LIKE A PIONEER ON THE OREGON TRAIL

The thing we fear the most may be what we love the most

I literally had only the clothes on my back. That was all that was left and 150 bucks.

It was a beautiful sunny late morning in mid-summer 1973. I was with my buddy Steve, a few months after graduating from high school. We were in Colorado hitching to California.

Because it was illegal to hitchhike on the interstate we were semi-stranded having to thumb a ride from an on-ramp. Setting up halfway down the ramp we could wave to vehicles down on the main highway. After several hours a U-Haul box truck pulling a carnival kitty ride stopped to pick us up. As we ran down the offramp to the shoulder of the road the driver walked to the back of his truck, pulled up the sliding door and grabbed our packs and put them in the truck, and shut the door. He went back to the driver’s side door and we went over to the passenger side and climbed into the cab of the truck. He was a very happy friendly guy with a smile from ear to ear. Seemed like the kind of person that you can’t help but like. You know the old saying “don’t judge a book by its cover.” He loved to talk about all kinds of things. He was very interesting. A real man of the world – full of experience. Talked all about what it was like to be in the carnival and how he was heading up to Casper, Wyoming for a big carnival that they were doing next. It sounded like so much fun. What a great way to make money and enjoy having fun and meeting people. We drove and talked for hours. Finally, it was getting on to the later part of noon. He said, “boy I sure am hungry. How about if I buy the boys a steak dinner? You look like you haven’t eaten much in a while.” We gratefully excepted as he pulled off the interstate through the butterfly turnaround and into a local Howard Johnson restaurant. This place was classic 70s. We circled around and squeezed into the booth. He at the end, me in the middle, and Steve on the other end. We read through the menu so excited we were going to get a good meal as he kept telling stories, and we kept listening and laughing. Finally, the waitress came to clear the plates. He said, “Hey boys how about getting some dessert?” We all picked something out and when we gave our order to the waitress, he said “I gotta use the head, be right back.” Steve and I were nudging each other and started talking about how lucky we were to get such a great ride. Suddenly I had chills go up and down my back and I felt like I was going to get sick. I jumped out of the booth and ran to the door and pushed it open running out to the parking lot. Seeing that the truck was not in it I kept running.

I saw him pulling back onto the interstate and driving north toward Casper Wyoming. I ran down the grass embankment, crossed the opposite lane, and ran in front of him as he was pulling onto the interstate. If I hadented jumped out of the way he would’ve run right over me. I’ll never forget his face with the sunglasses on. He was just laughing and laughing. Wow, what a feeling. I never had experienced that before. My stomach felt empty even though I just ate a big meal. I felt so weak like my knees had been kicked out from under me. I walked back to the restaurant to get Steve. So it turns out this guy had it planned all along. He got a big free meal, he had stolen both our backpacks with everything we had in them with all are special keepsakes. Even had a pair of blue jeans that my high school girlfriend had sewn patches on that I treasured. I had my wallet in my back pocket, but Steve had left his wallet in his backpack. I paid the waitress for the meals that we couldn’t afford. At this point, we only had $50 to continue to California and continue on our epic journey and $100 in traveler checks that were the big deal back in those days. Steve had also left his travel checks in his backpack. Both feeling defeated and destitute we wandered back out to the interstate ramp and went back to thumbing a ride.

All I wanted to do was go back home. I started missing my parents and my brothers and my sister, all my friends back in Pennsylvania, and my high school girlfriend. It was such an array of emotions! Outrage, how could the human race be like that? I asked myself.

I was so pissed Steve had left all his money and traveler checks in his backpack. We started out with 200 bucks each and now we had to share my $150.

I started feeling like a pioneer on the Oregon Trail.