America. It’s worth going here at least once for the spirit of freedom, urban atypicality and, of course, the grandeur of the unique nature!

My trip to the States lasted 6 months, I just brought my body to this continent and decided to see what would come of it. There was a great desire to visit a lot national parks, but I didn’t have the slightest idea how to do it with my ridiculous budget. There was only a mess in my head about prohibitions, rules, other people's freedom and the far-fetched high cost of everything around.

I still come across people who carefully preserve the belief that airplanes are an extreme luxury, and a flight to the USA costs a thousand bucks. Are you guys serious?! Yes, in Russia I increasingly see train tickets that are more expensive than airplanes. The development of technology and airline competition are ready to give you tickets almost for nothing, take for example the growing number of low-cost airlines.

The cheapest flights to America from everyone’s favorite Europe. The average price is $130 (there are offers from $50), to find these tickets you need, firstly, to plan your trip in advance so that you can buy tickets in advance, and secondly, scan sites for tickets for some time until Interesting options will appear (note the Vandrouki website, there are a lot of good offers and check the options).

*Sometimes there are tickets from Moscow for 15,000 rubles there/back, incl. Aeroflot (added from comments). Check availability of tickets too).

Sometimes there are good prices from Moscow, but most often it’s still with a transfer in Europe, and so that there are no various misunderstandings with transit zone(and I hear similar stories more and more often), it’s better to get a Schengen visa just in case. This process is elementary.

I described how to get a visa to Europe for ordinary, mortal, non-working, auto-toppers:

  • (Finnish, Schengen expenses are $65 plus from 30 rubles per day),
  • and (Spanish, easy to receive, but you need a certificate from the bank about the availability of funds).

A round-trip flight to the USA from Europe costs around $400. We flew from Madrid to Las Vegas for $180 with a transfer in Oslo.

Housing. Where to sleep cheaply in the USA

It is very, very logical that there will be no prices for hotels and hostels, we exclude this. Although I will say, just in case, that we once got a room in LA for a hundred bucks and cockroaches were running all over our toast! So you will simply go broke on normal numbers.

We take a tent with us and remember about your profile on the hospitality website. While we are in the city, we find someone to stay with, and in national parks we sleep in a tent.

You can buy a fitness membership for $10 (a large network that is available in many cities) and go there for a shower, I think it’s convenient. Sometimes there is no registration (according to couchsurfing, there are no people ready to receive us, or they have sudden things to do), then we sleep in a tent in the city.

In the USA, a lot of homeless people live on the streets, and not all of them are drug addicts, alcoholics or psychos, many are quite normal and look very good, but sleep on the street in a tent. Yes, a backpack with foam and a tent is the kit of a typical American homeless person. In Las Vegas, we got a very good feel for the salt of their lives, and in Los Angeles, even social support workers for the homeless gave us cards for food and travel when they found us in a tent in the morning.

Free showers can be found at gas stations for trucks, truckers are given free shower coupons as a bonus for refueling a truck, you just need to tell them about your trip and ask.

Getting Around the States

Bicycles!

The first brilliant idea that came into our bright heads was to buy bicycles and slowly, with the breeze and the spirit of freedom, try to understand what is happening in this country.

At our service there is a Walmart store, we bought bicycles and everything necessary to repair them here. During three months the store is ready to return money for goods without the need to explain the reason for the return. Very convenient free rental, I recommend it.

Prices for bikes are 70-200 dollars. As soon as we stopped liking one of the bikes, we calmly gave it up and bought another, better one.

Minus this idea in the scorching desert sun. If your trip is from March to September and you plan to cross the American West, be sure to check the weather. When I got overheated in the sun, all I could do was lie under a bush, make mooing noises and sleep, which slowed down the journey slightly.

Pros There's a lot of this idea. The main ones are, of course, mobility, independence and secrecy. It is very easy to bypass payment points at the entrances to National Parks; you can also easily spend the night anywhere, hiding behind a bush or rock, without paying for camping.

Another plus is the undeniable image of travelers, here the attitude towards you is different, many ask about the need for help, give food, water, but this is only when we travel outside the city. Within the city limits, we are no different from the homeless, at least in Las Vegas, where we were based at first, homeless tramps often look better than us, and their backpacks with bicycles are of expensive brands..

