Changes

My name is Yellowstone Don Skiles and I am currently 64 years old and I do not drive. I have never driven a vehicle in my entire life. Why not? No particular reason. I guess I never took the time to get a driver’s license and since I never personally owned a vehicle, I had no reason to learn how to drive one. Now don’t get me wrong; I know how to drive, I have just never done it. That seems to amaze a lot of people when I tell them that. Some people even have a hard time believing that fact, but it is very true.

I learned as a teenager back in the 1960s how to hitchhike. Hitchhiking has been my only form of transportation since then. I left my home in Southern California as a teenager back then and decided I wanted to work in National Parks in the Western United States to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The jobs I would find in these National Parks were seasonal and would generally only last from 2 to 7 months. Then, I would have to hitchhike to another National Park to seek work for the next few months. One of the things I liked about working for the concessionaires in National Parks was the fact that they provided room and board, so I did not have to worry about keeping a roof over my head, or food in my stomach, or paying utilities, etc. Everything was taken care of for me by the employers I worked for (usually at a minimal charge). Sometimes it would be hundreds (or even thousands) of miles between these parks, but that is how I have been surviving my entire life. While working in these National Parks, if I needed any type of supplies, I would simply stick out my thumb and hitchhike to the nearest town, which sometimes would be many, many miles from where I was working as most National Parks in the United States tend to be located in very remote areas.

One of the things I liked about working for the concessionaires in National Parks was the fact that they provided room and board, so I did not have to worry about keeping a roof over my head, or food in my stomach, or paying utilities, etc. Everything was taken care of for me by the employers I worked for (usually at a minimal charge). Sometimes it would be hundreds (or even thousands) of miles between these parks, but that is how I have been surviving my entire life. While working in these National Parks, if I needed any type of supplies, I would simply stick out my thumb and hitchhike to the nearest town, which sometimes would be many, many miles from where I was working as most National Parks in the United States tend to be located in very remote areas. I have family that live in Eastern United States, and I would regularly hitchhike to visit them in between my stints working the National Parks that were mostly in the Western United States. I also had a fondness for the State of Alaska , which I first hitchhiked to when I was 16 years old, resulting in numerous trips back and forth from Alaska to “the lower 48” and back again. I even purchased a home in Alaska later on in my life.

I am not sure of the exact amount of miles I have accrued over the length of my life. At 64 years old I still hitchhike and I still do not drive to this day. If I had to estimate how many miles I have hitchhiked in my lifetime, I would say I have certainly hitchhiked over one million miles, but I am also certain the actual total is much higher than that. As I said at the beginning of this biography, I really have to laugh at the people I see online these days who look like they are in their 20s stating that they are the “King of Hitchhikers” , or others stating that they hold some type of Guinness World Record for hitchhiking because they simply hitchhiked across Europe a number of times.  The ONLY way someone could come close to the number of miles that I am continuing to add tolog, is they would have had to start hitchhiking at a very early age, have been hitchhiking extremely long distances during their entire life, and they would have to be VERY old!