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Diaryland
Roads Less Travelled 2005-01-16 @ 1:31 p.m.
Why is so much harder to write entries some times than it is at others?
I am up in Washington now - Lynwood to be specific, although I think I'm heading over to Redmond later today. The trip up was smooth. I was amazed by how many fucking cop cars were patrolling I-5 all over the West Coast. I had to drive within five miles of the speed limit the entire way. A person in front of me going only slightly faster than I got pulled over. Everywhere I went, I saw highway patrolmen screening people for speeding. Part of me wonders if its "carma"; I have recently been going through the procedures to pay an old speeding ticket and take a traffic safety class online, and I had to renew my driver's license the other day before I left (it was going to expire on the 20th: my birthday).
A little bit north of Grants Pass I picked up a hitchiker named Rick who was trying to get to Bend. Of all the hitchikers I have picked up, this guy had to be the ugliest. He was missing half his teeth, and the rest were yellow as piss; one of them may even have been dangling if I remember correctly. He was an alchoholic by his own confession. I am guessing he was a Native American guy by his skin color, facial features and the red-bandannad black hat he was wearing. I know alcholism is a huge problem for Native communities; I've heard arguments back and forth about whether they are more genetically predisposed to it or whether the shitty life of poverty our country has given them just makes drinking to excess all that more tempting.
Rick's story was that he was on his way to Bend to meet up with his fiance, although he wasn't even certain if she was still there because he didn't have a phone or a phone number and he had heard that she and her daughter were possibly moving down to California. I wasn't entirely sure what the fastest route was for him, but we decided that since I was staying on I-5, I'd drop him off in Springfield and he could take a fairly straight-shot east to Bend. We didn't talk much on the way up; this time, I didn't feel like asking a lot of questions, although he asked some now and then and made a little bit of conversation. He was amazed how quiet and smooth the ride was in the CRV. Compared to most other consumer vehicles, mine isn't the quietest, but it sure beats the trucks he had gotten rides with. From the guys I've picked up and what I've read, I think that hitchikers usually only get rides from truckers, because everyone else is too chicken-shit to help them out. I think most of the trucking companies have official policies against picking up hitchikers, but if the truckers are anything like me, their loneliness probably leads them to screw the rules in favor of some company.
I've thought about being a trucker myself every now and then. In many ways, I think its one of the last kind of solitary, frontiersman kind of jobs that is left in the country. People can't really become pioneers or mountain men anymore, but they can still drive all over lonely roads in the US by themselves to distribute all the goods we are so hungry for. It seems kind of romantic to me, although I'm sure that given some experience my naivete would fade away. Anyway, I have noticed all the big-trucks have signs on them now saying that they are actively looking for new drivers. I wouldn't want to make a career out of it, but sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be a good experience for a while. I wonder about how much it pays and what its like. Anybody out there in that line of work?
"Details in the Fabric" - May 31, 2009
Not So Quick Questions - April 6, 2009
The Morning Stars - Lords of the 15 - April 9, 2009
Sincerity and Faith in Magic - April 10, 2009
Not So Quick Questions (2) - April 14, 2009
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