Weary from travel, yet ever optimistic, two voyagers continue upon their cross-country adventure. Their goal: to travel from their home in Montreal, Canada to Cuba with only a backpack and an out stretched thumb to hail their next ride.
Dressed in tight-fitting, rolled-up capris, and a tattered baby blue wife beater, with a travel-stained orange scarf around his neck, Luic’s appearance when I met him hinted strongly at his foreign heritage. Despite this, he and his friend Maxim have little trouble encouraging sympathy for their cause, and are often quite successful at acquiring the necessities of life such as food and a place to sleep from strangers. These commodities are most prized on a cross-country trip where hitchhiking is the only form of transportation and hotels are out of the question because of cost.
Hitchhiking is a practice that has become less and less common over the years. While hitchhiking has likely existed ever since the advent of transportation, its hay day came in the 70s. During this time, a line of the hopeful and adventurous waiting to thumb a ride down the road was a common sight at the rest stops off of busy interstates. A decade of mind expansion and free love, the 70s harbored a trust in the natural good nature of human beings that is so vital to the practice of hitchhiking. Yet in the past decades, this trust has declined, taking with it the practice of hitchhiking.
As media has become more accessible, and its methods of transmitting news more effective, we as a society have become far less trusting. Each day it seems that a news report chronicling a murder or violent crime is released, creating an illusion that violent crime is more common. Studies have shown that our nation’s perception of crime is at an all time high, while the actual occurrence of violent crime has declined significantly in the past decade. With media becoming more and more a part of our every day lives, we are exposed to more tales of crime than ever. This creates the false notion that crime is more prevalent.
The two teens from Canada do not seem to share these apprehensions. Maxim and Luic have been on the road for several weeks now. After crossing the boarder on foot, the two made their way to a near by truck stop. From there they hitched a ride in an 18-wheeler from northern Maine to Richmond, Va., where they stayed for several days on the couches of people willing to lend a hand to the vulnerable travelers. Another week passed, and the friends found themselves in Charleston, S.C., where they befriended a local college student while attempting to use the Internet in the school’s library. Each day, they explore a new section of Charleston, meeting new people, lazily passing their time until they decide to continue their travels.
Even though they live for little more than the price of their daily allotment of cigarettes, the two are far from free loaders. In return for the hospitality shown to them by the apartment of five, the two men cook dinner and do odd jobs around the house – a service much appreciated by the unkempt college students.
These two French-Canadians exemplify a state of mind that is currently on the decline. Undaunted by the uncertainty of their situation, the two continue to travel, even without the added safety of a cell phone, a modern convenience that is out of their price range. Ask them about the friends they have made on their trip, and they will produce a heap of paper scraps bearing the names and numbers of dozens of acquaintances, the majority of which are female. After all, they are 19-year-old French boys with an accent seductive enough to arouse the lustful imagination of many young women, an asset they enjoy using often.
After a week in Charleston, the place we met, the two said they were about ready to move on. It’s possible they will be farther along their journey by the time you read this story. In any case, their exploits are worthy of recognition. As these two travelers move through the country, constantly susceptible to crime, they prove that society is not devoid of good-natured people.
Moral of the story: Maybe it is time we started trusting one another again. Maybe it is time to take a step back and reexamine our social landscape. Instead of living in perpetual fear of the unknown, it may benefit us to embrace that which we do not fully understand. Set aside the dark view of society perpetuated by the news media, and start to place more trust in the goodness of individuals.
I am not advocating an abandonment of caution, for this would be foolish. Undoubtedly, there are dangers that did not exist during the height of hitchhiking’s popularity and travelers should always act with vigilance. What I am suggesting is that perhaps the world is not as hostile a place as it is often portrayed. At the very least, Luic and Maxim’s journey has proven that much.
Zachary Weishar is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected].
