Hi Ben
> Searching for record of single longest hike, I ran into your page.
> Thanks for it!
No worries. I've never been much of a fan of records in hitching, all a bit
pointless, wildly subjective, and rather silly in my mind. Still the Vilnius
Hitch-hiking club keep a list of records on their page (though there was some
grumbling on the mailing list when they posted from people like me ;-).
Still, it is a curio I agree. I mean I've got out of most cars going 1000s of
km in Australia, simply because I rarely want to go that far. But in any major
transit stretch you get rides like that regularly. I just reviewed a diary of a
Liverpool to Australia hitch in the late '60s and they were getting rides like
that (people driving to Australia and occasionally happy to have a pleasant
hitcher along for example).
> I had a single ride from Spokane, WA to Montreal in Sep 1958, 2638miles.
That is impressive. Murphy's law dictated that whenever I needed a lift like
that I'd spend a week hitching the distance with 35 cars, and whenever I was
pottering along just exploring the countryside I'd get five rides in a row
crossing the continent and I'd get out of each one after a few 100 km to
explore ;-). This happened to me coming from Darwin to Pert for example ;-).
> Some two years later I met a Bavarian, Herb Veeh, at Scripps Instit. of
> Oceanography, who subsequently taught at Flinders. I'd be interested to hear
> if you know him and can give him my best regards, since we spent several
> months together in Hawaii studying beaches
NO I don't know Herb. I was never really at Flinders ironically. I was awarded
a degree there, but spent my time elsewhere ... uni's like that sometimes ;-).
Now I'm in Tasmania or I'd duck in ans see if he were still there, I love
closed circles and people taking the time to say hi!
> Ben Oostdfam - www.boostdam.net.
I notice ironically that you're into Oceonography. I just accepted a job with
SonarData one of the leading global suppliers of sonar visulaisation software.
My partners father (Tom Polacheck) has quite a standing in Tuna circles ...
Wonder if you've heard of either?
It's no surprise to me that you have Dutch heritage! The Dutch must be among
the worlds most avid hitch-hikers! Closely followed by (definitely outnumbered
by) the Germans. There's something about these cultures that has always been
more open and people adventuring methinks than some others ... or perhaps it's
just a cultural blinker I'm wearing ... ?
Cheers,
Bernd Wechner
Suite 101's Roving Hitch-hiking Editor
bwechner@alumni.aitec.edu.au
http://alumni.aitec.edu.au/~bwechner
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/hitch_hiking
Disclaimer: I claim dis!