It’s a long story, and you have to buy me a beer to hear the whole thing, but I ended up with my clothes and money back, while the young men got a tongue-lashing from the sheriff, despite their insistence that they were “just funnin’.’”
#Flaming pear flood crack driver#
I’m still grateful to the Mormon truck driver who gave me his spare jeans and drove me to see the sheriff. What was there to do but walk down to the highway, put a hand over my crotch and a thumb in the air? You’d be surprised who picks you up in a situation like that. I was relieved when they told me that they were just going to steal my clothes and wallet, and leave me by the side of the road. They ordered me to take off my clothes, while visions of Deliverance danced through my head. A few minutes later, they pulled off onto a dirt road, and I had a gun pointed at my torso. Maybe I did look like a filthy hippie, but was that really a reason to yell and throw raw eggs at me as I walked through town? After a bit, a pickup with three young men in the cab stopped for me. It was the summer of 1979, as I passed through Dillon, Mont., a town that will live in infamy. The red ants in my sleeping bag after I pitched camp in the dark outside Moab.īut the cream of the crop was my naked hitchhiking experience. The time I spent over 24 hours in one spot by the side of the road in Sevier, Utah, trying to catch a ride. And the time I was strip-searched at the Canadian border because the customs police thought that I looked suspicious. I still have the raincoat I wore for that chore, and it still has the stains. There was the day I spent earning travel money emptying a septic tank with a five-gallon bucket and a rope for a farmer in Olathe, Colo. Most of my best stories - and worst travel experiences - come from that time. When I was in my late teens, I did a lot of traveling around the West by foot and by thumb.
Waterfalls, damp leaves and the smell of burning plastic.At least they left me my boots - contest winner!.Listen to the radio version of these stories, told in the author's own voices. MULTIMEDIA: After our contest ran, KDNK created a Sounds of the High Country segment from a few of these submissions.
Here's the winning horror story, followed by six runners-up (with brief bios of those writers as well), followed by the rest of the horrors.Ĭartoon art by Peter Ommundsen photographs courtesy the essay writer unless otherwise noted. Toor will receive the prize offered by the contest's sponsor, the Seattle-based Tom Bihn company - an Aeronaut Travel Bag that's valued at $400.