Easter Week 1969

It was Friday Night at midnight, 1969 the beginning or our Easter break when Dave Dodson and I left on a hitchhiking trip to Winston Salem N.C. We were heading back to see his girlfriend who had moved there from Camarillo. We each had $30 each, one sleeping bag, a blanket and a backpack with food. We tried to get a ride at Carmen drive to no avail. We had Mark Payne drop us off at Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks where we finally got a ride at midnight.

By the time we hit San Bernardino we had eaten all our food...lol. We got a ride from Barstow CA. to Oklahoma City which was great for us. We had several small rides in between until we got off track and ended up in Ball Knob Arkansas which was a SMALL hick town. The guy at the gas station told us a train came through which he believed went into Tennessee. Around 2am the train came through. It was moving pretty good through the turn but we finally managed to get on. Dave was on the car behind me. I ran across the top of the train to see Dave sitting on a small rail. He was clinging on for life. He wouldn't come back to the nice platform that I had. We went through lots of swamp land which was pretty scary as there were houses on stilts with boats tied up to the houses and telephone poles half way under water.

Oh, I forgot to say we told our parents we were going to Big Bear. When we got to Oklahoma City we sent them post cards to let them know we were OK. We made Winston Salem on Monday night just before Midnight. We stayed at Julie's parents house for 3 days. Julie invited her girlfriend along with us as we all went out for pizza and beer. Dave and I thought we were so cool having beer.

We headed home and hit some huge rainstorms which soaked us. We got a ride with a very nice Grandfather and Grandmother through the Smokey Mountains. They took us to a 5 star restaurant and wouldn't take a dime from us. His last name was Boone and was was related to Daniel Boone. He insisted that we let him know when we reached home safely. It took us 3 days to hitchhike home. What an adventure we had during our 9 day trip!