Listener Mail: Hitchhiking

How do CarStuff listeners feel about hitchhiking? Tune into this week's episode as Scott and Ben open the mail bag and find out.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house Stuff Works dot com. M I
wasn't the car stuff. I'm Scott and Ben and we
are here as always with our super producer nol the
nomad Brown, Like, yeah, I thought that was that was cool.
Sometimes we don't always get on the nicknames, but this

(00:25):
one I feel is solid. Yoh yeah, definitely, uh yeah, yeah.
I'm not even gonna try to give you an alternative.
I usually try, but it falls short. So well, if
you think of what all the way or no, if
you think of what, of course chime in. So we're
doing something that we haven't done before. We are doing
listener response to a single episode. Normally we do a

(00:47):
nothing Bolts type episode where we respond to listener mail
and mask kind of with you know, everything that comes
in from the last month or two months or whatever,
and it's just kind of a big mix of everything.
This one, we are going to remain focused on the
hitchhiking topic because that was I think it was the
focus of Ben's Mystery Show number three and we got

(01:07):
a lot of listener response about this because would you
say it's a hot button issue. I don't know if
you can call it that because people weren't like I
rate about it or anything. They were just saying, here's
my experience. I had a good experience, or I had
a bad experience with it, or kind of indifferent. I mean,
I've had good and bad. Here's what happened. And we
got some limericks. So there's gonna be a little bit

(01:29):
of everything here, just some quick face you know, Facebook
posts that say, you know, here's how I feel about it.
Others that were very lengthy. We've got one especially long
email that I think we're gonna read all the way
through that. Don't tune out when you hear this, because
this story is fascinating and it comes from a young listener.
We'll get to that later, right, We're gonna save that one.
But what what we're going to do first? We have

(01:52):
just a little bit of administrative work. Right. Oh that's right. Okay,
I'm glad you're reminded me. Ben, I have to have
to read a slight direction now. This correction came from
a listener. His name is Alan b. And Allen wrote
in right after the motorcycle chariot racing episode and said,
and believe it or not, Alan You're the only one
that caught this. And this has been out there for

(02:12):
at least a week now at this point, as as
we're recording. UM, he mentioned that I said somewhere in there,
I think it was with the modern chariot racer that
we saw in the street, you know, the single version
of the brand new one. UM, that I mentioned that
the guy was headed to the Sturgist motorcycle rally in um,
North Dakota, and that was incorrect. And Alan caught me

(02:33):
on it right away, called me on it and said,
I can't believe you made the mistake. Sturgist is in
South Dakota, not North Dakota. So I told him, I
promised him I would say that on air, and there
you go. And I even think I've mentioned on Facebook. Yes,
yes you did, and we do appreciate it. No, the
more that I learned about Sturgist during the motorcycle rally,

(02:55):
the more I want to go there, like the week
before or the week after the rally, but not during now.
I'll be there for during, but I also want I
want to see the transformation. Oh I see, I see
watch the town grow from you know, whatever the population
is to whatever it becomes and then back to normalcy. Yes, absolutely,
or right? I don't know if I want to stay

(03:16):
for the week before, all the way through and then
the week after, because at that point maybe the good
folks of Sturgists will say, Okay, tourists, get out of here.
That's possible. See you next year. You don't have to
go home, but you can't stay here. Right, Yeah, that's
that's a possibility. I think, Uh, you know, there's they
that's a bad way to say it. Maybe they tolerated

(03:38):
for that week. I guess right, they just know that's
going to happen. That way. You don't move to Sturgist
without knowing that that's going to happen during that week.
So uh, you know, up from what's going on, and
if I were leaving Sturgis, it might be uh, it
might be possible that I would have to hitchhike. So
so this is this is weird because we weren't expecting

(03:59):
as many responses, nor were we as expecting those responses
to be as passionate as they are. So I guess, Scott,
I'm of two minds here. I want to go to
this excellent story. We have a great, great deal of
excellent stories regarding hitchhiking. I want to go to one immediately,

(04:19):
but it's a negative experience, and I know that you
and I are on slightly different sides of this one.
All right, let's hear it then. Okay, but you know
what I mean when I say the reason that I'm
a little hesitant is that it adds fuel to to
your side of the fire. That's all right, I understand now,
Scott just didn't inject here. This guy is not talking

(04:39):
about hitchhikers. He's specifically talking about stranded motorists, which we
also addressed. Okay, yeah, we did, and we said, as
a general rule, both you and I feel okay about
stopping and helping a stranded motorist or even giving them
a ride to a gas station, ship depending on the context. Exactly. Yeah,
that's right. And there's a yeah, there's a couple of

(05:00):
of um ast resknect to that I guess is and
that um if somebody has already stopped and looks that
they have it under control, the person themselves look like
they have it under control, like they're they're capable of
changing the tire and they're in the middle of doing so.
Um if somebody is just outright stranded and looks like
they're confused as to even where the spare tire is located. Sure,
you stop and you help him out. You give him

(05:20):
a hand or a dead battery or whatever it happens
to be. You know, Um, the car is smoking because
it overheated. I mean, that's that's a telltale sign that
you know something's gone wrong. The person is stuck there
because you can't do anything with that for a while. Anyways,
it's got a cool at least, maybe pull over and
you'd offer to call somebody. Maybe. Um. You know, it's
likely that everybody has cell phones now, and that's changed

(05:41):
this whole landscape as well. If it's just a lot
of listeners pointed out, is that, you know, because everybody's
carrying a phone. The people that have uh that are
stranded likely have a phone. The people that are driving by,
most of them, if not all of them, have a phone. Handy.
A lot of people feel like, well the next guy,
I'll call if I don't, or you can call, and
they may say, yeah, you know what, I've received multiple
calls about that stranded vehicle, but thanks for checking in.

(06:04):
I've I've i've actually done that, and they've said, yeah,
that's about the third or fourth call that we've had
about that guy. So it's taken care of, right. Yeah,
it has changed the landscape. However, as we're about to
learn spoiler alert, ladies and gentlemen, grifting is a tale
as old as time. So Vasmir back to Vasmer's email.

