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There are some essential things you should remember when you are going hitchhiking. [[Hitchwiki]] suggests you keep these in mind when starting your career as an enthusiastic thumber:

The shortest is not the best in all the cases. If there is no traffic, there are no rides to share. Think where the trucks are going: industrial areas, ports/airports etc.

If you can't find anywhere to sleep there are still other ways out of the situation. If you are lucky enough to be at a 24 hour gas station just keep drinking coffee and keep hitching through the night. At night don't bother trying to get lifts with a sign, just ask people at the gas station when they go to pay. Keep in mind that it gets really quite between 2:00 and 5:00 even at a busy autobahn service area. The other alternative is to find a truck (or a car) going a really really long way and crash out on the way. Make sure you trust the driver or do it with 2 hitchers taking turns to sleep. The downside to this is that you might wake up a long way from where you wanted to be but at least you didnt have to sleep in the gutter.

It's tough to hitchhike out of city centres. But sometimes (if you're tired, hungry, thirsty, ill etc.) you'll need to go off your route and take a pause in the nearest city. Hey, if you're flexible with your travel arrangements, you may decide to stay there for a bit longer...