User:Erinmack
Erin has been hitchhiking for about thirteen years or so. She's pretty sure that she was 19 or 20 the first time she tried it. Countries she's hitched in include the USA, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, and French Polynesia, though the list grows exponentially every year - she didn't get a passport until she was 28.
Most of her hitchhiking trips have been conducted solo. Though she enjoys the companionship of other hitchhikers, she's found that she travels much slower with a male in tow and that most females are averse to the idea of hitchhiking, sadly. She has developed a few superstitions, and almost always hitchhikes with a hat/bandanna or some other sort of headgear. Recently, she has begun carrying a laminated image of Saint Patrick with her, since he is the patron saint of travelers. Raised Catholic, she generally doesn't believe in such things, but it's a cool picture with lots of snakes in it, so why not?
She's made many observations over the years regarding the demographics of her rides' cars and trucks, and regrets that this sometimes results in profiling. She doesn't mean to harbor vehicular prejudices, it's just that she's noticed only one or two of her thousands of rides have been from minivans or RVs. She tends to turn up the charm, conversely, when she notices a colorful Volkswagen "bus" approaching.
Erin frequently posts photos from her hitchhiking trips to her Flickr photo blog,