(06:24):
He says, Okay, here's the story. I'll start by saying,
I grew up in a shady part of Houston, Texas.
I continued to live in the hood until I left
for the army around two thousand seven. Well, I worked nights,
and usually the day after pay day, I would go
to the Western Union to cash my check. This particular time,
I went to cash my check and there was a
foreign guy there. He kept showing me an address and

(06:45):
asking if I could tell him where it is. I
told him to hang on and cash my check with
the intent of taking him since it was in my area.
I came out and told him, and he seemed excited
and offered me a large sum of money cash wadded
up in his hand. I said no, and really just
wanted to help. We drove around and looked for this
place and couldn't find it. Eventually, he stopped you could
get a soda, who went into the store and never

(07:06):
came out. I waited for about ten minutes nothing. I
drove around the shopping center, thinking maybe I missed him
coming out and he got lost. Nothing. Still, Eventually I
left and felt bad, but I had to get to
work soon and I didn't really know him. About five
minutes into my homeward drive, I realized my money was gone.
Then I saw my ring was gone too. I laughed
at my ignorance and shook my head. I went to

(07:26):
a police station down the street and reported it and
was told it's actually very common. And when the cops
said it even happened to him, Oh boy, Okay, so
he has now lost his ring that he claims to
be worth three thousand dollars. Plus he lost fifteen hundred
dollars in cash because he said he had just cashed
his paycheck. So this guy is out forty dollars and

(07:47):
he gave this guy a ride and you know, no
thanks for that. Um, not that that's any consolation of losing,
but it would be something, I guess. Um, this guy
really got duped, and you know what he's not alone.
This happens often where you know, you give somebody a
ride and they take something from the car. You don't
even know they're taking something from the car. That's the thing.
But what, Okay, here's the other angle of this. Why

(08:09):
Why is Basmir driving around with cash and three and
a three thousand dollar ring and offering somebody doesn't know
a ride and that stuff is out in the open.
That's a that's a question. Now I know that's a judgment.
Call I guess um he's being a nice guy. Well,
and he has a bit of a coda to this,
a bit of a moral or a conclusion. Uh, he says.
Apparently it's a network of traveling conmen that have an

(08:32):
elaborate scheme to trick you into giving them some of
your money and hope that you will get more money.
When they get to where they are going, somewhere onto
the way to their destination, they stopped for something like
a drink and disappear with your cash. Well, I made
it easy and left my money and a bonus ring
and playing sight. He must have grabbed it when I
wasn't looking, then got out for a drink and pop smoke.
Since then, I don't help unless it's an emergency. See, okay,

(08:55):
you left out and playing site and that was the problem.
I guess right. You just can't trust, you know, some
that you just invited at something, you just met a stranger. Uh,
you know, you don't know their behavior. You don't know
that they're they're moral compass. I guess they they may
not have that moral compass where they won't grab something
like that and just take off. So it had to
be tempting, I guess. Uh. For the person that that

(09:16):
ran away with it apparently was too tempting. But lesson learned.
He'll never do that again. Right, And hopefully, hopefully people
hearing this will say, oh, yeah, you know what, I
should keep my valuables out of sight if I do
happen to pick somebody up. You know, Um, you know,
when you pull over the side of the road, take
ten seconds to look around you and see if there's
anything that's worth grabbing. You got that brand new iPhone
in the in the center console. Tuck that in your pocket. Um,

(09:39):
you know, if there's something that's uh, there's a value
to you on the dashboard, maybe maybe even a simple
thing like a um, you know, one of the old
style navigation systems, you know where you have to plug
it in. Yeah, one of those, you know. Think about
that stuff. I mean that stuff can easily be grabbed
and taken away, so just just be smart about it.
That's all. Also, on a side note, there are some

(09:59):
things that you should never ever carry in your car
under any circumstances. I'm not just talking about hazardous materials.
I'm talking specifically about the title to your car. Oh yeah,
good point. People carry those around in the glove box.
I don't know why you would ever we have the
title to your car in the car itself. That should
be at home, in a safe somewhere, or in a
lock box, in a in a in a bank, right

(10:21):
with your Faberge eggs and your ming vas and your
other realities. We have talked about my Faberge egg collection,
have we. It's getting to be I'm not gonna say
a problem because you're your own man, but it's it's
concerning people are talking at work. I want a thing
to keep in a in a in a lock box, right,
So so okay, So that's one person that is completely

(10:42):
against at least helping strand of motorists, unless it's clearly
an emergency now, And I think a lot of people
are like that, even those of us who are consider
ourselves really humanitarians, are not gonna stop at night on
an unlit street where where there are six guys standing
out around a car with the hood open. Yeah, that's true.

(11:02):
I mean you can kind of sense a sense a
set up in some cases. And uh, and maybe it's
not even said, you know, that's the thing. It was like,
you have to you have to take everything on face value.
You have to look at this and and make your
own determination. You have to. Or maybe maybe it's that
you don't take it on face value because it looks
like a dire situation may not be well I think
for me and I think a lot of our listeners

(11:24):
can agree here. If there's not something catastrophic as in
not a vehicle on fire, just with the with the
hood popped, and do you see, uh, several people already
there and it's not an accident, clearly the thing broke down,
then what really do you have to contribute if they're
already you know, five to seven people there. Something that's true.

(11:45):
I mean, you're adding to the confusion and you may
even be blocking the space where the fire truck needs
to pull up, you know, to doubse the flames. Um,
you know, they think about, you know, if you're complicating
the scene as well, if you if you, if you stop.
So there's that angle to consider as well. I know
that you know you have good intentions when you do,
and and good for you. But there's a point where,
you know, there's a point where it becomes troublesome. There

(12:07):
more of a trouble that you stop. Brother, I still
love helping standard motorists though, man or something. I like
it too. And you know, here's a here's okay, Ben.
So we know that it can be risky, it can
be dangerous. It can it can leave you very vulnerable
in some situations, you know, but it is generally frowned
upon or discouraged at this point in history. Right in
the past, not so much. It was more of a

(12:28):
of a common thing, at least here in the United States,
and I believe worldwide. I'm sure there's you know, books
on this and and um you know their podcast. At
one listener pointed us too, I think that you know
it kind of explain why, um, hitchhiking is on the
decline at this point and some interesting stuff, but there
are also some good examples of this and some sometimes
when and listeners wrote in and told us this, they said,

(12:49):
there's a few times when it kind of makes sense,
when it's when it's UM almost appropriate to pick up hitchhikers.
And I didn't really think of this during our first podcast,
but here's here's a couple of just examples what some
of you know going through the emails without reading one
right now. I'll get to that in just a minute,
but UM and our laundry listings, and we'll talk about
them specific later. But think about like, UM hikers on

(13:11):
a trail, unknown hiking trail exactly right. That's one in
particular that we mentioned. And you know there's there are
known towns where they need to lift from the trail
edge into town and then back again. You know, whether
that's to pick up you know, UM packages that have
been sent to that that locations, yeah, food or whatever,
so you know, Regenerate supplies whatever. UM music festival routes.