In cities, as a rule, there are special paths for cyclists; if there are none, you still feel confident, the drivers are quite adequate (the exact opposite of Vietnam, for example). Outside the city we drove on the autobahns, I don’t know if it was legal, but the police didn’t stop us.

When we were rewinding our trunks in complete darkness, in the American wilderness, people drove up to us and asked if we needed help. When our camera exploded, we always found someone who would give us his spare one, that is, they found us themselves. Once, those we met did not have a spare camera and they took us to a store in the nearest city in their pickup truck.

At night we set up a tent somewhere near the highway, or in a secluded place in the park. If you are traveling in the summer season, you need to be careful for the presence of snakes, scorpions and tarantulas; go into the grass only with a stick and it is better before dark. We personally met with a rattlesnake, which we almost stepped on, it rattled loudly, my indifference about living creatures dissipated in an instant, be careful in general. We also saw tarantulas in their natural habitat more than once.

By bicycle we visited 2 national parks (Lake Mead with the Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire) and 1 state park (Red Rock), time - 30 days, distance - about 700 kilometers (for a very long time we got used to the heat, lay in the shade , waited for them to pass sunburn, the temperature remained stable at 40 Celsius, and at night often did not drop below 25.

Our bike trip ended as spontaneously as it began, I came across a post on the Internet about looking for people to travel together around the USA in a rented car, and I thought that this was my dream. Having counted the remaining money, I realized that it was enough for this venture, if I ate just a little bit, basically, right next to each other, but there was no stopping me. We returned the bikes to the store and took the next bus from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where the Russian team was arriving in the near future.

Traveling with a rented car

For one month, our home was a Dodge Caravan, which we rented for $70 a day, it was unforgettable. We had one six-month-old child, various stories with the police, a lot of snow and beauty.

If you are planning a trip lasting a month, then it will be cheaper to buy a car than to rent. Especially if you are a master felt-tip pen and like to dig into these pieces of iron.

Price from 1000 bucks (60 thousand rubles), You can see the options here, for example: sfbay.craigslist.org

The ideal state for buying a car is California, where no one cares about your rights or citizenship.

It’s better to rent through different aggregators like Kayak.ru. The whole point of renting a car is in its insurance, since you are a foreigner it will cost you a fortune. Perfect option -
rent a car for a large group like us.

There is an option for another adventure: on the website autodriveaway.com - the owner of the car needs to drive the car from one city to another, sometimes across the whole country, and he is looking for a way to save on the services of drivers. This is the perfect way to see the country cheaply and in style! The number of days is, of course, limited, and you can’t deviate too much from the route, but you can always visit some interesting things along the way. You only pay for gas, but very often this is paid off with a generous tip upon arrival at your destination.

Gasoline is not very expensive, in some places it is even very cheap ($2-4 per gallon (3.78 liters), which is like 32 rubles per liter. It is better to pay for gasoline in cash; there is always a commission for the card and the price differs from that indicated on the board.

30 days were spent on the road.

Distance traveled: 7250 miles (11920 kilometers, further than from Moscow to Vladivostok). 9 northwestern states covered.

Money spent:

$983 for gas
$246 for food, that is, 100 rubles per day per person!
$150 park admission (price per pass and state park entrances)

27 nights spent in a tent, 3 nights in friends' apartments.
Of all the nights spent in the tent, four did not violate the law and rules.

We dealt with the police 4 times.

We drove into a car in a parking lot once.

Visited 9 National Parks:

Joshua Three National Park
Yosemite
Rushmore National monument
Devils Tower
Yellowstone
Mount Rainier
North Cascades
Olympic
Crater Lake

6 State Parks:

Calaveras
Custer
Palouse Falls
Cape Perpetua
Oregon Dunes
Silver Falls

4 cities:

San Francisco
Salt Lake City
Seattle
Portland

And we drove most of the east coast of America along the first route along the Pacific Ocean!

As for the police and rights, in the states there is a slightly different control system, here you will never meet anything like traffic police officers, no one will wait for you behind the bushes to check whether you have a license, whether you are drunk or on something.

