for hitchhiking is undiminished. It’s partly the serendipity – having no idea who you’ll meet and where you’ll end up – but mostly that more than any other form of travel, it confirms the innate kindness of most human beings. Learning to trust strangers is, I believe, one of the important lessons in life. Yes, there are risks, especially for lone women. Of course, bad things can, and do, sometimes (though rarely) happen, and obviously it’s much safer if there are two of you.”
Bradt’s time hailing rides also saw her cross America, where she met her husband, George. He was an avid ride hailer himself, partly because he couldn’t drive in the U.S. - in America, can you believe it?!
The pair hailed their way across the U.S., meeting all kinds of people along the way, including welcoming truckers, friendly faces and even a couple who were frosty when first hopped in. Apparently, the pair had fallen out over whether to pick up George and Hilary, but the travelers soon turned the mood around. According to the piece:
By the end of the day, however, we joined forces to have a lobster and wine feast in a hired cabin on the Canadian coast. “Boy, I’m glad we stopped for you guys,” the husband said. “We were going to drive back to Boston tonight.”
It’s a fascinating read that shares the highs and lows of the lost art of hitchhiking. Highlights include tales of strangers welcoming Brandt into their homes with open arms, adventures riding in pickup beds across Africa and the benefits of hitching a ride as you get older.
Brandt also outlines the honesty that comes with hitching a ride in this way. She highlights the manner in which people put their trust in their drivers and in the passengers they pick up. As the piece explains:
A car soon stopped. It smelt deliciously of fresh bread. The female driver was on her way to her mother’s to deliver groceries. Did we mind waiting while she visited Mum? Of course not. She left the key in the ignition and her handbag on the seat and was gone for some time.
This exemplifies the mutual trust which is so integral to hitchhiking, and why I might still find myself standing by a road with my thumb out relying, again, on the kindness of strangers.
If you have the time to spare this afternoon, head over to the Guardian link right here to find out more about Bradt’s time hitching rides around the world.