Hitchhiking Day 1

I am not going to post art today, but here are a few pictures of our hitchhiking beginnings:

Thank you Kimi for the pictures and our first ride. So far we have made it from East of Nashville to Mohawk, Tennessee, which is a little over 200 miles. It has taken us four rides so far and all of them have been with nice people. The first ride we waited 2 and a half hours for! We thought maybe it wasn't going to work and then suddenly a middle aged couple pulled up and took us forty miles east. The next ride we waited only 10 minutes for. This driver was a high school biology teacher up until December when he got fed up with his boss and quit, and now he happily organizes softball tournaments and also has a farm. He took us about 35 miles more. The next ride we waited only 5 minutes for! This driver was a very little and skinny Vietnam vet who had Parkinson's disease and a lot of other health problems he listed off. He told us the last thing the doctor told him was that he had three years to live, but that he didn't care because he is just going to enjoy the time he has and that no man can tell him truly how long he has. He was a little hard to talk to because he was very hard of hearing. He drove a car that I would probably never have pictured myself in and of which he was very proud. It was a bright orange Dodge Charger, (if that means anything to you), and it was custom made for him. He took us east of Knoxville, which was quite a ways. And then we waited about a half hour for this last ride, which got us to Mohawk. It was with two guys in their thirties who were fun and friendly and who had been friends since they grew up two miles down the street from each other.  One of them kept telling us that we have to go to Ashville because he loved it and we'd fit right in. They travel around a lot together for work. They gave us a beer and dropped us at this motel 8 right by the highway so we will be in a good position to start off tomorrow. What was pretty neat is that the people from the last three rides all asked to exchange email addresses, (which we did), so that we could one day meet up again, or so that they could wish my mom a happy birthday, (the Vietnam vet shared his birthday with my mom), or so we could keep them updated on our trip. After today, it seems to me like more people should hitch hike and that it really isn't a big deal or scary at all. But maybe it's just working out for us because we look sweet and innocent and trustworthy.