(edit: all of this happened pre-transition. boy how the times change)
Port Townsend, Washington
Between 2014 and 2016 I travelled some 20,000 miles by train, thumb, and van. I didn’t set out with a particular mission. I just wanted to escape small-town Arkansas, quit my job stocking shelves at Walmart, and experience the world.
I started out in a $600 1985 Ford Econoline, used a little of the money I had saved to build shelves and a bed in the back, and installed console record player that was given to me by a friend. That van was so cool…
The Econoline made it to Rocky Mountain National Park!
I left one day with a plan to play bluegrass music on street corners along the way for gas money, and what do you know? It actually worked! I’d come into town, play a few days, and then be on my way. Colorado, New Mexico, California, Washington, and Oregon were some of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. And what’s more is that I began meeting the most interesting people. People who had given up their normal lives to travel by bike or thumb or by illegally hopping trains.
This wild variety of people had a common thread — a love for the open road. Some run from their past. Some run towards their future. Some just take it a day at a time. I decided to get my hands on a camera and a tape recorder to document what I saw. Eventually, some of my traveling friends started calling me “The Nikon Kidd” after another famous traveling photographer called “The Polaroid Kid.”
I had no idea how big this would get after being published by The Plaid Zebra back in 2016, but that selection of photos went viral enough that I ended up in my local newspaper.
I remember those times fondly, so I decided to gather those photos and interviews, as well as some that were never published, here as a sort of a permanent record:
Oregon Coast, Northbound
"The less stuff you have the more freedom you have…There’s less to tie you down, less to get in your way. In our case, we measure weight in pounds, not tons. If we drop 50 pounds, our van will drive better."
Port Townsend, Washington
Do you have any lessons from the road?
"I’m so acutely aware of the time I waste on small decisions that don’t really matter. Because I’m traveling so aimlessly it’s decisions like “Should I go this way or should I go that way?"
"I’ve learned that it’s best to get on my bike and start pedaling."
Boulder, Colorado
"I was on a train. It was one of the ones with the three big holes on the bottom. I asked my buddy for rolling papers to roll a cigarette."
"He leaned back and went through the hole. He was gone, just like that."
"One night I was on a ride with 20 kids all on top of a boxcar drinking, having fun and singing. In the morning four of them were gone. We lost four kids that night out there in Arizona. That’s why I got this (four dots tattooed)."
"It really does change your mentality. You start to think about how dangerous it is. People think we get by for free, but honesty we pay dearly for this."
"We pay with our lives."
"That’s why now I won’t travel with anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Because now I’m responsible for that person’s life. What if something happens?"
Boulder, Colorado
Why do you travel and do you have any advice for someone who is just starting?
"The reason I travel is that there’s so much to see. Everyone just puts themselves in a box and they work for this image that they think they should live up to. Why do that? We just love people. We love people, we love puppies, we love cats."
"Give as much as possible, all the time. Kindness. Pay it forward. If you make some money. Toss it to someone who looks like they don’t have a skill. We’re pretty chatty musical people but we see people who aren’t. We have very little but we give a large portion of it."
Nevada City, California
At the Yampa River Hitchhiker Gathering
What’s something you’ve learned while traveling?
"I learned so much when I travel. I learned to rock climb. I learned to be a bigger person. I learned how to love people more…wonderful things. I learned about dry shampoo."
Asheville, North Carolina
Can I take your picture?
"Do you have a dollar?"
Nope
"Well, do you need one?"
Nevada City, California
At the Yampa River Hitchhiker Gathering
"I always wanted to travel, ever since I was young but I never imagined that I’d be traveling like this. I always had it in my mind that I needed money and a nice job. Asian parents, you know. Then I heard of people hopping trains and I started looking it up. I became obsessed with it and then one day I just left."
"There were a lot of things I wanted to leave behind. In some ways I feel like traveling saved my life."
National Rainbow Gathering 2015, South Dakota
How’d you get on a cargo ship?
"Well, I was very determined to cross into Colombia from Panama without a plane ticket, but you can’t, there’s no road."
The Darién Gap?
"Yeah, and there’s a lot of drug war going from one side in the south. That’s the side I started out on. I saw a couple dead bodies before I turned around to try the other edge."