(13:32):
So if you're on the way to a music festival
and you kind of understand how this goes, you know,
the huge festival out in the country somewhere and there's
one way in, one way out, or you know, a
couple ways in whatever. Um, you see a group of
people that are walking to that festival, clearly going to
the festival. I mean just by the way they're dressed,
the way they're but they're carrying it there all they're
all it's a family of uh four and they're all

(13:53):
wearing leader hose and what what what kind of festival
are you going to? I don't know, man, it's a
big world. It's in October. Okay, it's a October Fest thing.
Let's say that. So they're headed to the October Fest
and you've got a pickup truck and you've got the
whole bed is empty, and it's only the two of
you in the front seat. Do you do you offer
them a lift? You know that the last three miles
to the festival, we probably do, right, And it seems

(14:15):
like that would be like a safe bet. That's that's
once like music festival routes places like that. Um. Other
people run and said, well, there's a remote road in
our town that goes between the town and a like
a distant industrial complex that a lot of people work in,
or an airport. It goes from the industrial complex to
the to the airport, and the airport's an interesting call

(14:36):
to because airports are typically built outside of a Senti
city center. Sure. Yeah, and you can generally tell, I mean,
if somebody's carrying a duffel bag or they've got a
rolling suitcase and they're dragging it behind them and they're
two miles in the airport, uh, there's a good chance
that that person is truly headed to the airport. Um.
The other thing is that people walking in conditions that

(14:57):
you normally would not just go out for a stroll.
You wouldn't rushing blizzard, uh, deluge your brain. Yeah, heat,
like if you're in if you're out and it's one
hundred and fifteen degrees and you're in the desert, because
there's a point where it's dangerous for that person to
be out there and it's not very long. I mean,
I would stop for someone in that case, Yeah, exactly.
And and that's what most people would say they would do.

(15:18):
It's it's it's a situation where someone wouldn't put themselves
into this position. Yeah yeah, I mean, and again, you
have to be careful with this because there's always somebody
that may do that just because they know that people
will will pick them up. So yeah, but they can't
do it for long in that kind of heat. Well
not for long, you're right, or that kind of cold,
or that kind of rain or that kind of you

(15:38):
know whatever. So again still judgment called. But extreme weather
conditions are another situation. So. UM, one guy that wrote
into us about the music festival thing, his name is
Adrian T. And Adrian writes into us often. So thanks
a hitchhiking you wrote in actually wrote in about hitchhiking. Um,
about a second and third car, which we're not going

(15:59):
to about today, and uh and some limericks wrote in
a limerick maybe we'll hit the limerick. Capture already wrote
in and said, yes, I've stopped to help people change tires,
you know, give them a list for gas, you know,
the gas station, or to pick up and pick up hitchhikers.
Although to be honest, the last time I did this
was when a friend and I were in our twenties
and there were two incredibly cute young women who turned

(16:20):
out to be Australian and going to the same festival
as us. So not only did we give them a ride,
but we share the entry costs. Because you you enter
the festival on a per car basis. He says, Unfortunately,
that's the end of the story. There wasn't any other
ending than that, but but that's it. And he said,
I'm already though about being on the receiving end of assistance,

(16:40):
and the assistances in parentheses in quotation marks brother in
a circumstance that has made me far more weary. So
this gets interesting here, right, all right, So he says,
I think the most negative press about bad situations with
with hitchhiking, given assistance, etcetera. Are grossly exaggerated by the
modern news cycle. By any real measure, crime rates are
down in all categories, in all uh in all areas,

(17:03):
despite far greater population. Now, this story that I'm about
to mention here happened in Detroit, which is which in
itself upsets me because I'm a strong proponent of Detroit. Now,
one day, a few years ago, when my car was
almost brand new, I was on my way home from work.
That day I happened to have some important, some important meetings.
So uncharacteristically, I was wearing a suit and tie, driving

(17:24):
north on Southfield Freeway. And Scott will know where that
is because of this Michigan route the roots and I
do know exactly. I've traveled that road many times, he says.
I picked up a puncture and there's no shoulder along
most of south Field roads, So you know, I I
totally understand this. What are you gonna do? You can't
pull over in traffic where you're a hazard. You can't
can't change the tire when there's traffic going by at sixty,

(17:45):
So I totally get this. Um, he says. I got
off at the next exit, which was in Detroit, and
pulled into a gas station. I jumped out and prepared
to change the tire. No big deal, I just got
the tire of the jack the lug wrench. At center out,
I was putting on some gloves when six large guys
appeared from nowhere and offered to help me. Offered also
being and uh wait which one is it? Yeah, offered

(18:07):
was you know? Offered also being in PARENTHESI quotation, I got,
I got you yeah, my whatever, So, he says. I
insisted that I could do it on my own, but
they made it clear that I was not going to
turn down their generous offer. Uh. They then changed my
tire and only about double the time that it would

(18:28):
have taken me, including torquing the lug nuts and the
wrong sequence, dropping things, etcetera. Then they let me know that, oh,
of course, well, you know, while not necessary, any appreciation
for their work would be gratefully received. Again, it was
clear that this was not really negotiable. Luckily, I only
had about forty dollars in my wallet, so they left
with that. So they took everything this guy had. Once

(18:49):
I got home, I found out to to you know, that,
to add insult to my injury, they had stolen my
lug wrench. And while on a conscious level, I know
this was an isolated incident, and I've got off at
that exit many time since then to get gas, and
I realized now subconsciously that has changed my behavior, and
that since i've I've become far less likely to stop
and help others in distress. Um, your show is a

(19:10):
wake up to me to overcome that and to start
helping others again, as I know it will have no
or as that I know I will have no ill
intention towards the people I help. So yeah, I get that.
But he's saying that he was the one in distress, right,
This is that's a position you can't avoid. That's something
that you It happens at the least opportune moment. You know,
the timing belt goes out in your car and you

(19:31):
have to coast to the side. Um, you know, the
brakes lock up, you get a tire puncture, the car overheats,
whatever it happens to be. You're at the mercy of
whatever happens to you in that location at that time.
So it's difficult. I still I can't do it, though, Man,
I can't just drive by someone who needs who clearly
needs assistance. I like to think I'm okay at telling

(19:55):
when that is, that sort of stuff is genuine. But
then again, it might just be the numbers game, Scott.
It might just well, the statistics have been on my
side so far. You see, I'm a little I'm just
a little bit confused by this note and that, you know,
he he says at the end, you know, he says,
I'm trying to um overcome that that and start helping
people again. Maybe maybe that bad experience, even though he
was on the receiving end, maybe that they made him think,

(20:16):
like I'm just not gonna start. It's not gonna be
worth the time for me to do that, because they
may in some way harm me. But you're far more
likely to have trouble. I think if you're the one
that's on the park on the side of the the road,
someone might pray on that as he found out. No,
let's let's ask uh, let me ask on behalf of
everybody not familiar with south Field free Away. What kind