If you don’t violate, they don’t stop you, and vice versa, if you violate, then the highway patrol identifies you, turns on the flashing lights and pulls up behind you; if you see bright lights chasing you, this means that you need to pull to the side of the road and wait in the car, putting hands on the steering wheel. I know several people who drive perfectly, without violating, but without a license, and for several years there have been no problems with the police.

Peculiarity budget travel by car- these are evening adventures in finding places to stay for the night. If on a bicycle you can turn off the road anywhere and crash camping in nowhere, feeling calm and wonderful there, then by car you need to find a suitable parking place. Here, according to the principle “Everything that is not prohibited is permitted,” we scanned the rest area parking lots for the presence of signs prohibiting night parking. If this is not available, then we stayed, mother Lesya slept in the tent with her child, and the remaining team members left to look for places for two tents. As a rule, there are no hidden places in such parking lots, so we simply parked at the edge of the forest, and this is no longer legal, so we woke up at dawn and pretended that nothing had happened.

Also on the map of the States there are quite a lot of green areas marked “National forest”; in the territory of these forests it is legal to park a car, set up a tent camp and light fires, the main thing is to do this away from the road.

We found an official campsite in national parks, parked the car there, pitched the tent after sunset when the rangers had already left, and packed it up at dawn, thus saving a fortune.

Airplanes within the USA

They fly in all directions across America, the minimum ticket price is $50, although there are some mystical low-cost airlines, but not everywhere and not always. And why deprive yourself of the pleasure of seeing the American countryside from the window of a bus or car. Although, when we realized that we didn’t have time to hitchhike to New York, and the 6 months allotted to us on the visa would soon end, we took a plane from Chicago to New York.

Buses in the USA

Most a budget option travel around the states, not counting hitchhiking, is by bus. Two major services, megabus.com and www.greyhound.com, have organized an auction of unprecedented generosity and are selling tickets from $1 if purchased in advance. The routes do not cover all of America, but you can go many places and with convenience ( free Internet, sockets, toilet). So, we traveled from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and from San Francisco to Los Angeles for $5. But the most wonderful adventure was a bus from Texas to Chicago, a 22-hour ride for $15.

Americans themselves prefer to fly by plane, so on our bus from Texas there were only black kids reading rap and doing inappropriate things, but it’s fun).

We hitchhiked approximately 6,000 kilometers across six states. During these 54 days the following money was spent:

  • for food $270 (143 rubles per day per person),
  • $34 for public transport in cities,
  • $10 for laundry
  • $18 for gas cylinders,
  • $47 for clothes
  • $58 for permits in the parks (mostly they didn’t pay, but sometimes they had to),
  • $40 for all sorts of little things.

Hitchhiking is generally legal, but some states still make it illegal, although the police themselves do not know about it. But to feel confident, you can find information about the legality and complexity of hitchhiking in a specific state here: hitchwiki.org/en/United_States_of_America

In order to stop the first car, we went to the outskirts of the city, walked to the entrance to the freeway and waved our hand, making it clear that we needed a ride.

They stopped more willingly than not, drove us far, fed us, worried about us, and told us about the beauty nearby.

I really like American hitchhiking for its diversity of cultures, because here everyone from Africans to Colombians consider themselves local, an amazing mix of nationalities that grew up in American culture. Trucks rarely stopped, mostly wide vehicles with huge wheels; people here really like space in everything.

Police she came to our souls only once, when we had not left before dark, and were gloomy silhouettes in the darkness of the night, and this is already suspicious. They explained to us that standing at the entrances to the highway is neither safe nor legal, even if it is the best place for our business. We were sent to a deserted gas station and wished good luck.

In daylight, under the same circumstances, police cars simply drive by because they see that we seem to be adequate.

Appearance. In America it is very important to look neat, your appearance- this is 90% success. This is probably why lonely hip-looking guys with big beards don’t have much luck here. But if you put a girl next to you, there’s more trust.

Sometimes the most narrow-minded police officers can tell you that hitchhiking is impossible and illegal; in this case, I would take a bus to another exit from the city and stop the car there.

