Me Hitch-hiker, You Hitch-hikee: Turning the tables
The issue of world records is a tenacious one. It just won't seem to let me go. You might remember from an earlier article (More Records) that Stephan Schlei holds the current record for hitching endurance at 776,955 km. Well, it turns out that Alexej Vorov challenges it. I mean, Stephan has been doing battle with Bill Heid now for anything up to ten years, slowly working his way up to this grand total, and now Alexej waltzes up and tells us he's done 1,200,000 km!
Well, that's 1,200,000 km according to our mutual friend Vladas Sapranavicius, or 1,005,000 kms according to Daan Toner. Alexej himself is incommunicado! I'm assured that he has written the Guinness Book claiming his record, though, so we'll see what comes of that.
Vladas tells me he once covered 2750 km in 24 hours, dashing Robert Prins' record of 2300 km, wrote the guinness book, only to find they no longer list this record! (To find out why see More Records, and below).
Well, I've already expressed my cynicism regarding these records, and introduced a suggestion for A True Record, but not too long ago I had reason to to suggest a record to the Guinness people myself. In so doing, as far as I know, I've coined a new word ...
Here's an extract from the letter I wrote them, judge for yourself:
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Recently I hitch-hiked around New Zealand, and had the pleasure
of meeting someone that so impressed me, that I suspect it may
be worthy of a record. That person's name is Jim Sanderson, and
he presents the other side of the coin, so to speak. He does not
hitch-hike, but he offers many hitch-hikers rides. He is not a
hitch-hiker, so much as he is a hitch-hikee!
Jim is a retired log truck driver. His wife died some 14 years ago, I believe, and he himself seems to be somewhat over the age of 60 (at the very least). In 1988, he tells me, he started to pick up hitch-hikers, and has been doing so ever since. He carries the evidence in his back seat. Of every hitcher he has picked up he's taken a photo. He asks them to sign his guest book, and takes their address to send them a copy of the photo.
He has in the 9 years since 1988 filled 7 guest books, 27 address books and dozens of photo albums. He recently counted the photos, one per ride, out of curiosity. They number over 5000. I counted
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