spoilers: i made it to Iowa City in time for the wedding. it’s been a minute since i wrote on here because i wanted to surprise my friends by showing up for this wedding, other than the one that’s getting married i made sure to rsvp to him
That day in Portland was a busy one. My first stop was at an H&M so i could get a pair of jeans. I wasn’t about to try to hitchhike any long distance in my hiking skirt, especially off trail. My mistake was going to H&M, they didn’t have any boot cut jeans to go with my hiking boots. Unabated i still got a pair and headed to an outdoor gear store to downsize. My normal pack, the Red Menace, was an unwieldy beast chock fill of bulky gear and not optimized for hitchhiking. Also it was falling apart all over the place. I dropped most of my gear along with the pack and got a 45 liter Lendes one for way cheaper than on Osprey.
My sorry attempt at hitching out of Portland went poorly and i spent the night in a hotel instead. It was for the best because i got to shower, watch the series finale of Adventure Time and almost cry, and have a restless night sleep on a proper bed.
I woke up bright and early the next day to get the first bus from Portland to Cascade Locks after a couple other buses. One of my drivers was a nice lady who was covering the shift of a legendary Portland bus driver, she sang the praises of him to me as we were the only ones on the bus.
In Cascade Locks i sent home the Red Menace and it cost way too much money. As i walked to the edge of town to try to hitch i passed by some hikers who didn’t even give me the time of day since i was no longer in my thru hiking uniform. It was a weird feeling that i didn’t like.
At the edge of town my first hitch didn’t go well. One lady stopped for me to tell me that she couldn’t pick me up. Then a bus heading east stopped and the driver picked me up and drove me from Cascade Locks to Hood River for free which i count as a win with my first hitch.
From Hood River i took a bus to The Dalles. While i was waiting i chatted with an old lady who i initially saw as cute but she identified as being grumpy. She was concerned about my upcoming journey and made me promise not to do anything she wouldn’t approve of after offering me some of her ice cream sandwich and paying my one dollar bus fare.
The Dalles didn’t really have a good place to hitch out from, but thankfully after about half an hour of standing near a roundabout a man in a truck with no doors brought me a few miles out of town to a better place to hitch from. Unfortunately that next hitch took a few hours.
Two older guys in a pickup [a pattern will emerge] rolled up on their way to a campground on the Columbia River near Rufus. The driver had a US Navy hat on backwards and his passenger had a thick accent and multiple cans of Rolling Rock. They requested that i sing the whole time to pay for my hitch and they showed me with praise after each song. The Navy driver also expressed concern for my well being, so i told him that i promised my mama i’d be safe, and i don’t mess with her cuz she was in the Army. I think the driver’s words were “i knew something was wrong about you when i picked you up,” while his passenger laughed.
They dropped me off at the gas station in Rufus and said if i was stuck there by nighttime i was more than welcome at their campsite. After around 5 hours i was starting to despair. During that time i played a lot of guitar, listened to a few podcasts, and bought a bottle of that tropical sprite. The cashier at the gas station was wearing a D.Va hat so we talked Overwatch in the air conditioning for a bit, and about how he’s more of a Mei main but the Mei hat was always sold out. I told him in the small time i was playing i was mostly Lucio and he judged me hard.
As i was pulling up my guitar tuner on my phone a man pulled up and asked if i needed a ride. Turns out he passed by me in The Dalles and was hurrying to work so couldn’t pick me up there, but now he was on his way home and had leisure time. He gave me a meaty hitch to Hinkle.
On the way we touched on podcasts and his eyes lit up as he ran through his list of regulars. He’s more of an informative podcaster where i’m all about those comedy ones, usually improv. We swapped some of our favorites and he pointed out the sights along the way. He drove me a few miles farther up the interstate than he had to because his exit was shared with a prison which isn’t the best place to hitch out from. He dropped me at a truck stop with an A&W attached. Chili dogs were super cheap and i got two.
Right next door was a factory that he told me they made tator tots in and it smelled weird. I cowboyed across the street from there and boy was it cold. It was my first night without all my gear and i was concerned about how dang chilly i was with all my stuff on. Sleep kept a wide berth from me as i curled up for the night.
boy two days and look at how meaty this thing is holy cow. i also wasn’t as good at taking pictures during this time or the next time either oops. i’ma break it up here tho cuz this long as heckin already
nothing really that i’d like to add to this one. it was the start of my big hitchhike and a time of metamorphosis. that long long night of little sleep near the tots factory, i sure spent that night there.
man i dunno 