Two Hikers and a Crazy Man
I had my first group hitchhiking experience of the trip with two Colorado Trail thru-hikers and a crazy man. I met the hikers in Buena Vista, a town shadowed by fourteeners and well trafficked by rafting companies. The two brothers, Brian and Seth, had hitchhiked into...
Small-Town Snapshots
Norton, Kansas Established: Feb. 26, 1867 2010 population: 2,928 Julie Winters had a good life. Good enough to feel guilty about, she said, then added, “I’m paying for it now.” That morning, like every morning, she visited her husband. They married...
The Cop and the Hitchhiker
A sheriff’s truck pulled into the nearby lot, and a cop got out. He was young, with short, military-style hair. “Hello!” I put my thumb down and rolled up my sign. “How’re you?” He nodded. “You’re technically...
24 Hours With a Trucker
I was hungry and sunburnt and stuck at a truck stop metropolis in northwest Indiana when I met Glen. In the two and a half hours prior, a woman going the wrong way offered me a ride, a cop checked if I was a runaway, and a dad and son asked about my story when I...Traveling on trust, learning about small town America
On June 20th of this year, a twenty-two-year-old man and graduate from Calvin College of Grand Rapids, Michigan left Mt. Vernon, Washington on an adventure of a lifetime.
Calvin College graduate hitchhiking across America inspired by public’s generosity
Josh deLacy has long had an appetite for adventure. Read...Man ‘Traveling on Trust’ Across America
Josh deLacy is hitch-hiking his way across the back roads of America, in an effort to learn about small towns. He started last month in Washington and has ended up in Michigan.
The Biggest Disaster Yet
I lost my sign. My beautiful sailcloth and housepaint sign. Passengers would see it and smile; kids in the opposite lane would twist around to read the lettered side. More than half my drivers mentioned it, and many said it was the reason they stopped. But in...
Roadside Art
The highways can surprise you. Just off two-lane MI-28, for instance, well away from so much as a gas station, I found a sculpture park, quirky and free and controversial. Lakenenland, named after its creator, is unaffiliated with any city or artist collective. It is...
The Untrustworthy
“I’m not trustworthy,” Cindy said. “Every number’s half of what I say, and every story’s half as good.” She cackled, then twisted so she could wink at me, crammed in the backseat. She rode shotgun and fidgeted constantly....
Sound Off! Interview (Part 1)
The first half of NewsTalk WJRW 1340 AM’s interview with Josh deLacy (during the journey). Read...
Walking for the Fallen
I first heard about the veteran walking across America when I was still a full state behind him. “We saw him last week,” a family told me. “He’s carrying a flag all the way across the country.” And from another driver: “He’s walking from Washington to...
You Can’t Plan For Virtue
I rarely wait more than an hour for a ride. The average, actually, is somewhere closer to half that. Sometimes I get out of one car, wave goodbye, and before I can even walk across the parking lot and pull out my sign, someone else pulls up and offers me a lift. Those...
Oil!
California had the forty-niners, Alaska had the Klondike. And now, North Dakota has the Bakken. It’s a gold rush without the gold, and it has turned North Dakota on its head.