Tag Archives: hitchhiking

The Death of the Road

In 2013 my summer holiday plans fell apart one by one. The Nantucket house had too many guests, my friend in Millbrook had accepted an invitation to the Rockefeller’s’ Adirondack estate, and my sister was leaving Maine for a conference in Boston. All the flights to Thailand were out of my budget and Labor Weekend […]

NOTHING BETTER THAN PIZZA by Peter Nolan Smith

Back in 1995 I left the USA after the death of my younger brother. My plan was to visit the holiest places in Asia. I was a non-believer, but believed this pilgrimage would help Michael’s soul in eternity. By late August I had reached in old Yunnan city of Lijiang in Southern China. My hotel […]

TOO LATE FOR THE HAIGHT by Peter Nolan Smith

The bus from Sacramento crossed the bay in light traffic. Most people in the Bay Area had off Memorial Day. The uniformed driver veered off the bridge and entered the TransBay Terminal. Once he parked in the depot, I grabbed my bag from the underneath storage compartment and entered the station. Holiday passengers were forming […]

Biloxi 1975

An hour after sunset we passed through Ocala. The cowboy town looked mean and I drove the speed limit. Florida was a big state at 55. I joined the Interstate after Lake City. Old Bill drunkenly bitched about the trucks. “Not many other options.” I wasn’t keen on driving through the backroads of the Panhandle. […]

MIAMI BEACH BLIND by Peter Nolan Smith

Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands In the winter of 1975 I hitchhiked west from Miami Beach along Alligator Alley. Rides weren?t easy, but finally a fruit farmer from Naples gave me a lift through the southern tip of the Everglades. Nothing, but swamp lined the four-lane highway. No snowbirds from the Northeast or Canada wanted to […]