Nice chap. I knew he was getting a lift in the other day. He told me that he used to be a truck driver, and (jokingly I thought) I overheard him say he would thumb a lift home.

So last night we were the last 2 to leave and again, he said he was going to thumb a lift home. I thought he was pulling my leg. But no. Long story short, he lives 7 miles away and has thumbed a lift home every day for 2 years! I asked if he wasn’t allowed to drive any more for some reason, but no. He chooses to do it this way and his wife takes the car! He’s never, in 2 years, had to walk more than 25 minutes!

And this is along rural Oxfordshire B roads, not main roads.

I’m still amazed.

does he have nice boobs? i’d give him a lift

We couldn’t even thumb a lift to a car 5 miles away, from a passing police car, while we were pushing bikes through the hills in the pitch dark at the side of a NSL road in the highlands lol

I like to pick up hitch hikers on long drives. Unless they look scary.

Hitching works here all the time for canoe / kayak shuttles. Rarely a problem, but not as easy as it was back in university days where we hitched everywhere.
Best hitches: Liverpool, Rocket Pub to rural Penrith area home in one go; Liverpool to Bala (in 3 hitches)*
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*well, I did have a pair of roof bars and a kayak on me.

This the fella ?

I like to pick up hitch hikers on long drives. Unless they look scary.

I can’t imagine anything worse, the car is a place of rest and peace for me!

He chooses to defer the cost of getting to work, to anyone else he can.

Allthepies.

Thats Roy Batty, the Nexus 6, from Blade runner

Here:

Now, who wouldn’t give this nice chap a lift ?…

the car is a place of rest and peace for me!

You don’t actually drive anywhere? 😉

I only ever once hitched home from work. Was working in London and living with parents in Hertfordshire. The train line was shut, so like loads of other people I got the tube as far North as possible aiming to get a bus. Huge queue for the bus and the buses were full, so I thought I’d nothing to lose by trying to thumb a lift. Walked a few metres down the road and stuck my thumb out in full view of the bus queue – only waited a few minutes before I got picked up by a chap who took me to my front door (I got home earlier than I would have normally).

I did wonder what all the other people in the bus queue made of it, and whether any of them were brave enough to copy.

He’s never, in 2 years, had to walk more than 25 minutes!

I imagine that since he probably heads home after his shift at much the same time each day and heads out on the same road, there’s probably a few regulars that know him and pick him up since they’ll be on their way home at a similar sort of time each day too.

Hitch around here pretty regularly (especially over this winter when we had 3 vehicles all out of action at the same time!). Rarely a big hassle. I’ve even hitched a few times in the summer when the uplift logistics just get ridiculously complicated – a few times we’ve ended up leaving one of our vehicles at the top of a big descent, picked up the clients in the other van at the end of the day, then I hitch back up to get the first van back.

Longest I’ve ever waited for a lift was actually in Scotland. Did the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glencoe, had a pint at the Clagaich, tried to hitch back to the other end of the ridge. Walked all the way from the Clagaich back to the main road without getting a ride, then spent a solid half-hour with my thumb out at the side of the main road.

Was a bit disappointed with that one, expected it to be a really easy place to get a lift!

I picked one hitch hiker once. He was unspecifically odd. I have never done it since.

Where abouts in Oxfordshire. I’ll take him.

I once picked up a hitch hiker. He smelt of piss and was on the way to pick up his methadone prescription. Apart from the piss smell, which lingered for days, he was grand.

I hitched once with my missus (after discovering there were no buses from the Top Secret Nuclear Bunker, which is in the middle of nowhere).

We got picked up by a lovely lady. Missus sat in the front, staring at the extensive collection of bird and small mammal skulls that the lady had affixed to her dashboard, meanwhile I sat in the back with an enormous Rottweiler-Wolfhound-cross thing growling at me the whole way home.

😯

(Despite all that she really was a lovely lady and took us right into St Andrews)

stop all the time. PS never pick up a hitcher outside a racecourse on race day …he is pissed and he has lost all his money and he will not be happy.
one hour listening to a drunk moan = not fun

The only Italian phrase I know is “Is this bus going to a good place to hitch-hike to (name of town) from”

This is from our honeymoon in 1975 when we hitched all around Europe.

We used to do it all the time then but haven’t done it since.

Once got caught out by the old hot girl thumbing a lift, boy friend jumps out of the bushes and wants to come along too trick. Made sure he sat in the back 🙂

Has flashback to when I was an 18 year old hitching in Europe along with a couple of other girls …

Blimey, talk about multi-tasking. 😯

I thumbed a lift from Glentress to Peebles cos I ran out of petrol and had to fill my jerry can up at the petrol station…

Oh, and a mate and I hitched a lift from Calais to Paris while dressed as an elephant and a bear.

hitched round Europe in the summer between school and university. Great times. Hitched down to Bordeaux and back – return leg took about 24 hours or thereby, very quick!

Used to hitch up and down Scotland – to and from home and visiting – quite a bit, and pick up hikers – just don’t see so many about these days.

happy days.

Hitched from Brussels to La Rochelle in 3 lifts! 800kms and did it in a day.
Also hitched in the UK. Always had a least shirt and tie. Always carry a marker pen. IMO if you are clear where you want to go people more likely to stop.
Best hitch: Bristol to Oxford in Jaguar (old school), dropped me at me door.
Wonder if I can hitch with the wife, 2 kids and our springer?

there’s probably a few regulars that know him and pick him up since they’ll be on their way home at a similar sort of time each day too.

Yep I asked him that. Happens a lot, one old lady in particular apparently!

You know, when you add up what owning a car costs you, this sort of thing (or commuting by bike, obviously) starts to make sense.

You could get taxis for your weekly shop, hire a car for weekends away biking and probably still save a ton of cash…

I recently hitch hiked from swansea to barcelona. It was much easier than I thought.