When you are looking to travel across America, you have Book yourself a flight or you want spend hours on the train when the countryside passes by? If you also don’t like it and don’t want to spend money to buy an expensive ticket, you Maybe try hitchhiking. That’s exactly how 89-year-old Hilary Bradt has spent the last few decades getting around, and it appears to be a hoax.
Founder of Bradt tour guide series has been hitchhiking since she was in her teens and even claims that she has hitchhiked in every decade of her life (except the first.) Now, she has takes advantage of his time hitchhiking around the world in a new work for Guardian.
In the section where you can Read it in full right here, Bradt shares stories from her experiences riding horse-drawn carriages everywhere from Switzerland to the Middle East over the past 70 years. As the explanation states:
“I’ve been reflecting on why my passion for hitchhiking remains undiminished. It’s partly serendipity – not knowing who you’ll meet or where you’ll end up – but mostly, more than any other form of travel, it affirms the innate goodness of most people. I believe that learning to trust strangers is one of the important lessons in life. Yes, there are risks, especially for single women. Of course, bad things can and do sometimes (though rarely) happen, and it’s obviously much safer with two people.”
Bradt’s timeless travels also took her across the United States, where she met her husband, George. He himself is a car-hailing enthusiast, partly because he can’t drive in the US – In America, can you believe it??!
This couple traveled all over America, meeting all kinds of people along the way, including welcoming truck drivers, friendly faces and even a couple who seemed cold when they first walked in. Apparently, the pair argued about whether or not to pick up George and Hilary, but the travelers soon changed their mood. According to the work:
However, at the end of the day, we had a lobster and wine feast together in a rented cabin on the Canadian coast. “Boy, I’m glad we stopped for you,” the husband said. “We plan 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 stories of strangers welcoming Brandt into their homes with open arms, adventure riding in a pickup bed across Africa and the benefits of hitchhiking as you get older.
Brandt also sketches the honesty that comes with hitchhiking a trip this way. She emphasized how people place their trust in the drivers and passengers they pick up. As the explanation states:
A car quickly stopped. It has the delicious smell of fresh bread. The female driver was on her way to her mother’s house to deliver groceries. Do we mind waiting while she visits her mother? Of course not. She left the ignition key and handbag on the chair and left for a while.
This illustrates the mutual trust integral to hitchhiking and why I can still find myself standing on the side of the road and once again relying on the kindness of strangers.
If you have free time this afternoon, come Guardian link right here to learn more about Bradt’s hitchhiking trips around the world.
