Clean cut fellows

I hear often that hitchhiking is dangerous, because you never know who's going to pick you up.

Today it was John Berger of Mandan, N.D., a late-20s kid hauling eight "bucking bulls" home from a rodeo in Rice Lake, Wis., along with one pony and, in the cab of his pickup, his gentle rat terrier, Spike. He was my big break, driving me from Albany, Minn., to Bismarck, perhaps 350 miles, in comfort. He also taught me a lot about the rodeo world, and cattle/bulls -- his grandfather has bred three world champion bucking bulls.

Then there was Alan Fehr, director of psychological health for the North Dakota National Guard. Dressed in camouflage, he drove me another 100 miles to Dickinson. Then, as the sun was dropping, there was Terry, an effusive oil well driller, golf tournament organizer and general hard-working favor doer.

I asked Berger why he'd picked me up. "You looked like a clean-cut fellow," he said. (Thanks to Paul Miller for the suggestion to wear a white shirt!) Later he added it was important that I'd had a backpack wth me. "A friend told me never to pick up someone who's not carrying a pack. They're running from something," he added.

Fehr's wife is the superintendent of schools in Dickinson--and a former reporter. Terry actually thanked ME when he  dropped me off at a motel in Glendive, Mont., after dark.
"It's easier to drive when you've got someone to talk to," he said.

These are people I should fear?

OK, one guy pulled over to pick me up, with two teenagers in the truck with him. CLearly drunk. I actually turned that ride down.

Altogether 14 hours on the road today, but Berger had been right -- once I got into North Dakota the rides got longer. Even so, most of my waits were very long -- several hours in places. I don't remember that from the old days.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is calling for 97, dry and windy across central Montana. I'll fill the extra water bottle. But at this rate I could be in Twisp, Wash., by Tuesday. Ahead of schedule.