The most unfavorable places for hitchhiking - near large cities, or, even worse, in urban areas. The deserted expanses of “nowhere” are the most favorable places for hitchhiking, where you look quite clearly like people who want to go somewhere. Although once we got stuck quite badly in northern Utah, where there are not so many cars, and on our drive there was only one every fifteen minutes. We stood there for two hours - that's rare.

We hitchhiked through 6 states, winding between national parks. In those parks where it was not detected free buses, we also hitchhiked, we learned that each park has its own laws on this matter, and even if hitchhiking is legal in the state, it may be prohibited in the park. Yes, in the park Carlsbad Caverns Several rangers stopped us and told us that we were doing something illegal, they told us to walk and not try to stop the car anymore, but after walking 15 kilometers, we still caught the car before leaving.

Hypermarket parking lots. If you are stuck in the city, and the police are mercilessly driving you away from the entrance to the highway, or it is very far away, then the most logical thing is to find a large hypermarket, such as Walmart, and stop the cars at the exit of the parking lot, asking them to take you to the entrance to the highway, they tried , relaxed and not difficult for them.

Refills. As for gas stations within the city, it seemed to me that this was not the best idea. Truckers do not understand where they are going, and when asked whether they are going north, they automatically name the opposite side of the world with fear in their eyes.

But with this type of travel, I cannot guarantee that you will have the same experience, just know that hitchhiking exists, and I personally had an incredible experience from two months of such an adventure!

Food

For food we spent no more than $5 for two per day (150 rubles each), with different types movement, this figure varied slightly. For a large group with a rented car, where you can store huge packages of rice, pasta, beans - we spent 100 rubles a day per person, although we ate our hearts out!

The secret to saving and variety is a gas cylinder, a burner and large packages. When traveling by car, there was always oatmeal with bananas for breakfast, salad and pasta for lunch, variety and sweets for dinner. Of course, we looked a little strange, spread out on the sidewalk or parking lot with all our plates. Once she saw us with all the staff in the library parking lot, the librarian called the sheriff, saying that we were cooking amphetamine here early in the morning! But in general, apart from the awareness of its absurdity, there were no problems.

Fast food. In general, America is a country of fast food; in any parking lot there is a McDonald’s, a Fatburger, and a Kingburger; there is plenty of this goodness. Yes, you can actually find burgers for a dollar and free unlimited soda (just find a glass in the area and refill ad infinitum). Be sure to install the McDonald's US app, it gave me free ice cream and food every day without having to buy anything, Americans love coupons.

The shops. It’s good to save money with stores where all goods are for the dollar “99 cents Only”, “Dollar Tree”, here they have absolutely everything we ate every day. The Walmart or SafeWay chain always has a counter with sales of sweets, and their prices are generally reasonable.

The longer you stay in America, the more budget-friendly you start to live. This country is beautiful for its price contrasts. You can buy two kilos of bananas for $1, and in the store opposite for $7, and so on everywhere. To buy groceries for your home, you need to go to at least 4 stores and then it will be as budget-friendly as possible. But this is only if you stay somewhere for a long time.

If you just need to shop and not worry, then let it be Walmart. Also here the prices are indicated without tax, that is, you will go to the checkout and see different prices from those on the price tags, this is always a surprise. Except that there is no tax on first-use products (bread, milk, eggs...), and the tax amount is different in each state.

The key to your savings is a burner and a pot, you will also “love” this romance of cooking pasta for dinner... Gas cylinders are sold in the same Walmart for $8 large, $4 small and $2 “dichlorvos”. If you have multi-fuel, then this is the most cheap option, but it often clogs even with high-grade gasoline.

Free food. IN big cities They often distribute food to the homeless and needy; you can ask local vagabonds where these places are. In the city of Fresno, we somehow accidentally came across a park where all the tramps had a loaf of bread and a pie. Moving towards the concentration of people, we came across a car filled with cupcakes, cheese baguettes, pies and loaves. They are not expired at all, they are simply given to anyone who wants them.

It's no secret that in modern world, where supply exceeds demand, a lot of good food is thrown into the trash every day. Well, for example, every morning in this store they bake a certain amount of baked goods, and everything that is not sold goes to the trash by nine o’clock in the evening, beautifully packaged, because there will be fresh buns in the morning. Well, you know what I mean….