(20:38):
of area is it? It does go through some very
shady areas. I mean some some some difficult terrain. I
suppose you would say, uh, some exus that you would
want to avoid. And it sounds like he found one,
you know, one that goes right through to Detroit. There
there's some areas of the Southfield Freeway that are that
are perfectly fine though no problem at all. I mean,
it's kind of it runs the game and it goes

(20:59):
both or into the suburbs and down into downtown Detroit. Now,
Adrian had one other thing at the end of his
letter that you wanted to read something on a lighter note.
It was a It was a limerick. It's about Ben
and as Monte Carlo. Al Right, so I'll just read
that limerick right now. There was a young podcaster named Bowen,
whose wallet was permanently frozen. The money went bang and

(21:22):
the engine was done. Now Ben's tears are a flowing. Yeah,
are Bowland's tears are a flowing? Which I like. It's
got some internal rhyme. No, everybody read it again, no, no, okay, okay,
But but here's the point. Though it's about Ben, it's
about as Mike Carlo, however, have some big news on
that front. Yeah, and it's also it's also about my

(21:45):
admitted uh let's call it thrifty. But okay, yes, it
is true. As we alluded to briefly in earlier episodes,
I am for the first time in more than a
decade not driving a Montic Carlo. Ladies and gentlemen, it's

(22:05):
you know, I was. We used to have this oldies
channel in Atlanta. I think was it still around when
you when you guys moved here. I don't know. We
used to have this oldies channel, like fifties, sixties, maybe
up to a little bit of seventies, right, And a
lot of towns have those, and they had that. There
was one song I always remember hearing their turn, turn turn.
Do you remember that one? Uh? And so I actually

(22:28):
got actually got a little bit sad because for some
reason this song was playing when I was when I
was dealing with fact that I'm not ever going to
drive that car now. Just you guys know, the Monte
Carlo is fine. It has a different owner. I got
a really good deal on another car that's not not

(22:48):
my favorite so I've never driven before. It's Afford Escape
and uh, and it's it's pretty good, man. It's not
Monte Carlo. It's certainly not a Mustang, which is my
next you know, my next plan. But the deal was
just too good to walk away from. This is a
dramatic turn here. Now again, nothing catastrophic happened to the

(23:10):
my Carlos. Just time to move on, right and minding
Carlo is Yeah, it's gonna be somebody's. Uh, it's gonna
be somebody's garage. Baby. I don't think it's you know,
because it's got a lot of miles on it, it's
got some it's got some work. It needs to be
that needs. I won't say who has it, because I
don't know if you're sensitive to that or not. But
it's somewhere where you can keep tabs on it. You'll
know exactly the condition of this vehicle at all times,

(23:32):
so you can visit that car right right, Yeah, sold
to a friend so the which again some people will
tell you should never do, right, but I think in
this situation, knock on wood, it's it's gonna be It's
gonna be just fine. The thing is, though, another thing
that happened, and I hope this doesn't come back to

(23:53):
haunt me, Scott. But you know, GM just had that
big recall of the faulty ignition switches. Oh you know,
and you have been battling that too, right, you had
you had a situation where you were locked out of
your car several times, I mean locked out ignition wise
of your vehicle many many times where you have to
wait for like ten minutes and two right and set
itself and you can either do the security reset which

(24:15):
takes about ten minutes, or there are ways where you
could get the manufacturer repair. There are other there are
ways to circumvent it. There are a couple of d
I Y solutions that we're not going to go into
detail in on the air. But the I'm not sure
if it was the same issue, but it was an
ignition related issue. Yeah, So as I got the postcard,

(24:38):
you know, so that situation will be fixed for the
new owner. Then they'll be able to take care of
that for free and uh and all as well that
that situation is done, but they've got other other things
happened there. It's going to be a project car. And
for you, you're driving around in a it's not brand new,
but it's it's it's lightly used. I haven't even seen
this car yet. Every Yeah, it's it's a real car, Scott.

(24:59):
I promise. It's gotta be a dramatically different feeling to
be in a in a um like it's like, yeah,
for an escape, it's different because the yeah, the driving
experience is totally different. And again, guys, I'm not I'm
not gonna lie. It was. It was a financial decision
for me, far more than a dream a dream car. Uh.

(25:22):
It's nice to have, I guess because because I moved
recently too. It was nice to have a place to
put all my stuff when I was moving, you know. Um,
But we'll see how it goes. Having any cars better
than having none. But I also can't promise that I'm
not gonna go back like I want. I want a

(25:43):
second gen Monte Carlo, like I don't want them. The
fourth gen ones are just not not what I'm looking for,
you know what I mean, if you're going if you're
going big. I don't know how to say it, Scott,
but I think old school is the answer for a
lot of a land yacht. Sure. Yeah, and I'm a
huge fan of those second gen mighty Carlos. Yeah, it

(26:04):
would be a cool project or a weekend car, whatever
you want to call it. But but congrats on the
new vehicle. But oh, thank you man, thank you very much,
happy for you. Well, oh, one other interesting thing, and
I feel like such a gabrone on this one. Man.
It's also a hybrid. Oh hi, no kidding, I didn't
know that. So oh well, you know, this may be
a whole episode we could talk about this because I've

(26:26):
i've never ever don't have any experience with it with hybrid,
so I'd love to hear you know what you're learning
along the way. Yeah, yeah, of course, of course Gott
will also will also see the I've already seen the
validation of several things that we discussed on earlier podcasts,
you know, like how much money would a hybrid actually
save you over a uh, you know, an orthodox I

(26:48):
c engine. The answer if you haven't checked out our
podcast on that is not as much as you would think. Yeah,
there's good and bad. But because I got such a
great deal on this, I am. I am impressed with
the uh, with with how how little gas it uses,
I mean, especially in comparison to a money Carlo man.
And you're primarily at this point, well we'll move on,

(27:09):
I promise, but you're primarily driving in the city at
this point, and that's where those are intended to be driven,
So that's where they're at they're most efficient, So you're
seeing the full benefits of it right now already. Yeah,
but it's not a Mustang or a Monte Carlo. That's
a good point. It is not a Mustang. That's what
a great problem to have, ye all right, So we'll

(27:30):
we'll keep you updated on how that turns out. And
i'd like to hear your opinion of ford Escapes because,
by the way, you guys, just between us they as
they used to say in some more rural areas where
I'm from, between us chickens. You know, Uh, it's it's
not the best, right, Okay, And it's not the best one. Yeah, yeah,

