Any hitch hiking stories?

[cball]

1955. I took a Christmas 7 day leave from Cherry point to my home in WV.Well when it was time to go back my dad took me to Grafton (a small town) where 119 and Rt 50 met and everyone caught rides,he left to go home and I stood in a snow storm for about 4 hrs.I finally called my dad and he came an took me all the way to Fredericksburg VA.which was the main route north and south ,then I caught a ride.The funny thing was my dad had never been out of West VA before,but he did find his way home..Thanks Dad.. sgt C Ball

[10thzodiac]

I and my corpsman buddy went up to Azusa, California on blind dates courtesy of one of the guys from our arty battery in Pendleton.

The trouble was we had the girls crossed, wrong partners.

After they fed us and took us to an outdoor theater they dropped us off at a motel. We didn't know where in the hell we were and decided to get a hat before they came back.

We stuck out our thumb and we had a real fcuking nut pick us up in a convertible, this kid was more full of sh1t than a Christmas goose. He told us he was a S/Sergeant in the army and asked us if we wanted to go to a beach party in Malibu. Well, we went and there was no beach party, instead we got stuck in the sand half way down to the water and had a hell of a time getting out. Not to mention all the crazy "U" turns on Highway 1 with CHIPs all around.

He took us to get something to eat at a drive-in where he claimed to know everybody, but when we started asking, nobody knew him.

We checked out the cars registration sticker and it wasn't the name he told us, I think we were in a stolen car. Could you imagine telling our skipper or the police we didn't know the car was stolen ? http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/34.gif

He finally took us to the L.A. bus station, and we shoved off for Pendleton.
In hindsight we should of went to Tijuana, at least we would of got laid.

[yellowwing]

I took leave to get my US Citizenship. I took a hop from El Toro to Andrews AFB. It was kinda cool to see the Pacific and then the Atlantic at sunset. I don't know why but there were a bunch of Officers on the hop,

The officers were cool when I was on their bus from the aircraft. They really wanted me to get to the courthouse to swear in.

I took a cab from Andrews to the DC bus shack. It was a long 3 days but I showed up in the Chattanooga Federal Courthouse to raise my right hand.

[rayh]

The summer of 1959 I went on leave from Pendleton to Indianapolis (2000 miles)I hitchhiked in uniform.While only about 40 miles from home two local civilian young males in a car kept threating to kick my ass so after awhile I told them to bring it on,when they saw I was'nt backing down they drove me the rest of the way and right to my front door and even bought me a meal at a truck stop.

[10thzodiac]

Winter of '60 home on leave after boot-camp in the "Windy City", I wasn't sure there was a train stop in my home town and got off at the one before that use to be my home town. Trudging through the snow walking home a good Samaritan offered me a ride to my front door http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

In '76 after being out of the Corps for over ten years I was walking with my kids for a long stretch at Kadena AF Base, Okinawa and a AF brother gave us a lift without us asking.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/images/kadena-aerial-s.jpg (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/images/kadena-aerial.jpg)

In '74 I was touring as a civilian through Pendleton with the family and I seen this young Marine in civvies on a long hump out in the sun, I gave him a lift to where ever he was going. He must of just got out of boot-camp because he acted scared (still in shock) of me, perhaps he thought I was a general or something ? I know when I visited MCRD San Diego on that trip, all the DI's were calling me sir http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/04.gif

[FistFu68]

:evilgrin: STUCK MY THUMB OUT,ON HIGHWAY 1 VIET-NAM;ALL OF A SUDDEN A SURBURBAN SCREECHED TO A HALT. I GET IN,IT WAS A AMERICAN BUSINESS MAN.HE SAID WHERE YOU GOING MARINE?I SAID TO SEE MY FATHER,IN VUNG TAU;HE GOES HANG ON WE WILL BE IN SAIGON BEFORE YOU KNOW IT.DAM THAT AIR-CONDITIONED CHEVY FELT GOOD!!!:)

[YLDNDN6]

