A Sign From God
“Meeting you was a divine encounter. I’m living on trust, too.” Jacob grinned, as if my existence validated his life.
Prologue
For the month of February, each writer’s post will begin with the same line, which we’ve borrowed from Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. All this happened, more or less. They left me alone in the cabin. Josiah and Charlotte, teenagers of neglect and meth and...
Thumbs Up, Then And Now: Hitchhiking Stories From The Road
He got in the car with young pregnant mothers, a grandmother, a Vietnam veteran, a police officer, a pastor, a criminal, a bunch of teenagers and even a man who used to be a meth cook.
Interview with Traveling on Trust writer Josh deLacy
Eliza: Do you think being young and white made it easier for you to get rides? Josh: Yes. Especially being young and looking even younger.
Calvin Alum Replaces Stereotypes with Faith in Small-Town America
If you want a radical way of getting a practical education, Josh deLacy ’13 has a formula worth considering: It starts by strapping a 55-pound pack on your back, emptying your wallet and hitting the open road.
Sound Off! Interview (Part 2)
The second half of NewsTalk WJRW 1340 AM’s interview with Josh deLacy (after the journey)....Hitchhiker travels on trust
Josh DeLacy is hitchhiking across America. He’s brought no money, is avoiding all major roads, and is discovering what rural America has to offer.
The End
A Volkswagon Beetle never picked me up. Neither did a Mini Cooper, nor a PT Cruiser, nor a Porsche, Jaguar, Beamer, etc. Ironically, I never rode in a VW van, either.
Rushing to a Wedding
I dropped my pack over the barbed wire fence, followed by my sign, and then the sandwich and iced tea my last ride had given me. Dusk had ended half an hour ago, and right now, a spot behind the only tree in sight looked like a good enough place to pitch my tent. The...
The Loneliest Road in America
Five hours in bristling Nevada heat. Five hours of drivers whipping past, unsmiling and unwaving. Five hours of suffering on US50, the “Loneliest Road in America.” Half the vehicles that passed me were semi trucks or white work vehicles with emblems on their sides,...No Interstates
Land is abundant in the central western states, but people are scarce, and so roads are scarce, too. Flip through an atlas and compare Utah with Michigan, or Illinois, or even Kansas. In any state east of the Mississippi, cow pathers have options. Roads crisscross to...
The Million Dollar Highway
Hitchhiking is easy in the Colorado mountains. In Dolores, I caught a ride with Kai and Haley, modern-day hippies without peace signs or tie dye. He drove with aviators and a blond goatee, in a 4Runner packed with camping gear, food and beer, guitar and banjo....
Drugs, Switchblades, and Mysteries
Dustin made me nervous. The combination of a tough-guy goatee, black-on-black sunglasses, and oversized gangster shirt with way too much gold lettering made him someone I wouldn’t have smiled at had we passed on a sidewalk. A cool chin lift, maybe, but not a...Traveling on Trust
Through online research and personal experience, I have discovered a few tricks to effective thumbing, so you, too, can hit the road.