Why hitchhiking...?

"Hitchhiking is not for everyone. There are no parties to be had on trains with the backpacker set. No traveling buddy will be there to share laughs, to cover your back. You travel quicker alone. Dropped on a remote highway exit, you may be stuck for hours, singing to yourself for entertainment, throwing stones at trees, watching the cars go by one after another, drivers avoiding making eye contact, while you try to avoid the splash of water from their tires.

But the rewards are great. The freedom of the road, the thrill of uncertainty, not knowing where your next ride, or next shelter or even your destination may be. You have a special opportunity to interact with the locals—people you won’t see in the tourist district, wouldn’t meet in a bar, people you can’t approach on the street. You learn that the reasons for making a road trip are as varied as the people who take them. The conversations will linger longer in my memory than the countryside in which I heard them."

Bill Fink

in http://www.digihitch.com/article637.html