Pensacola, FL...I had gone to play golf at the Naval Air Station and had taken a cab over there. After paying for golf, a burger at the turn and all of the beer I could hold, I was flat broke. About fifteen minutes after clearing the front gate, which was quite a hump in itself from the golf course, I heard a car honking behind me. I turned around in time to see a rather attractive, if not slightly older, woman pulling up to the curb and waving her arms. I turned back and ran to the car, at which point she asked if I needed a ride somewhere. She said that the Marines t-shirt and whitewalls I was sporting made it her duty to pick me up. You can imagine the thoughts that were racing through my head as I eagerly jumped into the car. Anyway, before anyone else gets too excited about my prospects. I spied the officer sticker on the windshield and it turned out that she was my CO's wife. She knew exactly where to take my drunk azz and I told her "Thank you ma'am, and thank the captain for me, too." I was front and center for the CO early on Monday morning, fearing the worst, and all he said to me was "You're welcome, Marine. Dismissed!" Incidentally, the golf didn't turn out the way I had wanted it to, either!

[10thzodiac]

We just came back to Pendleton via the Panama canal from Guantanamo after the missile crisis of '62 and two of my buddies were AWOL. The Skipper called me into the office and told me if I could get them back before the noon report to Battalion everything would be cool.

I went down to the P-X and called the LAPD, sure enough they were in jail for alleged burglary, the bond was like $50 apiece. With the Skippers blessings I made a deal with a FDC pogue to take his duty on the weekend for a round trip car ride to the LAPD to bail these guys out.

After I borrowed the bond money and paid the cops for their for their release, the cops called the Shore Patrol to pick them up, WTF !!! http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/12.gif

All the LAPD could make stick on these two guys was a concealed deadly weapon. Incidentally one of the guys father was on Chicago's elite police task force and Illinois Governor Otto Kerner's personal body guard while in Chicago.

While in Cuba that same buddy got orders for recruiting duty in Chicago because of his dad's Illinois politics, but we were in a eminent combat zone and the CO trumped those orders http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/17.gif

This guy was so unlucky, he had just got out of the base hospital the day we got orders to go to Cuba. He was in the hospital with infectious mononucleosis , kissing disease that he caught on one of our trips to Tijuana http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/27.gif

[drumcorpssnare]

1973 Camp LeJeune. I've got a 96 hr. pass and want to go up to Lowell, Mass. for a Drum Corps contest. I'm standing in the "swoop circle" and next thing I know, the MP with the bull-horn says, "Okay, got a car goin' to Lowell, Mass!" I grabbed my gear, and ran to the car. It was full already. I asked the driver, "Ya sure I can't squeeze in there? I'll pay for gas." "Nope. I'm full-up...sorry" I start to walk away. Then I turned around and asked the driver, "You got room in your trunk for me?" He was like, "Are you nuts?"
I said, "Open your trunk!" He did. It was empty! YES I DID! I got in that trunk, and rode all the way to Lowell! Enjoyed the Drum Corps competition, and hitchhiked (uneventfully) to Camp LeJeune.
I have often shared this story with "rookies" to the drum corps activity, as an example of the dedication, desire, and determination it takes to be succesful in the drum corps world.:thumbup:

drumcorpssnare:usmc:

[brecon65]

I hitchhiked home from Vietnam.

In February 1966 I and two other Marines from Bravo Company, 3rd Recon Bn. had finished our 2 year overseas tours. We were helicoptered from the airstrip in ChuLai to Danang. When we checked in at the staging company there we were told that there might not be any transportation out of country for a month! As the senior member of our 3 man detail I decided to adapt and improvise.

With orders in hand we walked around the runway to the Air Force MATS terminal on the other side. We presented our orders and asked for a ride out of Vietnam. A couple of hours later we were on a C141 headed for Yakota, Japan. We were fed and quartered overnight, got to enjoy a big PX there, and were set up for a flight to Travis AFB near San Francisco.

When we boarded the military version of the 707 we found four comfortable passenger seats, and a cargo of 30 coffins headed home for burial. The plane had experienced some mechanical problems and the crew was anxious to get the fallen men back home withing 24 hours. We took two full speed attempts down the runway only to have a warning indicator cause the pilot to abort and return to the terminal again.