Here is one of the sites dumpstermap.org

Entrance, Annual Pass. If you plan to travel to a national park, then when entering the first one, be sure to buy an Annual Pass for all parks. It costs $80, is valid for a year and pays for itself very quickly. One pass is needed per car; if you suddenly enter the park without a car, you still only need one pass. When entering you need to show your passport, they check your photo with you and signatures. If your journey is over before December, then the pass can be sold, the signatures are easily erased. You can also buy someone’s pass through the Amazon website, or from your own hands.

Overnight stays. In national parks, you are required to spend the night in specially designated paid campgrounds. This is a place with cleared ground for tents, a metal fire pit, a clean toilet and possibly a shower.

Lifehack. As a rule, a box containing envelopes is attached to the information stand. You must take one, fill out the information, put the specified amount in it and put it in another box, after tearing off the label with a number like on an envelope, by which you can be checked. We arrived around eight in the evening, when the rangers were already leaving, took this envelope, collected the specified amount in it, but never put it in another box. If the check didn’t come, and it didn’t, we took the money back and threw away the envelope at the checkout. And if she had come, we would have explained in clumsy English that we were stupid tourists.

My favorite state is Utah, it has an amazing red-yellow color, it is cut by canyons and is rich in beautiful natural arches, in this state nature moves with the wind, weathers, crumbles, transforms...

In the USA, I knew and felt all kinds of deserts, prickly, rocky, with snakes, dunes, white lizards, with and without giant cacti, and even the one where the sky merges with the horizon and everything is lost. idea of ​​reality.

In the USA, I saw how close volcanoes, craters, lakes, deserts, dense forests, ocean shores are, wild nature mountains, a highly developed civilization, geysers, wild deer, distinct cultures, snowdrifts and hot springs...

The sixties and seventies are far behind us. When travel to hitchhike in America was the norm for many youth circles and trends. Right now, many people in America live in an atmosphere of uncertainty. Fear and destruction.

But despite this, hitchhiking across America has not lost its popularity. On many roads in America you can still meet people of different ages who, for various reasons, hitchhike across America.
But hitchhiking in America is much easier for the inhabitants of this continent than for residents of Russia hitchhiking in their homeland.
Strange, isn't it?
First of all you will need good map expensive And very detailed. So in America there are no problems with this. You can get it there in almost any library.
The most interesting thing is that when hitchhiking across America, you really don’t have to take a lot of money with you. The main thing is to initially correctly determine the path where you decide to go.
The cool thing about this route choice is that your route will naturally take you through many states. And of course, each state sometimes has its own holidays. And such a holiday is rarely complete without attractions. When hitchhiking across America, this is exactly what you should pay attention to. After all, every attraction offers free treats and drinks. plus some local residents They are happy to invite those who hitchhike (and not only them, of course) into their homes. In order to treat you to all sorts of dishes. Which they prepare according to tradition for everyone.
Well, kind of like in Russia on Maslenitsa.
But hitchhiking across America can often be upsetting for many. This often happens because it should be taken into account that each state in America has its own laws.
And they may differ dramatically from your state's law.
Hitchhiking across America is not legal in every state.
Sometimes it's better not to show that you're a hitchhiker. Just keep moving forward.
IN different states America you better usesign, where the inscription on it will say that you are hitchhiking. But don't point your fingerup. Like in this photo. By the way, the guys in the photo are standing in front of the bridges - this is bad place choice to stop the car. Stopping vehicles in front of bridges is prohibited! In some states and countries around the world this gesture (fingerup) is considered an insult. Therefore, you need to thoroughly prepare for hitchhiking across America.
And when hitchhiking across America, always try to be clean and tidy. Not like thesePeopleon the picture. Often the police, despite the fact that hitchhiking is prohibited in the state, will never cause you trouble just because you look clean and tidy.
On some roads in America and other countries, it is generally prohibited to stop cars by voting. Up to punishment with a fine or a short term of imprisonment.
Keep in mind that on some roads (such as expressways) you are putting not only yourlife,but also the lives of drivers.
Among those who hitchhike across America, there is an opinion that has been tested over the years. The best way to hitchhike is on the West Coast of America.
For those who are subject to other people's influence.
Most people in America are very religious people. And if you get into a car with such a person, and you yourself do not adhere too much to any religion, be prepared for the fact that you will now begin to be brainwashed. To try to convince you to accept their faith. And it’s good if they are not sectarians who are outside the law. What should you do in this case?
Don't be rude under any circumstances. Be polite. Understand one thing: many drivers pick up travelers for the sake of conversation. And not for the sake of money. And you should be prepared for the fact that you will have to talk a lot on different topics.