(27:54):
But but I'd like to hear what everybody else thinks.
We have some more listener mail responding to hitchhikers and
stranded motorists. How about this, since we're on the Limerick
kick right now, I don't know if we can call
it that. We read one, but we've got it. We've
got a couple others. And these were received almost immediately.
These were from Aaron Cooper. And now Aaron writes and

(28:16):
he's actually written in with several limericks in the past
month or so, lots of limericks. I wonder if Coope
was writing these in advance and waiting. And these relate
to hitchhiking as well, so you know they they're perfect fits.
So I'll just read a couple here and we'll just
move on after that. How about that? Back to some more,
some deeper listener mail. Alright, So the first one, Ben's

(28:37):
dressed to the nines, looking spelt broke down. What a
hand he's been dealt? Then, Scott, what a guy just
hanks and flies by. I told you to change that
damn belt. That's exactly recalling what we talked about. Okay,
next one, last one, Oh, this is another money Carlo one.
Ben it's gonna I hope you don't tear up. I

(28:57):
think I'll be okay, okay, all right, it says hitching
a ride. I'm a cheapie, been walking all day, feeling
sleepy at last, Hey a ride. Wait, he's locked me inside.
The guy in this monty is creepy. Yeah, and Aaron again,
I don't know how many times I have to apologize
for that. It was a misunderstanding. Wait, the door locks

(29:19):
on this guy. There's no handle on the inside. What's
going on? Yeah, we're kidding, course, but thank you so
much for sending those end Those did make us both chuckle,
and we checked to each other after we read them,
so I I appreciated that. It's always it's always kind
of a pleasure. We're not we're not above poking fun
and ourselves obviously. Um and uh, you know, I think it.

(29:42):
I think one of the reasons I'm so cool with
this stuff is because guys, ladies and gentlemen, we all
know and we're all we're all very nice people. I'm
sure we're all like great humanitarians and whatever and very diplomatic,
but we all know that those last few generations of
Monte Carlos we're not the best money Carlos. Yeah, that's true.

(30:04):
And we even had some some listeners wrote in and said, what,
I don't understand the attraction here, what's what's what's not
even talking about? But uh so, yeah, you're right. So
maybe this is a chance to reset. Maybe it's a
chance to to get the one that you want, because
I think it was more of just an opportunity at that.
You know, there's a you grabbed the easy opportunity to
get into that money Carlo, that first money car that

(30:26):
you had right right yea. And from there he thought, well,
it's not a bad vehicle. Maybe I'll try this newer mine. Carlo,
and I should have gone the other direction. You shouldn't
have gone like back to third gen second gin. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So you know that you maybe you learned your lesson
with it, but but it was a fun lesson to
you enjoyed that vehicle. I refuse to learn my lessons. Scott.
I'm gonna get I'm gonna get other land yachts. I'm

(30:48):
gonna get. Uh you know what, I should just go ahead.
I should just go ahead and get a slingshot. That's
not a yot No, no, I'm just thinking if I'm
if I'm gonna you know, part of learning is making
new mistakes, right, oh oh yeah, and that could be
a mistake. It could be well, we've had a lot
of rain and uh, and that would be very problematic

(31:10):
for that vehicle. I should I should call up, I
should call it that guy who had the the nineties
rules Royce you know, surprising you know, now that you've
mentioned this, can I say that in the last I'm
gonna say three weeks, maybe even a month, right, three
weeks though, four weeks. I have probably seen I don't know,

(31:30):
half a dozen of those old classic Rolls Royce cars,
the big boxy ones with a big chrome girl on
the front. Not the brand new ones, but the old
old ones. You know. The summer right hand drive summer
left hand drive is a mix. Um. It's really strange.
I don't know where they're coming from. There. It's like
somebody had a wholesale uh you know, not the whole
state sale. Yeah, like in the state sale or something

(31:51):
where they had a fleet of these things or something.
Because it's like they've been unleashed on the town and
I'm seeing him like it. I've seen him a weird
places too. I'm just seeing him park in and you know,
at the at the post office, I'm seeing them in
the drive through line at the bank. That's where I
saw one this morning. I saw a black one this
morning at the bank. Um at the drive through line. Crazy. Yeah,
They're all over the place. I saw one in an
auction house recently. It was gray, Um had right hand

(32:14):
it was right hand drive. Um. They're just all over
the place. I don't know what's going on with it,
but and I've seen a white one recently that was
I think it was just on you know, a back road.
It wasn't on the main highway or anything. It was
on a two lane road. Uh. It's it's a weird
occurrence when you see things like that in in uh
in waves, you know, like when you see a group
of things and you realize, like there's a pattern to this.

(32:34):
Why it is where you said, because I saw I
saw a black one cruising down our our local street.
That's you know, right outside of the office. And you
know what, if you're a hitchhiker, wouldn't that be the
vehicle to be picked up in because you have lots
of over your bag, You're you're sleeping, roll or whatever,
you got to meet interesting people, Yeah, for sure, would

(32:55):
you'd have You'd have plenty of room in the back
to stretch out, take a nap maybe when you're on
your way your next destination, and hopefully you would say
thanks when that was over with, because yes, we got
a listener response from a good friend of the show,
Rudy Smith. And Rudy wrote in and said, uh, this
is kind of like a no thanks deal when it
can be the best way. Scott, you summed it up

(33:16):
before as a no thanks for Well, I don't want
to spoil it. Let's just go and do you want
to do what you want me to. I'll read it,
he says. Uh. He says. I pick up a hitchhiker occasionally,
though not frequently. I don't believe the experience has changed
much in the last thirty plus years. When I say
it's a thankless, thankless job, I mean it literally. My
most recent hitchhiker was during winter in Minnesota. So again

(33:39):
here we're talking about the extreme weather. We're talking about
so winter in Minnesota, and I just happened to be
going to approximately the same destination, which was one hundred
and forty miles away. Can you believe that he gives
him a ride one hundred and forty miles. It's a
long long ride. So that's really really kind, Rudy. He says,
I took him to his exact destination, not so as

(34:00):
a thank you. When the guy got out of the vehicle,
that's it. The guy just gets out the vehicle, leave,
that's it. Not even no thanks for the for the
one hundred and forty mile ride. You spent probably two
and a half maybe three hours with this person in
your passengers seat, that you're doing something out of the
kindness of your heart, not even a thank you. No
money for gas, yeah, I assume yep. And he also
mentions this, and I think this was something this is

(34:22):
well well. But he has two phrases here that I
really like the way. I like the way that Rudy
wrote these. He says about offering roadside assistance. I know
the possibility of troubles there, but I don't want to
live my life without compassion. Completely agree, Rudy. That's exactly
how we feel it. I think that's how a lot
of listeners feel, because that's what the response that we
got was that he has another line that's uh, that's
downright poetic. Yes, I like that, you want to read it? Sure,

