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A travel story of me at age 19:

After coming home from college for a week or two of the summer I got a call from a friend wanting me to come up and visit her on Mackinaw Island where she had summer employment. We had traveled to Florida for spring break earlier that year and became close friends. Here is an account of the crazy trip of me hitchhiking those couple hundred miles.

I talked my step dad into dropping me off north enough of my home town to get off of the expressway and onto a two lane road. I was immediately picked by a guy in his mid twenties who was heading a good eighty miles up the road to a softball tournament he was clearly late for. He knew some route called the Scottville short cut. I found myself with this stranger flying through the countryside at 80 miles an hour in his geeked up Mustang. Constantly going through the gears to impress I guess but if a tractor would have pulled out we would have been road splatter. Creepy dude who hardly said a word
Usually people pick you up because they are lonely for conversation..
Finally we made it Manistee. I was dropped at a bad spot heading into the town. The road had curbs so it was hard to pull over. Some long haired Tommy Chong of a dude pulled over a told me I was fucked where I was hitching. I found this strange as he picked me up and gave me a ride. He said he had to stop at his house for a meet up and asked if I would like to come along and he would get me to the other side of town. Hell why not at this point. He was a stoner. Seemed harmless. We went to his apartment I was relieved to see he had a girlfriend there and about a three year old child. There was this solemn looking dude there and he was just stopping in to sell the dude some weed. Needless to say we had to try it out. The odd thing is that they had the three year old taking the roach clip from one adult to the next as we sitting out of reach from each other. Something quite not right about that image.
Eventually the dealer dude offered to get me across town so now I’m with another stranger and heading on my way north again… The weed was good by the way. He dropped me off but I had to drain my bladder so I wandered off into the woods. I heard a vehicle coming so I got back to the road and I’ll be damned if this guy didn’t stop for me too. I has making better time than if I drove myself with that nut job in the Mustang making such good time. This was a van with one guy in it. He offered me a beer and after smoking weed it sounded good to me. He asked some directions as he was turned around a bit and I got him on his way. Soon as I told him how to redirect himself he pulled over and dropped me like a bad habit. Still I was close to Bear Lake and happy with my progress.
In a matter of minutes this Lincoln pulled over and this couple picked up. They were in easily in their seventies and very concerned about me being on the side of the road. Keep in mind I had a fairly good buzz going and was slightly uncomfortable babbling like a fool to someone’s kind grandparents. We stopped and they bought me ice cream and they invited me to their home. I politely declined and they took me to the north side of Traverse City. I watched their worried faces drive away and felt bad I had put them is such a state.
I spent only another five minutes until this old convertible pulled over. There were six people in the vehicle already. What the hell, lets get cozy. So what were they up to you ask? Driving north and smoking weed all along the way. So here I am again back to smoking weed with a ton of folks making my way as lucky as can be. The trouble with northern Michigan is that it is under populated and traffic is thin. You can feel very alone on the side of the road. Somewhere near Petoskey the group decided to stop as their next town to party so back to the roadside I went.
A jeep came along with just one guy in it. The thing was full of shit so I got crammed in the little back space but I still was making headway. What got a little worrisome was that he left the main road and drove to his home. Being in the back there was no conversation about this stop. All of a sudden I was at some northern backwoods home with barking dogs and not another house in sight. Luckily he was a straight up guy and was just getting rid of the shit in his vehicle and let me know he was going all the way to Mackinaw City which was my final destination. I made it in 4 hours. Had a good time.

A final note is that on the way back it took me 10 hours on the same route. I probably walked 15 miles of it out of boredom and spent at least an hour standing in pouring rain.....

Last updated July 17, 2015