After traveling around Russia and Europe, blogger Tasha Cosmos went to explore nature reserves and National parks USA. To cut costs, she decided to hitchhike. As a result, she managed to travel through 18 states, see Niagara and the Grand Canyon, spending only $400, and even earn a little money along the way.

"Paper" learned from Tasha how to organize a five-week trip with minimal costs, why people helped for free, and sometimes gave money, and also what became the most unpleasant thing in communicating with Americans.

Tasha Cosmos

Preparation

I I travel a lot, but the States have never been a priority. All my life I have been a fan of cities, but after traveling in Ireland and Iceland I began to like nature. It turned out that most of the places that appeal to me from this point of view are located in the USA. Therefore, the key points of the route were Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks, Niagara Falls, West Coast and several large cities - New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas.

I have project work, so over time there were no problems. I had never gone on a solo trip before, but my husband didn’t want to go with me. There wasn’t much money either - and so I made two fundamental decisions: to go alone and to hitchhike.




The first week and a half were planned, and they became the most civilized because they took place in big cities. For the first few days I lived in a loft in New York, then I went to Connecticut, where my biophysicist friend showed me the laboratories of Yale University and the most beautiful street in the USA. She took me around the lighthouses of New England and took me all the way to Boston. The hardest thing about hitchhiking is getting out of the city. On the first day, a friend took me out and that’s how my hitchhiking began, which was planned only for three or four days in advance.

I only had one small backpack with me. There was an excellent response from couchsurfing, there were no problems with lodging for the night or finding a host, so I decided not to take a tent or a sleeping bag. As a last resort, I could buy them locally if necessary. Blogs about my past travels helped me find couchsurfing hosts. Detailed information about me plus positive reviews on couchsurfing instilled confidence in people.

I didn’t have much money - and so I made two fundamental decisions: to go alone and to hitchhike

Most of the money was spent on food, because, in addition to my own food, I bought something for the people who hosted me - this is not necessary, but I wanted to show gratitude for the hospitality. In second place is public transport. Inside the city you spend quite a lot: the metro, for example, costs from 2 to 9 dollars. In addition, it was necessary to buy tickets to museums, entry to national parks was also paid - about $30 per car. When I was going to the Grand Canyon, it was planned that my friend and I would take a car for two, this trip would cost me $200, and we almost canceled it. But in the end, they miraculously found a larger company and it turned out to be 30 bucks per person. To find travel companions, I used the same couchsurfing and the popular American classifieds site craigslist.org.

For $40 I bought an American SIM card with unlimited calls, SMS and mobile internet for 30 days. All my cards were electronic - on my phone. It was my only means of protecting myself on the road. Before you get into the car, you have a few seconds to snipe the license plate. I sent a photo to my American girlfriend. If something happened, I could show this SMS and tell the driver: “Hey, they already know everything about you!” Fortunately, this was never required.




In five weeks I had to return to New York, from where I was flying home. Google gave the time based on the fact that you drive non-stop, so I threw two or three hours on top. Sometimes the move lasted for two or three days. And yet I stayed on schedule. A promotion from an American low-cost airline helped a lot: I bought a ticket from Chicago to Denver for just $54. And this is only a three-hour flight instead of three days of travel through the states in the center of the country, where there was nothing interesting for me. I flew back from west to east across the country using the same low-cost airline. A ticket from Vegas to Pittsburgh cost $98, a bus from Pittsburgh to New York cost $15.