(34:44):
the road is an edge that everyone shares and the
full spectrum of humanity occupies it in the roots of
our lives. Yeah, well said, yes, well said agreed, And
to go to a slightly lighter note. Uh Rudy, bust
my chops a little bit here, and he said, speaking
of edges, Ben's been making an issue of the unacceptability
of body limericks submissions lately. I don't know how much

(35:07):
of an issue is making, But he goes on and say,
I respect that, of course, but I can work the
edge just for fun. It helps you know a few
dirty ones before reading the following limerick that I'm definitely
not suggesting for use in a podcast, So of course
we got to read it, right, of course. Okay, here
we go. A traveling salesman from Caracas sold balls the
size of moraccas he drove to Nantucket in his trusty

(35:30):
a bucket and did nothing obscene in the process. I like,
I like the ones that seem as if they're leading
in a direction like that, and then and then suddenly
there's like an abrupt end, right, Yeah, I like it does.
I had a little back and forth email with that
with Rudy about a an old Disney film with with
Dom Knots and Tim Conway where they would get murder

(35:50):
clues in the form of limericks like these are little
poems and the very last word would not rhyme with
the rest of it, you know, like it would rhyme
alway at that point, and then it would be like
the odd word thrown in. And it was so funny.
And he wrote a few of those to us that
that we won't read today, but they were hilarious. They
were really good, well done, so entertaining note and again

(36:11):
a couple of really well thought out phrases there that
I think everybody can agree with. You know that they
can't live your life without compassion. So when you see
things like the scenes like this unfolding on the side
of the road, yeah you want to help, I get it.
But is it always the right thing to do? Is
it always it always appropriate? I guess that's that's the
difficult part, which brings us to one of the most

(36:33):
interesting hitchhiker tales we've received. This is by someone named
lacy L and fair warning, guys, this one is a tale. Yeah,
we may switch off on the on the reading of
this one. It's a I'll tell you it's it's fascinating
and hopefully you won't tune out at this point because
it really takes some twists and turns along the way,

(36:54):
and i'll tell you it pushes a little bit into
PG territory. We normally are trying to stay at gwo arratory, sure,
but this is a little more PG at points, but
it never goes beyond that. So if you're worried about
having kids in the car, whatever, it's not really that.
It's not really an issue. Um, it's not gonna go
beyond anything too bad here. But um, it's a it's
a fascinating story. Um, I think we'll just read it.

(37:15):
And it is long, so we'll switch back and forth.
But um, hanging there because it's it's it tells the
tale of a modern hitchhiker. Right, we'll switch off every
paragraph or so. But I'm glad you pointed that out, Scott.
This is from the other side. This is from a hitchhiker. Yeah,
that's right, Ben, she is the writer, She's the one
who is is receiving a right. So, um, she's the
one taking the chance, I guess in this situation, right,

(37:38):
because it's whoever picks her up, and that's kind of
the way it's going to go. So I'll just start
off here. There's a short intro, and then we'll get
into the real tale. Okay, yes, sir, she says. Hi guys,
my name is Lacy. I'm a twenty year old business
school student and waitress. I recently discovered the House Stuff
Works podcast and have been a devoted listener to every
show for a couple of months now. This is my
first time writing into any of you, but I couldn't

(37:59):
resist going in your Hitchhiker conversation. I graduated high school
a couple of months before the rest of my class
in I was seventeen years old. At that time in
my life, I was so reckless and for lack of
a better word, naughty. My relationship with my family was declining.
I had an increasingly difficult relationship with the kids I
went to school with. So I got I got the

(38:19):
wild idea to take off and travel the country on foot,
and I'd like to tell you my story. I hope
you reply. I'm not I'm not laying down a guilt trip.
But I'm pausing from my school work to write this,
and I'm pouring my heart out for you guys, and
I think she means for all of our listeners, right yeah, yeah,
So Leasa continues. I grew up in the suburbs of

(38:40):
the Twin Cities, Minnesota. It was springtime when I first
took off, so it was still very cold at night. However,
I had to leave behind a bunch of stuff at
some guy's house in the city so that I could
travel with just a small duffel bag. My first companion
was a Native American kid my age, who I met
through the Craigslist ride share. He was going out to
his family's reservation in North Dakota, where I figured I

(39:01):
could hit a ride to Colorado. Denver was where my
sights were set, and this was two thousand thirteen, so
the recreational marijuana movement was just picking up steam. Additionally,
I've been talking to a really interesting artist from Denver
who wanted me to come out there and model for him.
So this Native kid brought me with him. The most
sort of rude to me during our trip, but I
attribute that to my punk attitude slash look. We arrived

(39:23):
at the reservation. Was family preceded by getting me so
drunk that I probably experienced alcohol poisoning. I puked on
the couch, passed out, and was just a mess. Next morning,
everyone was quite mean. They told me I could get
my key star out of there. I started walking. It
was so windy I couldn't keep a cigarette lit nor
bear the weight of my duffle. My brother lives in
North Dakota, so after walking a bit, I broke down

(39:44):
and called for help. It was only about thirty five
miles away, but was working extremed extremely concerned for me,
which was off putting because we didn't have the warmest relationship.
So he said he would borrow his boss's vehicle and
come rescue me straight away. He warned me not to
talk to anyone and just keep walking until I've found
a store I could bunker down in. Apparently, since the
oil boom, that area of the state was highly dangerous

(40:05):
for young women. Yet, when an older at man on
a motorcycle passed me once came back down the road,
he stopped and asked me what I was doing. He
had that same concerned tone my brother had. I told
him I was trying to get some more safe and
then my brother was coming from Jamestown. He offered to
drive me halfway. I accepted. He seemed concerned for me
and was an older white man, so I took my chances.

(40:25):
I rode on his bike with him, and when he
dropped me off, he gave me five bucks and we
parted ways. I just sat down in the gas station
when my brother pulled up. He lectured me and told
me he had let our parents know what I was doing,
but proceeded to bring me home and let me stay
at his place for a week. The night before my
mother was due to arrive to bring me home, I
made my escape. I still some of my brother's liquor
bottles I had found a kid in town to sell

(40:46):
them to a few days before, made my cash and
was picked up by a guy in his late twenties
in a U haul. He was headed to Montana to
move back in with his parents. This guy was clean cut,
but gave me an odd feeling in my stomach. He
was quiet and made some weird comments, but going to
hold a conversation, I became very sleepy. Just as we
passed into Montana, and around eleven PM, through my half slumber,

(41:08):
I heard him say that we were stopping at a
hotel to crash for the night. I hobbled in, still
barely awake, laid on the edge of the bed and
mumbled something like stay on that side, I don't eat
much room. What seemed like only a short time later,
I woke when he sat in bed. My eyes were woke,
were open, but I just laid there. Soon I heard
him ask if I wanted to have sex. I became
instantly awake and alert. I tried to respond, but couldn't

(41:30):
get my mouth to open and speak. I started internally
freaking out. He touched my leg as I kept willing
myself to scream at him. He rolled me onto my
back and was just hovering over me, looking down. He
leaned it to kiss me, and somehow my bald up
fists sprung when with every ounce of strength I cracked
him in the jaw so loud I almost I'm almost
certain that I broke his bones. The blow was so
perfect that he was knocked out and snoring on the bed.

