People don’t hitchhike anymore.
At least not like the glory days of the '60’s and '70’s when hitchhiking was a popular, fun and even a safe thing to do.
But it went away. Colin Flaherty wondered where it went.
So this San Diego writer set out on three-month adventure with a pack and an extended thumb to try and find out.
“It was after the economy tanked, and I was kind of bored,” he said. “So I wondered what it would be like to hitchhike around the country and write a book about it.”
So that’s what he did. And what a book it is:
Redwood to Deadwood: a 53-year-old dude hitchhikes across America. Again.
Redwood to Deadwood is not really a travelogue or a how-to book. Though you certainly can learn a lot about seeing America in a way that many have forgotten.
He started in Colorado, where he had spent the winter teaching snowboarding at Loveland resort.
From there, staying to the back roads and squiggly lines on the map (a al Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) to Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, California, Arizona, and points east. About 5000 miles in three months.
He writes:
"Before I tucked my thumb in for the final time, I’d run with wild horses, visit a pot farm, hunt big game, poach big game, get chased by a helicopter, get into crazy family feuds, ride in cop cars, reconnect with old friends, make new ones, get tired and exhilarated and lost and found and scorned and accepted, kicked out and invited in.
"That and a lot more. I now know how to cook muskrat, squirrel and rockchuks."
"And, oh yeah, I almost got murdered."
One of the themes in the book is how Flaherty hitched around to see the people who were with his brother the night he died a hero in Viet Nam. The accounts of his brother and his comrades are touching and tearful. As are his tales of his family in North County, San Diego.
“It's also very sensitive as he bares his soul on various topics , especially losing his brother in Vietnam when he was 12 years old,” said Arleen Carlin Tuchscher. “Sometimes I laugh out loud and other times cry. That's what makes it a good book by a guy who knows how write. A ‘cannot put down’ book.”
Ultimately, every travel book is a journey of self discovery. And so is this -- much like Bill Byrson’s
A Walk in in the Woods, Keraouc’s
On the Road, or even Pirsig’s
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: You feel as if you are there with him.
Along with the fun and laughs and adventure and danger. And even sadness.
Great book by a great San Diego writer.
www.RedwoodToDeadwoodBook.com
