milwaukee. or busting out and hitch-hiking fun

a moment comes in each of our lives in which we must depart. say goodbye. so long...farewell. auf wiedersehen, audieu. to you and you and you.

and to milwaukee. i had a fantastic time and all, but i needed to go. unfortunately, the day's only greyhound to the twin cities had already left while i was still sleeping that morning. amtrak was somehow full until christmas eve, which wasn't very helpful. all i needed was to go cross-state and end up near the minnesota border so hinkel could pick me up. all of the trains, planes and buses were full--at least, they were totally overrated (and over my budget).

so. hitch-hike, then. i HEART hitch-hiking. and i HEART allison, the very nice pothead of a girl who picked me up just blocks away from the amtrak station. what i didn't like was the fact that allison only needed to go midway into the burbs of waukee, leaving me at the very in-opportune on-ramp somewhere near 82nd street.

i was cold. it was dark. there was a street lamp over me, illuminating my frozen thumb for the vehicles speeding my. early on, i had two offers. when they told me they were going north, i thanked them and sent them on their way. after all, i needed to go west. so i would stay waiting, in the cold. 40 minutes slowly passed, each moment my two thumbs feeling the frosty biting cold.

suddently a car starts toward me. then it pulls over to the shoulder. and then the lights. oh, those lights. blue, white, red, flashing whirling, spinning.

"young man, you can't be here. hitchiking isn't allowed on the interstate."
"i'm not on the interstate. just the on-ramp."
"hitch-hiking isn't allowed here."
"is it allowed anywhere?"
"well. . . i need to get you out of here. i have had a few calls about you."

apparently there were a few folks out there threatened by my frozen presence on the side of the interstate--i mean on-ramp. obviously they couldn't pick me up. and they had to be sure no one else helped me out meeting my parents for christmas. crap, i couldn't even hitch-hike right.

the night had only begun. i didn't sleep that night; instead, i caught the red-eye bus to Madison and thought of how nice it would be spending christmas with my family.