Reply With QuoteDo you look like this? If not, then I wouldn't stop either.
An unfortunate set off circumstances meant that yesterday afternoon/evening I had to walk from Wakefield to North Sheffiled (about 20 miles). I had my thumb out from Barnsley onwards but no-one stopped. I'm not particulalry surprised but it did make me wonder under what circumstances you would stop to give someone a lift. I certainly wouldn't if I had my kids in the car, and I wouldn't stop for more than one person but otherwise I try and be helpful. That said, you really don't see many hitchhikers these days.
Do you look like this? If not, then I wouldn't stop either.
National Express is cheap enough.
Hitch hikers need to stop pissing their money on beer and warm waterproof coats and keep it for fares.
I picked one up once, on my own, top down in an M3 convertible on the way to Scotland. Couldn't hear a word of the shite he was talking and he wanted to get out after about 60 miles.
Ungrateful if you ask me :lol:
Sorry you found yourself stuck, but most are idle and the others, you can't keep your eyes on them if driving, so best on driving past IMHO.
I gave a lift to one fella hitching on the A303 one day as I was heading from Plymouth back to the smoke.. He told me a sorry tale of being ripped off in London when he arrived from Oz... I thought he wanted a ride all the way back to London ( made no difference to me on my own in my old 328 ), but he only wanted a lift to the next services, whereupon he asked me for some cash ! seems more likely that he was just scamming people.. Probably made me less likely to pick up another one which is sad..
Years ago I hitched from the West End back to S London after my m/cycle packed up ( crappy MZ ), and got lifts of 2 diff peeps quite quickly..
Could you not phone for a cab?Originally Posted by stifflersmom
I often feel like I should/would like to pick a hticher up but like was said above, I wouldn't pick up more than one person, ir if I had family in the car.
I do often feel guilty for not stopping!!
I gave a lift to a guy who said he was a pilot from New Guinea and his rucksack had been stolen in London, with all his money and passport. He said he was trying to get to the New Guinea embassy in Edinburgh (the New Guinea embassy is in Edinburgh, I checked). It was Christmas time and he wasn't sure he would get a new passport before Christmas but they may lend him the £30 he needed to get a ferry to Belgium, where he could stay with friends of his family.
Feeling sorry for him, I lent him £30 and gave him my business card so he knew where to send the cash. Needless to say, I never saw the cash and I've often wondered how many times he did this. This was in 1988 when £30 was a fair amount to lose in a scam :( .
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
Your signature never seemed so appropriate.I gave a lift to a guy who said he was a pilot from New Guinea and his rucksack had been stolen in London, with all his money and passport. He said he was trying to get to the New Guinea embassy in Edinburgh (the New Guinea embassy is in Edinburgh, I checked). It was Christmas time and he wasn't sure he would get a new passport before Christmas but they may lend him the £30 he needed to get a ferry to Belgium, where he could stay with friends of his family.
Feeling sorry for him, I lent him £30 and gave him my business card so he knew where to send the cash. Needless to say, I never saw the cash and I've often wondered how many times he did this. This was in 1988 when £30 was a fair amount to lose in a scam :( .
Eddie
"I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked ... it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed."
Gave a lift to a Squaddie thumbing a lift on the A1. It was a filthy evening, heavy snow and fog. I was driving an old Austin A35 at the time.
We hadn't gone more than half a mile when he tells me he has a brand new car but "wouldn't be daft enough to to take it out in this weather".
He seemed totally surprised when I stopped the car and told him to get out. :roll:
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
The predicament I found myself in was:Could you not phone for a cab?
1) Lost return portion of rail ticket (usually I book online and have a reference number sent to my mobile to validate I had bought a ticket, but this time I got the tickets from the booth)
2) No cash card at home to pay for a cab when i got there due to SWMBO having the card and being away from home for the day
3) Despite having ID I couldn't get money over the counter from the bank (no cheque book)
The thing is, I would think nothing of going for a 20 mile walk in the Peak District, so it isn't the distance, but if you're wearing work shoes as opposed to walking shoes they will inevitably give you blisters at some point.
The worst thing I found was having to walk past various hostelries whilst people were supping pints in the beer gardens - and realising that even a car going 10mph appears to cover vast distances in a short time!
On the plus side, I discovered that there are some nice parts of Wakefield, which I didn't think was even a remote possibility :lol:
ha ha , good one...Your signature never seemed so appropriate.I gave a lift to a guy who said he was a pilot from New Guinea and his rucksack had been stolen in London, with all his money and passport. He said he was trying to get to the New Guinea embassy in Edinburgh (the New Guinea embassy is in Edinburgh, I checked). It was Christmas time and he wasn't sure he would get a new passport before Christmas but they may lend him the £30 he needed to get a ferry to Belgium, where he could stay with friends of his family.
Feeling sorry for him, I lent him £30 and gave him my business card so he knew where to send the cash. Needless to say, I never saw the cash and I've often wondered how many times he did this. This was in 1988 when £30 was a fair amount to lose in a scam :( .
