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| Southbound from Sugarland to Brownsville, Texas |
It's been a while since I've gotten to update. How about we take a look--just for fun--at some of the people who have picked me up on my recent trip down to Catemaco, Mexico. I think all those people who told me hitchhiking was too dangerous and that I was crazy for doing were absolutely right!
My first ride out of Gainesville, Florida was a sixty-some year old hang glider who looked like he was in his late thirties. This man was obviously crazy because he had driven his van all the way from Madison, Wisconsin to Central Florida just to participate in an extreme sport. He's obviously suicidal. Later, I got a ride with a couple who argued and cussed each other quite a bit. Again, complete nut jobs because normal people never have domestic disputes. They probably ended up in a fatal fight once I got dropped off. Next ride was with an older man who worked on oil wells. It was almost dark. He obviously used these circumstances to his advantage to invite me to stay at his home so that he could try to make some sexual advance on me. Unfortunately for him I was confident that I could get a ride or two more, perhaps all the way to Mississippi (which I did).
After camping out in that infamous Mississippi mud (I had never really thought that expression meant anything, but, oh, it absolutely does!) I walked to a nearby rest area and washed up and got back to thumbing again. Destination: Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Right off the bat an 18-wheeler stopped. I took the ride all the way to Baton Rouge. It was my lucky day. Or so I thought. On the way the driver bought me breakfast, a clear indication that he thought I was cute and viewed his buying me a meal more like a date instead of a friendly gesture.
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| Hippies and Lost Boys of the Road |
On my way down to visit our southern neighbors many drivers who picked me up warned me of the dangers that lie ahead. Some drivers claimed to be good Christian people, but if they are picking up hitchhikers then they must belong to some strange and marginal sect. Likely weirdos. Anyway, I figured they had been watching too much news recently and decided to march on to the border. From Brownsville, Texas I merely walked across the Mexican city of Matamoros, which has ill fame of being under the control of the Gulf Cartel. And all sarcasm aside, it is heavily run by the cartel. However, I ran into a couple of young men claiming to be from the cartel while I was hitchhiking out of the city. They questioned me to see what I was up to, gave me some cookies, and wished me a good trip. Luckily, I got a ride not long after because I'm one-percent sure they called some of their pals to come kidnap me for ransom (OK, sarcasm switched turned to "on" again).
My first ride in Mexico was with Ivan and Marco, both who took turns driving a furniture delivery truck between Tampico and Matamoros. So, my first ride took me all the way to Tampico. Once we got to Tampico Ivan said he'd take me in his old yellow Volkswagen Beetle. I agreed it was a good idea. And it was--until I found out that he too had been involved in some sketchy stuff before. He said he had changed his ways, but you know you can never trust someone once they've been into drug stuff, no matter if they have "found the Lord" or whatever. He offered me a place to crash at his house which was a good distance from where I needed to hitch in the morning. But of course I said no, instead opting to stay at a cheap hotel just next to the on-ramp to the highway. Who knows what he would've tried to do had I stayed there.
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| Ivan (left) and Marco (right) |
The next day I had Catemaco on my mind. Catemaco is in the state of Veracruz and I had hoped to get to the city of Veracruz at least (just a bit north of Catemaco). From there I could just take a bus. So I hitched a ride out of Tampico to Poza Rica with an accountant named Arturo. This man works for a construction company and seems to be doing well for himself. He has to go every month on behalf of his company to pay the Gulf Cartel for the right to be able to have a business in Tampico. Arturo is obviously a bad man for dealing with them. If he were a good man then he would have unhesitatingly told the cartel "no" when they tried to extort his company. It's not like they would kill him! Later on my way back north I would stay with Arturo and also with Ivan and his family. They all treated me well and gave me food, which I am sure was an attempt to make me feel at home and would be stupid enough to go back so that then they could murder me or rob me or kidnap me or do god-knows-what to me. But I'm not that stupid. I'll never go back to Mexico. Just too dangerous these days!
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| Took Ivan and His Family Out For Pizza at Little Caesar's |
As I hinted at earlier all these accounts have a sarcastic twist. The things I mentioned did happen--people gave me refuge, food, listened to me, showed me around, etc. However, my speculation about ulterior motives was mere silliness. One of the most common beliefs about hitchhiking is that crazy people are bound to pick you up if you try to hitchhike. But as you can see from my experiences this is certainly not true. And I can assure readers that there are countless other hitchhikers out there than can corroborate my claim. It is not a matter of luck. Normal people pick up hitchhikers.
Many of these normal people, however, do not normally pick up hitchhikers. Because of my clean-cut look they tend to take what is perceived as a risk on helping me out.. One of the most curious statements that some of them (the old timers) is that "a lot has changed--the world just ain't safe for hitchhikin' anymore." Well, the first assertion is somewhat true. A lot has changed. In "ol' timey" days most peoples' news was relegated to newspapers, radio, and a bit of television. People didn't get instant updates about news (most of which is bad because bad news is an attention-getter) on their phones, laptops, or other advanced device unheard of as recent as fifteen or twenty years ago. People today are getting news, and more of it, a lot faster than in the past. So whenever one hitchhiking experience goes awry it really stings the rest of us who aren't out to harm anyone. Peoples' brains are left imprinted with this unfortunate hitchhiking incident instead of all those successful hitchhiking experiences. When I describe this effect to people with misguided notions on hitchhiking they often like to refute with the phrase "well, you never know." Boy, ain't that the truth. You really don't ever know anything. With this logic it is just as crazy to do any other routine action like go to school, walk down the street, go shopping, or go swimming because you never know. Furthermore, to act like there are more rapists, murderers, and thieves in the world today than before is a bit naive. There may be more just because of population increase but the probability is no doubt as likely as any other era of history. Bad people have been around since the dawn of time. As fellow writer and hitchhiker Laura Lazzarino pointed out, these guys and gals just get along better with the press, more so than good people (Laura Lazzarino Article). We would never give up everyday activities based on the assumption that "you never know," so why give up on picking up hitchhikers if you never know--or, for that matter, helping out any other person in a similar situation? There's no reason to live in fear just because mass media has altered the perception of what was once a lovely component of the search for the American dream.
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| Thumbs Up For Mexico and Its Lovely People |