(41:53):
I could now move and sprang into action, grabbing my things,
the room, the room key, the the U haul keys,
and raced out to the front desk. I asked them
for the police department's phone number and gave them the
room keys, telling them to watch for the man I
had been with. I went outside, got my jack on
the truck, and then left the keys in the door.
I called the police from the distant park and told
them that I thought I had been drugged and that

(42:13):
there was a man in the hotel who had knocked
out and was dangerous. When they insisted that I give
them my name and information, I hung up. I was
only seventeen and I didn't want to be treated as
a runaway. I watched from the bushes as the police arrived,
escorted the guy out, and had him opened the U haul.
My heart sank as I saw that the back of
the truck was completely empty. I had believed that this
guy was moving. I kept on my journey, though I

(42:35):
was picked up by a very nice, attractive married man
in his thirties who drove me to the outskirts of Denver, Colorado.
My trip was out without incident, as the man wouldn't
even keep up a conversation with me. I think he
felt the same way you guys do about not trying
to creep around a young lady. My artist friend picked
me up and I spent about three weeks in Denver, Boulder, Colorado,
um and the mountain side. The people in the area

(42:56):
were not friendly, however, and they were generally rude, and
I was used to Minnesota nice. So when I met
two guys in a straight up hippie van, I jumped
at the opportunity. The driver was older, probably in his fifties.
The other kid was nineteen. I told everyone I met
that was nineteen. By the way, these guys were seasoned
hippie travelers. The van owner had two dogs and just

(43:16):
made it back to the States after driving all the
way to the tip on South America and back. We
picked up another kid, early twenties, on the top of
a mountain on our way out of Colorado before heading
to Utah. That guy was a well off New Yorker
who decided to travel to a friend's wedding in the
style of a European backpacker. Soon after crossing in the
Utah in the middle of the night, were pulled over

(43:36):
for an apparent license plate light that was out. I
stayed quiet, trying to go unnoticed, as one of the
cops ran the driver's information. Surprisingly, they asked the driver
to get out of the car. He was barefoot, and
I knew something was very wrong when the police asked
him if he wanted some shoes. That guy grown up
in Utah and had a warrant from thirty five years
ago and wanted to take him to jail and leave
us with his van and dogs. First, they wanted to

(43:57):
run our information. Tried to lie about my age again
and they wouldn't have it. So they searched my bag
and found both my I D and my stash of marijuana,
which was very illegal in Utah. They learned my age
and decided to let me go. After I showed them
the text and my phone from my mom, who knew
that I was traveling. They scolded me. One cop open
my stash smelled it, said, smells really nice, and he
would take the weed and dispose of it in the river.

(44:21):
So the three of us took on the responsibility of
delivering the van and the dogs and now jail bound
Hippy's parents house in the suburb of Salt Lake City.
The four parting ways. The guy from New York gave
each of his thirty dollars wished us luck and we're
all headed in different directions. I was sitting outside a
fast food joint in Salt Lake City after trekking back
from the suburbs fifteen miles away. It was a long,
hot walk. I probably looked like death. This well dressed

(44:43):
older man stared at me as he actualed the hotel
next to the restaurant, went in to get food. Walked
almost all the way back to the hotel. He paused,
turned around and asked me what I was doing. I
looked away, trying to make him leave. He asked me again.
I told him I was not a prostitute, and he
almost fell over. I could tell he didn't want to
seem like a pervert. He said, no, no, no, no,
you it looked like you need help. I told him
I could use money, but I definitely didn't the hotel

(45:04):
room with him. He pressed on with trying to help you.
Offer me a shower and nap in his room. Promised
he would leave both room keys and leave me alone
to do my thing. I couldn't resist that offer. He
left me alone for a few hours, came back, knocked
on door, asked me about my life and what I
was up to. He seemed very concerned. We talked when
and got food and just hung out. However, he made
me sad and I feel guilty for what I was

(45:24):
doing to my parents. After our discussions, later that night,
I spoke with a truck or when I was outside
smoking a cigarette. He was just about to leave and
was headed to Canada by passing through Des Moines. He
was a funny, fat Canadian trucker and I accepted the ride.
Our journey took a couple of days. We laughed, watched movies.
Best of all, I was able to sleep off many
hours of one of the bunks while he drove. He

(45:45):
never made any advances on me, but was truthful about
his attraction to me. Everything was fine. He left me
at a truck stop in De Moine with a pack
of cigarettes and twenty dollars. I was torn. I wanted
to keep traveling, but was so close to home. After
some soul searching and turn me down to ride to Florida,
I called my mom. She bought me a bus ticket
and I went home. Now she says that this was

(46:05):
a long story. She knows, and she left out a
lot of parts of it. Of course, there's a lot
that happens along the way because there was some good,
some bad. Yet I do hope that it gives you
some insight into how traveling like that works in today's time.
And she signs it Lacey. Now, I know that was
a long read. That was short story. You you get
the you get the picture of what this is like.
Now here's a young girl, she's seventeen years old. I

(46:27):
try to put myself in a seventeen year old position,
but I can't exactly do that because this is a
seventeen year old female. It's slightly different. We have to
admit that is slightly different for a hitchhiking female versus
a hitchhiking male. Only slightly because bad things happened to
both both sexes. Of course, So I was I was
so wanting to interrupt you many times throughout that read,

(46:49):
bend with with things like can can you believe? Did
you hear that part? You know? Yes, there was so
much happening along the way. We're talking about drugs and
inappropriate behavior, drinking, yeah, and just that the chances that
she's taken she's seventeen years old, yeah, exactly, with strangers
and she's getting into vans with guys that have um
you know rest records, you know, with with warrants out

(47:10):
rather even though it was decades ago, you'd never know.
I mean, it's just this, this this type of lifestyle
is so foreign to me. It's something that I've never experienced.
Reading something like this is is truly eye opening. I
mean it really is it. It lets you know, um,
what some people are going throughout there and how they're
getting around. And can you imagine what her parents are