5 weeks
duration of travel in the USA

12,800 RUR
cost of an American visa for three years

RUB 35,606
tickets to New York

400 $
expenses on the road

40 $
communication expenses

4500 miles
length of hitchhiking route

18 states
during the trip

57
drivers were given lifts while hitchhiking

Journey

Everything I read in advance on the Internet was that hitchhiking in the USA is very slow and illegal in many states. In New York State, where I was traveling from Massachusetts to see Niagara Falls, it was definitely prohibited. My first driver, Randy, told me to pretend I was just tying my shoes in case I got caught by the police. But I confidently told Randy that I could easily get my next car without going out of state.

The whole store fed me, and one of the customers found out my story, shook my hand and gave me a twenty

And so it happened: as soon as I got out of the car, another one immediately slowed down, I didn’t even have time to take out my sign with the name of my destination. The driver very confidently told me: “Jump in!” I tried to explain to him where I was going, and he suddenly announced that he already knew where. After a couple of jokes about the CIA and Russian spies, it turns out that his friend saw me standing with a sign, but was driving in the other direction. He realized that he wouldn’t have time to turn around, so he asked a friend on the phone who was driving to in the right direction grab me. As a result, my first day of hitchhiking was so comfortable and simple, as if I was being carefully taken to visit an old friend, and this set the mood for the entire subsequent journey.

In the town of Buffalo, an American grandfather, the owner of a bicycle shop, gave me a free bicycle so that I could go to Niagara and back. The entire store fed me, and one of the customers found out my story, shook my hand and gave me a twenty. This was the first time I was given money while traveling in the States. I tried to explain that I was not a tramp, but a traveler, that I had money, but he began to take offense.




I have never paid for housing, and not always for food. The American strangers I met were disgusted by my journey, and everyone considered it their duty to feed me or give me money. Once motorcyclists who were traveling in the other direction stopped: “We can’t give you a lift, let us help at least this way, buy yourself some dinner!” In Vegas, I spent a free night at the luxury hotel where Elvis lived because my driver insisted that I should feel the spirit of the city: he took me on a tour of the casino and paid for the room. I managed to “earn” 95 bucks - this was only in those cases when people were offended and it was no longer possible to refuse. If I had not refused so stubbornly, much more would have happened.

Almost all the drivers gave me their number and asked me to let them know as soon as I arrived. So in the evenings I had a ritual: I wrote SMS to my drivers, because, in my opinion, this is the minimum gratitude to a person, so that he at least does not worry. We still communicate with some of them.




Risks

My American friends scared me of two things: bears and crazy people. Because of this, I decided that I would only be on the road during the day, although previously, when hitchhiking in Russia or Europe, I felt calm at night. By the way, I saw a grizzly bear with cubs, but from a car and at a safe distance. Regarding psychos, my friend, for example, said that in a week there were four shootings in her area. But I answered that this was nonsense: people have no reason to shoot a hitchhiker.

The fact that I am a girl rather helped me. Firstly, a girl on the road inspires less fear. Secondly, many drivers said that they gave me a lift precisely because it could be dangerous. Every driver told me: “If my wife or daughter were in this situation, I would want someone like me to give her a ride, not some crazy person.”

I had already started to say goodbye, and he suddenly asked me: “What about a blowjob for a ride?”

People asked me why you don't at least have pepper spray. But I'm sure that if I took the can, I would probably need it, and I don't want to attract trouble. However, two stories happened to me: one strange, the other funny.

One time I didn’t even vote, I just walked along the road. Suddenly a car stopped, filled to the brim with garbage, with a drug addict sitting inside. He didn't look dangerous, he was just crazy. He immediately started pouring out a bunch of information on me, calling me to his house and offering us weed, I responded by saying that I was waiting for a friend and wouldn’t go with him. This was the only time I didn't get into the car because of the driver.

The second time I was driven by a stern, bearded American farmer, very silent and in a classic pickup truck. I chatted all the way, trying to somehow entertain him - after all, that’s what they take travel companions for. We reached our destination - a crowded parking lot (which is also safe). I had already started to say goodbye, and he suddenly asked me: “What about a blowjob for a ride?” I said “No, thanks” and left, he didn’t insist.



