It's All About People
People. That's what hitching to me is all about. People. The people you meet on the road. Locals that you just don't meet staying in 4 star hotels and taking the train, or flying between major cities.
It doesn't matter how you go about it either. I've hitched on my own, with a friend, and with my wife. Don't think it's always easy as I've been stranded for over six hours on several occasions and had cars spin rocks at me, young hoods shout obscenities through car windows, and been chased by rabid dogs. Thankfully I've never had an incident with a driver, but it is a risk I accept in order to obtain the benefits that hitching can bring. As a traveler you always have to be a bit wary no matter whether you're traveling on a train, walking through a town or hitching. Unfortunately bad things have happened to hitchers, it's a personal choice and it's certainly not for everyone.
The real value in hitching is meeting good people from all walks of life. Especially valuable when you are in a foreign country. No country that I've ever hitched in is immune to this sort of generosity, as nearly everone you meet on the road helps out in some way. Some by providing information on the people, culture and politics of their country. A lot have driven out of their way to get us on a better road, out of a large city, or to a hidden campsite that only the locals could know of. The best and most appreciated were the ones that have opened up their homes for me. I've got lifelong friends in New Zealand who took me and two friends into their home for three days back in 1988, and since then we've visited back and forth several times. One lift into Melbourne led to three different Kmart managers, and their families, treating a friend of mine and I to 10 nights of free room & board - now that's hospitality!
Most of the people I'll never see again. Complete strangers who do a good deed and expect nothing in return. I offered money whenever the need was there, but very few would ever accept. A 40-year-old Finn with what looked like his life belongings in his car, drove us twenty miles out of his way,
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