(47:31):
thinking through this whole thing. I mean, clearly they're not
not for this type of thing. They're not they're not
telling her get out there and experience this day. She
ran off on her own to do this, and as
she says, you know, I I realized that, and I
forget the way she actually phrased that she was she
was having a wildlife or was in a word nd yeah, yeah,
she was having a difficult relationship with the kids, and
you know that she went to school with and um,

(47:53):
she's saying she was very reckless, and I think looking back,
she realizes that. And here's someone who's only twenty now
looking back three years ago, was saying, yeah, I was
really reckless back then. I'm lucky I made it through
that so, but she really poured her heart out to
us and Lacey, thank you for the note. It was amazing. Um,
difficult to read at times, I mean, it's tough to
to hear something like that, but I think it's valuable

(48:13):
for our listeners to understand that even now, like that's
what it's like now, right, And it goes back to
earlier point regarding cell phones. You know, if she was
in text contact with her parents, it's very different than
say the nineteen eighties or something. Yeah, when you if
you ran away and you were gone for a year
or however long she was gone or not, I'm not
sure the time you know that it's involved here, but um,

(48:36):
your parents might assume the worst at some point. Well
then also you know they're there are different people we've
we've talked about in the past doing some of these
off the grid traveling things like I've had. I've got
some folks who work in the train yards, you know,
and uh, either working on the cars or loading unloading

(48:56):
stuff like that. And then I also know people who
are still hopping trains in this day and age, riding
the rails. Yes, there, and I've been invited before to
go on that stuff. But I haven't done it, just
in full disclosure. But it's strange when you think about
all the different ways that people travel and and you know,

(49:20):
hopping the trains and and hitchhiking or have their own
set of dangers, right, But I you know, I think
we both briefly alluded to hitchhiking experiences we had had
either hitchhiking or picking up hitch hikers, and so much
of it really depends on where you are in the context.

(49:41):
And I would not I know that there's someone of
a romantic notion to it. I'm all for helping somebody
get somewhere if I'm on the way there, and I
don't think they're gonna try to be a grifter. But
um but I myself wouldn't. I don't saying you would
just hitchhike for funzies. Well then you know, I think

(50:02):
you said it exactly perfectly here. And it gets romanticized,
and there's a lot of bad that goes along with
the good, and you know, looking back, you may have
fond memories of of that. You know that five years
that you've spent hitchhiking around Hawaii or wherever you were
around the Southwest, But you're maybe forgetting some of the
bad things that happened as well. And you know, if
something really bad happened to something really traumatic, maybe that's

(50:25):
the only impression that you have of it, and you
forget the good times, you forget the good, the good
things that happened, the good the good people that you
met along the way, you know, the people who gave
you rides, to people that you were um hitchhiking with,
you know, your friends. But man, there's there's so many
angles to this one, and we're we're deep into this,
uh this episode already. I've got a lot of notes
here still and we haven't even touched on you know,

(50:46):
half of the stuff. Didn't even rebuild the emails any
part of it is because we we we read one
that was you know, that was very long and very detailed.
And again, thank you, because listeners will notice that's the
only email we read this time round that comes from
someone on the hitchhiking side. Yeah, that's true. And you know,
there were many that we got that were people that
offered rides and everything, everything's fine. You know, there were

(51:10):
a couple of people that so they had bad situations,
like you know, with loss of ring and money and
you know, maybe not getting to thank you for a
one forty mile rider. Oh man, oh that gets me.
I'm so vicariously piste on your behalf. And you know,
if I hold a door for somebody they don't say thanks,
I get I kind of like, oh, well, that is
that worth it? Here's the other thing. This is so petty.
This is so petty. But all right, I know that

(51:33):
it's tough for everybody. When we're in traffic or when
there's an accident. You have to merge if I let
you in, if I let you merge out of the
goodness of my own heart. You know this. If I'm
taking the fall, not just for you, but for everybody
behind me, and you don't wave, you don't acknowledge it,
you better get that over the shoulder wave in the

(51:54):
in the back glass. You're implying that this was destiny,
my friend. You know what, I make a conscious decision
to do that every time someone lets me in, because
I know exactly what you're talking about. Man, I feel
the same way. I think I think most people do.
You know, they think like I better just give them
a little you know, thank you wave over the right
shoulders and did we. I don't think we ever did

(52:16):
actually follow through with that podcast on driver car stereotypes.
That was just like a courtesy thing, almost like like
you know people but well like but let's be honest.
BMW drivers at least in the States have a reputation
for apparently being rude drivers. I haven't seen anything that
confirms it. Way to cover yourself. There there's a I

(52:37):
guess maybe we could get some some angry listener email
if we did this the stereotype thing. Probably, I don't know,
maybe we should. Maybe we should investigate it and see
if there's there's a fine line we can walk back.
I feel like it should be a listener mail episode two.
That would be great. We could probably find some statistics
on accidents. That would be some solid data. We can
find some we can find amount of cars purchased by

(53:01):
like age group or something. Sure is this is this
gonna be like a Honda Odyssey which hunt on your end?
I will refuse myself from any comments on Honda Odyssey
because you, as well as anyone who's listened to past
episodes of this show, no full well what those vehicles
are like. Yes, we do full well. Okay, I'm gonna

(53:24):
let it go. Okay, we got it. It's it's like
the way you feel about flying cars. Well, we are
going to head out. We know that we ultimately didn't
get to all of the listener mail, but we really
appreciated everybody's responses regarding this because, as we had said
at the close of that episode, it was it became

(53:45):
like unexpectedly centered on ethics and morality and crime and safety,
you know, big questions that people have yet to answer
as a species in general. Yeah. And I think, I mean,
I think the under lying message behind our whole that
you have the last two episodes it's been, you know,
be cautious yet have compassion. Yeah. Absolutely, And I would

(54:08):
even emphasize to be cautious, uh more so than than
you just did in that sentence, because ultimately, you know,
being compassionate is great, you shall also be passionate about
your own survival. Yeah, that's true. That's part of the
caution part, right right, So, so be cautious, have compassion,
and be even more cautious, right and right in it, yeah,

(54:29):
right in. And let us know what you think, especially
you've had pitchhiking experience, if you've had a particularly good
or bad experience. We'd like to hear about it on
any related note. So we're going to go ahead and
head out. I don't know, Scott, I make it official.
Shafts for driver stereotypes? Why not? Yeah? Send him if
you got them. You can hit us up on Facebook.

(54:51):
You can find us on Twitter. We'd appreciate it if
you liked and followed us on there. Uh, We're we're
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write an email directly to us, then we love to
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at how stuff works dot com. For more on this

(55:13):
and thousands of other topics, is how stuff works dot com.
Let us know what you think. Send an email to
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