Experience

My caring American acquaintances so insistently told stories about bears and maniacs that, to be honest, this was the first trip before which I really felt afraid. At some point I thought, maybe I really don’t understand what I’m doing, and I shouldn’t take it so lightly. But the brave one is not the one who is not afraid, but the one who is afraid but does it.

Sometimes people managed to help me even from the other side of the country

I expected to walk in the rain and wind on empty roads, run from bears and sleep in barns. But every story that started out uncomfortable ended beautifully. Sometimes people managed to help me even from the other end of the country. One driver I became friends with called me when I was stuck on the highway in the dark. And by some miracle, a 20-minute walk from me was one of the hotel chains in which he was able to get me a free room. The last thing I was prepared for on this journey was such miracles.

I don't mean to say that you should rush headlong into solo hitchhiking adventures without money and without a plan. But if you have experience traveling and communicating with different people, if you know how to resolve suspicious situations, navigate the terrain and make quick decisions, if you use your brain and trust yourself and the world, then anything is possible.

The famous gesture of American hitchhikers - a hand with an extended thumb - is known throughout the world. Perhaps it is only slightly inferior in popularity to another American gesture with a different extended finger. The history of American hitchhiking, it turns out, was not easy, but very interesting.

Firstly, there was no “hitchhiking” in America. This is a European term. And in the USA, catching a ride for free has always been called hitchhiking.

It all started in the 1920s, when the states were suffering from the Great Depression. A huge number of people found themselves without work; they went below the poverty line not individually, but in entire streets, and sometimes even blocks. Especially in peripheral cities. Residents of the province were forced to actively look for new opportunities to earn money, and therefore left their homes and moved to other places. And since a little less than 26 million rides had been registered in the United States by that time, the poor, hungry for work, took to the highways in search of rides. Mostly due to the fact that they did not have the opportunity to pay for another method of travel. This is how hitch hiking was born.

This quickly became a problem for the railway companies and for the state in general. For the first, because people did not buy tickets, and for the second, because taxes did not go to the treasury from those tickets not purchased. The people became so insolent (from the point of view of the state) that they began to arrange stops for hitchhikers!

In general, after calculating the losses, the railway workers and the state realized that it would be cheaper to invest in promoting accidents on the roads. From completely legal methods, such as advertising on the roads (pictured below), to very murky ones:

At the same time, rumors began to spread about murderers and maniacs who caught their victims using the hitch-hiking method. Anti-hitchhiker remedies were actively advertised: from banal stickers on the windshield to radical ones that bordered on the law.

For example, Steinbeck wrote about stickers in his “The Grapes of Wrath”:
The pedestrian stood up and looked at the driver through the cab windows.
- Can you give me a ride, mister?
The driver glanced quickly at the bar.
- Don't you see what's on my windshield?
- How not to see, I see. But still, a decent person - he is always decent, even if some rich bastard forces him to drive with such a sticker.

But these were the radical means:

The persecution of hitch hikers did not completely eradicate the phenomenon, but it also ceased to be widespread. At least until the start of World War II, when hitchhiking became fashionable again. It is believed that this was a reaction to calls for Americans not to spend war time excess fuel. And besides, a man in military uniform could always catch a ride. So the thumbs up has returned to the sides of American roads.

In the 1950s, the active construction of expressways began in the United States. This again greatly reduced the number of hitch hikers (there is no place to vote on the autobahn). But not for long. The 60s and 70s came with their new youth movements, festivals and hitchhiker idols. Hitch hiking now has not only an economic justification, but also a romantic flair. Kerouac alone was worth it. Again, driving past such hitch-hikers was probably very difficult.

In the 1980s, the state again took charge of hitchhikers. It started with anti-propaganda in the media and ended with a natural ban at the legislative level. In addition, during that period the statistics on road accidents really jumped. This company has practically killed the romance of hitch hiking, and most importantly, it has radically changed the attitude of Americans themselves towards it.

And although today hitchhiking is prohibited in only a few states, standing on the roadway and interfering with traffic, even with a raised hand, is prohibited everywhere. However, this movement can no longer be erased from the cultural memory of the United States, and indeed the whole world. At least thanks to movies and songs.

I'm not even talking about.