That’s pretty scary.
"Yeah, but it was so beautiful."
Route 128 Northbound near Mendocino, California
Have you learned any valuable lessons while hitchhiking?
"It’s a good practice in having faith in kindness. That’s a challenging lesson in the modern world."
National Rainbow Gathering 2015, South Dakota
You’re from the Netherlands, what’s something that surprised you about traveling in the US?
"Hitchhiking here is perceived the opposite of how it is in Europe. In Europe people are always asking “Isn’t it dangerous, aren’t you afraid?”. Here people are afraid of you."
Whitefish, Montana
"If I could tell the world anything about trainhopping it would be “Don’t talk about trainhopping”."
Whitefish, Montana
Is there anything you’d like to tell the world?
"Try harder"
Maryhill Stonehenge, Washington
Why do you pick up hitchhikers?
"Because it could be me."
"In my trunk I have a lug wrench, a jack, an electronic pump and even jumper cables because there could be someone who needs help. If I help out enough people, maybe that same person I helped out years ago will stop to help me out when I need it"
Port Townsend, Washington
What’s something you learned while traveling?
"I just realized that all this shit that we have, we don’t need. All of the urban places were sucking my soul because everything was asking for money. If you want to see a movie you’ve got to pay $10, you want a nice dinner? You’ve got to pay $20. If you want a cup of coffee you’ve got to pay $3….It was all just there for money."
"It felt so good just to get out and go to some wild area and bathe in the river instead of pay for a day pass at the YMCA or something."
"I just fell in love with nature and traveling because it doesn’t have a price."
Eugene, Oregon
"You’re either on the road or you’re in the road"
Washington Coast, Northbound
"Patience is really important when traveling in general and especially when traveling with other people in a small space, in an old under powered vehicle that overheats going up hills. Sometimes we have to go slow and sometimes we have to pull off and cool down. If we were on some strict schedule it would be a lot more stressful."
Washington Coast, Northbound
Do you have any advice for people looking to travel?
"Just do it!"
Olympic National Park, Washington
Why do you pick up hitchhikers?
"Because I hitchhike as well. So if I pick someone up, someone will pick me up. It works both ways. You can meet some really crazy people out there and I like it."
National Rainbow Gathering 2015, South Dakota
What’s something you’ve learned since you started traveling?
"Racial tension. I didn’t think it still existed until I came to the south."
National Rainbow Gathering 2015, South Dakota
What’s something you’ve learned since you started traveling?
"People are kind of the same everywhere. There are different accents and more of certain kinds of people, but for the most part the world is occupied by really nice people"
Utah
Why do you pick up hitchhikers?
"I feel like if I weren’t married and didn’t have kids maybe I’d be doing it too. It’s kind of an adventure and it’s fascinating to hear other people’s stories and philosophies."
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
"Moderation is key."
"We do this to be free, right?"
"But people who have whisky problems?"
"They’re not free."
"People who have cigarette problems?"
"They’re not free."
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to live on a bicycle?
"I spend more money than most on camp gear, but I live in it. I often go for army surplus because the most gear they make for hiking is made for weekenders. Saddlebags are made for weekenders. These are army surplus backpacks that I just made into saddlebags and they’re going to last a lot longer than that heedy-teedy camp shit."
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
"You don’t need to be an athlete to start out. I wasn’t an athlete when I started, but a few months of riding the Rockies has turned me into one."
Boulder, Colorado
"At the end of the day we only have what we do right now…It doesn’t matter if you live the American Dream or you hitchhike for the rest of your life. At the end of the day it’s just the experiences you have that are worth anything."
Boulder, Colorado
"I’m pretty much a professional hitchhiker. I do it efficiently and fast."
"If you’re smart about it, you make a good sign, you look clean, you get there early in the morning, you get your thumbs up proudly up in the air and you wave at people who drive by. Smile at them and look them in the eyes. You need a great place for cars to stop, so have a good pull out."
"If you want, you can make colorful signs. Seriously, if you invest in your sign, people will say “those people have colored pens. They don’t have drugs, they’re having fun”. If you do all that, you should get picked up. My girlfriend and I get picked up all the time by people picking up their first hitchhikers."
With that, I’ll leave you with some of the photos I took along the way:
