hitch-hiking stories

[shedcoupe]

I have a few of my own but here's some other tales .....

Driving south from Townsville in I picked up an American guy from Pittsburgh - would've been in his late 20's and was in thongs, shorts, and a t-shirt.
He was carrying just a small Adidas bag in which he had a few shirts and a pair of jeans, socks, jocks, and hankies, and some boots.
With such a little load I assumed that he wasn't going far, as typical (read 'inexperienced') travellers carried enormous backpacks, but no, he'd been on the road around the world for about 7 years, living cheap and working when necessary, and, get this, still managing to send money back to his old widowed mother.
He was a nice bloke, a born-again Christian but not a wowser - he liked a drink and a smoke and enjoyed the company of loose women.
He was a very positive guy without being annoying, and told me some stories which I don't recall, but which indicated that he was one of those guys who usually get the best out of any situation without being selfish.
I was boarding with a lovely family and night was coming, so he stayed with us and I put him out on the highway the next morning.
Six months later I ran into him in Darwin, and asked what he'd been up to and what had sort of ride he'd got after I dropped him off.
Turned out that a car stopped about 5 minutes after I dropped him off, and a gorgeous young woman said 'jump in'.
She was driving from Cairns back to Sydney and had just had a massive fight with her dork boyfriend, and had chuckd him out an hour before.
So they travelled down to Sydney where she basically tied him to her bed and used him mercilessly for a week or two, the poor bloke.
Then he wound up in Shepparton looking for fruit-picking work where a farmer gave him a house to himself rent-free and a heap of work. Dunno if he was forced to sleep with the farmer's daughter ......

Another tale - a girl I knew in Darwin was delivering a Kombi to Perth - a mate of a mate had left it there, had flown to Perth urgently, and wanted it back.
She asked me to come for the ride - I was supposed to go to Sydney to appear in court, but had a girlfriend in Perth and Kombi-girl was cute, so I thought 'why not ?'.
Somewhere between Kunnunura and Hall's Creek (ie. the middle of nowhere) was a skinny little bloke about 50 with his thumb out, and yes, thongs, shorts, t-shirt and a little Adidas bag. Looked like he didn't have a cent to his name, but it was hot and he looked needy so we stopped.
Turned out that he'd had a blue with the family in Melbourne 30 years before, jumped in the HR and just kept driving until he reached Wave Hill station where he'd been ever since as a contract fencer.
Every year he went to Perth (where he owned a heap of houses) around that time to stay with his sister for a holiday. That year he'd driven out of Wave Hill, over a crest, and straight into a giant scrub bull which caused the old HR to burst into flames, destroying all his property including his wallet.
So after a day in the dust someone found him and he wound up in Wyndham hospital where the matron gave him a bag of op-shop clothes and a packet of sandwiches and sent him on his way.
He had no money or ID, and it was a Sunday, so we fed him, bought him some smokes, gave him some money, and dropped him off in Broome.
The next day we left Broome late, and saw him hitching again. The poor bloke couldn't get any money from his bank in Broome despite having squillions in his account, and was told to go to Port Hedland instead ! So we took him there. Appearances can be deceptive it seems.

So, anyone got some good stories to share ?