Finally, and with some anxiety, they got off the ground on the third attempt. We had an uneventful flight on a plane that was kept chilled because of the bodies aboard. When we landed at Travis AFB I might have kissed the tarmac. It had been 16 months since I'd last been in the States.

I've often looked back on that trip home and thought of my good fortune to be able to walk off that plane, go home, go to college, get married and have a normal life. I wish now that I had known the names of the men in the boxes on that cold airplane. I'd like to go to the "wall", find their names and welcome them home.

[yellowwing]

A C-141 in 1966? Surely is was another Boeing bird. **** its been 23 years for me since the yellow footprints, I still CRS.

[davblay]

While I was a patient in the Memphis Navy Hospital, I got a 72 hr pass. I live in Tennessee so I decided to come home, it is only about 300 miles. I had a hell of a time getting a ride while wearing...

[ggyoung]

In 1962 I was hitch hiking through Kanasis(sp) iit was so damn hot there in augest you can't beleve it. Any way as I was standing there sweating like a dog I looked around and there was a big field of corn. It was so got that the corn started to pop. 4 mules in the next field saw it and thought it was snow and they froze to death.

[TazMatt]

In 1970 I was station at NWS Goose CReek S.C. and one weekend I decided to go home to Atl. for the weekend. I got out on I-26 and started hitchiking not knowing when or how I would get there .After several rides This old man stopped and picked me up and carried me to the next exit. We got off and he stopped and he bought me some thing toeat and we struck up a conversation.He told me he normally didn't pick up hitchhikers but for some reason he stopped and picked me up.I told him I understood his reasons for not picking up people and that if he didn't want to take me any farther that would have been alright,but as you have probably figured out by now he ended up taking me all the way to my front door in Atl. which was abut 30 miles out of his way home.

[10thzodiac]

<TABLE class=tborder cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=6 width="100%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=thead colSpan=2>Today 01:52 PM</TD></TR><TR title="Post 234260" vAlign=top><TD class=alt1 align=middle width=125>ggyoung</TD><TD class=alt2>In 1962 I was hitch hiking through Kanasis(sp) iit was so damn hot there in augest you can't beleve it. Any way as I was standing there sweating like a dog I looked around and there was a big field of corn. It was so got that the corn started to pop. 4 mules in the next field saw it and thought it was snow and they froze to death.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Good take off on an old favorite of mine, dad use to sing this every-time we went on a road trip, back when I was knee-high to a grasshopper http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif

I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee
I'm going to Louisiana,
My true love for to see

It rained all night
The day I left
The weather it was dry
The sun so hot,
I froze to death
Susanna, don't you cry

Oh, Susanna,
Oh don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee

I had a dream the other night
When everything was still
I thought I saw Susanna
A-coming down the hill

The buckwheat cake
Was in her mouth
The tear was
In her eye
Says I, I'm coming from the south
Susanna, don't you cry

Oh, Susanna,
Oh don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee

[Dave Coup]

1970 I swooped from CLNC to Boston Ma. to see a buddy of mine who was in Nam with me and had gotten out of the Corps. Sunday evening we go to the place where he claimed all the swoopers congregated and lo and behold there were none, zero, nada. I was off limits for a 72 and starting to worry. Long story short, I made a sign for Lejeune and started hitchhiking Two rides later, one from a civilian and the second with some Marines on thier way to Lejeune I was standing in front of the Headquarters Bldg. Had time for a SSS before going to work.

1969 I was walking from Freedom Hill to Div Hq when a young baby san standing down in the paddy asked if I'd like to partake of a little "Boom Boom" as it had been a while I thought 'why not?' Just as I'm starting down to her I hear a vehicle behind me and Baby san says " He give you ride" I looked up and there is this Major and his Driver grinning at me. Made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Baby san wasn't there on the way back and the 6x6 driver probably wouldn't have stopped anyway. By the way I had previously come Hill 37 to Freedom Hill on my way to Div.

SF

Dave