It’s fun to hitchhike! (Sign, love and photo by Peacehead)

You’ve probably never hitchhiked if you ask why you should hitchhike.
In many countries, Sweden, for example, hitchhiking is a rare form of traveling these days.
In some other countries, it’s the most common way of traveling by car there is.

This is why we hitchhike:

• To meet!
  Most people tell you their life story when they pick you up, or how they used to hitchhike themselves. Some ask you questions, or gladly answers yours. Most of all, it’s just wonderful to get to feel so overwhelmingly grateful for the hitch. You’ll feel grateful for the ride, and the driver will feel grateful for the opportunity to do a good deed. Win-win!
• Slow traveling!
  When you go by plane, it’s as if you’ve teleported yourself to your destination. Or, if you’ve seen the movie “Truman Show”, it’s as if someone just changed the sets during the hours you spent in the plane.
  We want to truly feel and experience that we’re really moving and traveling. The ultimate way would be by walking, but that would take forever, and we would not meet with persons, as most people travel by car these days.
• Unpredictability!
  It’s hard to predict where we will be at what time. As we are moving from a very fixed situation (we both have stable jobs and everything in our everyday life is very predictable) we are looking forward to spend time as if we had all the time in the world. Because, guess what. We do. When did you last experience that kind of freedom?
• It’s fun!
  We will get to make signs with funny messages on them, and we’ll get to see several funny faces and reactions from the people that will not give us a hitch but just pass us by. Some of them will even give us the finger. Yes, THAT finger ;) .
• Food for thought!
  How many of the people that didn’t pick us up will tell their families that story?
  How many of them will think back and wonder where we came from, and why we were passing by their reality?
  How many of them will take a leap of faith and pick up the next hitchhiker they’ll see?
  How many of them will get so inspired that they will try hitchhiking themselves?
  How many of them will quit their jobs and start traveling full time?
  How many of the drivers that DID pick us up will tell their friends, families and co-workers?
  How many of them will pray for us?
  How many will give us their email address?
  How many of them will invite us to their homes, to meet their children, husbands or wifes, girlfriends or boyfriends?
• For the environment!
  Kind of a no-brainer. This planet is overheating and too many cars travel with only one passenger.

Happy hitchhikers (photo by Guaka)

As you can see, there are LOTS of good reasons to hitchhike.
But there is one reason that we’ve saved for last:
It’s a very spiritual way of traveling.
Again and again you’ll wonder how you came to be so lucky,
and how it seems that the whole universe is collaborating to make your trip perfect.

One thing is certain:
We’ll always pick up hitchhikers in the future.
Share the love :) !