Eddie
Bit off topic but related to Eddie's tale ; I have had the ' run out of petrol ' and no cash hard luck story at the m services on my way to the Peak district.. First time I was approached like this so I thought the guy was genuine and gave him about 3 or 4 quid... Few months later I am heading back up there for another cycling event, and I stopped at the same services.. Lo and behold the same guy comes up to me again - I probably would not have recognised him but as soon as he started on his ' patter ' the penny dropped ... I smiled and said " you don't remember me do you ? - you said the same thing to me 2 months back " he said sorry mate and walked off pretty quickly... seems some people will do anything rather than get a job....
not after watching that movie with rutger hauer in it :shock: :D
Amen to that! :shock:
In my part of Devon you do see hitch-hikers fairly often and I regularly stop and give lifts. Met some interesting people, never been tapped up for cash or had an unpleasant passenger.
Reading some of the above posts, I guess it must be a regional thing!
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Once had a bloke ask for a lift from Tanworth to Doncaster - he undid his false leg whilst driving, urinated on my passenger seat, and took £20 with the promise to post it to me... Never again!
9 times out of ten Ill give lift to a hitcher. Still do a bit of hitching myself, last summer I got a cheap flight to Montpellier and hitched from there down through the Pyranees into Spain and back again. It may not be to everyones taste, but its a grand education about the human spirit in terms of the people you meet. Travelling like that means its almost impossible to plan - the controlling 'me' has to take a back seat. It gives you a sense of what the christians call 'grace'.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
What you need is a set of Trade Plates - guarantees a lift quickly :wink:
Used by fellas delivering vehicles and hitching a lift home. You could even keep a printed fake in your pocket for emergency use :lol:
I stupidly ran out of petrol about a mile from work a few weeks back (It had taken 3 hours to do an hour trip, and my brain just failed). I locked the car up and grumpily walked a 100 yards down the road when the police pulled up, quizzed me, smiled and said "Wanna lift mate?" :shock:
Have you ever had a copper let you out of a panda Astra on a bust forecourt, even by Slough's standards I got some looks
So anyway thank them both, pay £16 for the can an contents (very similar to the can and contents I had, which were removed to facilate three samonsite hard cases in the boot a few weeks earlier.... but I digress!) and walk back to the car; and fill up. Now where I had broken down was a few minutes walk from Wexham Park hospital, and as I sulky lobbed the can in the boot this old boy wanders up - a bit dodderly he explains his carer has not collected him and he had misplaced his phone and wallet. Could he have a lift up the road? Well Karma and all that so I did the gentlemanly thing. Its was only on route it transpired he was totally loopy :lol:
I had been in work an hour when I reflected that it was eight o'clock at night and Wexham Park has "Ward 10" for mental health - effectively I had aided and abbetted his escape!
Like the truth he's probally still out there :help:
Haven't hitched for years. Used to pick people up more often than not and probably still would, but I see very few hitch hikers nowadays and sod's law dictates that when I do, I have no space in the car.
When I was younger I used to hitchhike everywhere, we called it thumbing. I used to get to & from work everyday this way to. Actually, had a girl who liked me and she'd go out of her way to pick me up because she'd ask me when I was going to work that day during school. Eventually had some run-ins with a couple of clowns so had to stop. Met a lot of interesting people along the way and got some free 'hits" :wink: along the way.
Times have changed wouldn't pick anyone up today nor would I allow my kids to thumb.
Yep, when I was younger hitch-hiking was much more common and plenty of my friends went off to France on the ferry armed with a couple of hundred quid and hitched/worked their way round Europe.
Not for me, I was and remain, more of a 4* or more Hotel sort of a guy :D
Sounds like a right butt of a night, still you did get to see the wonders of Wakefield so not all bad. :)
Reminds me of this :evil:I gave a lift to a guy who said he was a pilot from New Guinea and his rucksack had been stolen in London, with all his money and passport. He said he was trying to get to the New Guinea embassy in Edinburgh (the New Guinea embassy is in Edinburgh, I checked). It was Christmas time and he wasn't sure he would get a new passport before Christmas but they may lend him the £30 he needed to get a ferry to Belgium, where he could stay with friends of his family.
Feeling sorry for him, I lent him £30 and gave him my business card so he knew where to send the cash. Needless to say, I never saw the cash and I've often wondered how many times he did this. This was in 1988 when £30 was a fair amount to lose in a scam :( .
Eddie
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/39Paramed ... 5110490.jp
You lent £20 to a bloke that urinated on your car seat.......!!!! :shock:
Your comment reminds me of an old joke:
You lent £20 to a bloke that urinated on your car seat.......!!!! :shock:
Chap goes out for a few beers after work. One leads to another, and before long he arrives back home after midnight very much the worse for wear. Looking down at himself, he sees some flecks of sick on his shirt. So, chuckling to himself, he sticks a tenner in his breast pocket and walks unsteadily to the front door. His wife opens it and drags him inside the house.
"What time d'you call this?"
"Shorry darling, I'm a bit late"
"You're covered in puke!"
"Yesh, I can explain - a colleague threw up all over me. Look - he even put a tenner in my pocket to pay for the dry cleaning"
"That's a twenty not a tenner"
"Ah. I've just realised he sh@t in my trousers as well".
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