What happens when all of the sudden you have tons of time on your hands, a fair amount of dreams and your best friend is willing to join you in whatever crazy endeavor you want to pursue? Fiddy and I found ourselves in that exact situation by the end of August this year. We've just finished University (we both got a business degree from the University of Victoria [3]) and we didn't exactly want to pursue the typical business jobs our classmates were chasing. We wanted and needed to do something, but we weren't sure what.
Fiddy: There were lots of things we wanted to do that didn't include finding a job. We wanted to travel, meet people and have fun.
One day, during one of our usual rambling conversations we finally got it. We'd visit each and every state capital in the U.S. without spending a single dollar on transportation. We just needed to find the right way to advertise our idea and do it.
Scotty: My older brother, Kyle, was certainly an inspiration for us. He became famous this year when he started trading a single red paper clip [4] for a fish pen and he ended up receiving a house. That experience showed us that people like to get involved in these kinds of seemingly impossible causes.
Kyle liked our idea and helped us with some tips. Very soon he became one of the many on our legion of fans.
We designed a couple of T-shirts with our names on them (I have a green one with my name on it and Fiddy's got a blue one). Then we set up a Web site [5] where anybody can check where we are and where we are heading off. We established some rules too: We can't pay for any transportation and we must get a photo in front of every state capitol building. Most importantly, we must provide readers of our site with original content at least once every day and at least once every state.
Fiddy: On October 10, we officially started our hitchhiking mission to visit 50 state capitals in 50 days. We flew from Vancouver, our hometown, to New York. We decided to start out our journey at Times Square not only because the place is busy and anything that happens there is newsworthy, but especially because it's kind of ridiculous. I mean, who on Earth hitchhikes at Times Square?
It was thrilling. We were there standing with our thumbs up for an hour that felt like four. We waited and waited, but nobody would stop. All of the sudden, "Nikki The Cowboy" a guy who plays music in Time Square every day, came up to us and started playing right beside. Two minutes later somebody stopped to give us a ride. Nikki was our lucky charm. I keep in touch with him.
Scotty: From New York we moved to New England down the East Coast and then Atlanta where we were interviewed by CNN. Anybody can see our route online. The map at the top of our Web site's home page shows our current location, with updates every 15 seconds. The map comes from the GPS chip in our cell phone, and links our location to the web site. If you zoom in you can see the exact building we're in, or the exact corner we just took on the highway. It's actually really creepy.
Fiddy: As much as we're into seeing all the great places we'll visit, we're even more excited to meet the people that will take us to those places. Hitch50 isn't really a project about places; it's about people.
Every person who gives us a ride receives a golden ticket and is entered into a draw. Near the end of the project, we'll choose one of these names at random. This lucky person will fly to wherever our final state capital is, party with us and hang out. For free. Now, there's a good chance this could be in California, or Hawaii!
I have to admit that, despite the marketing and the technology we have, hitchhiking is not easy. We don't have a route set up so we have to stand on the side of the road with our thumb out and be willing to go wherever our rides can take us. Sometimes we've been standing on the side of a road for hours. Some other times, people call us or e-mail us to offer a ride. It varies from state to state.
Scotty: I'd say that 75 per cent of the rides we get come from people who contact us through our Web site. That's why we've visited 29 states in only 24 days.
Many people have told us that they've never picked up hitchhikers before, but that when they saw us with our especially designed t-shirts and the sign that explains what we're doing, they couldn't resist it.
So far the most difficult state to get to has been West Virginia. Everything indicated we'd be stuck in Kentucky. It was about 1:00 am and we were scouring our ride offers list for anything that could get us closer to West Virginia. Next we tried our host's CB radio. In Lloyd's Jeep, parked next to the highway he put on his best southern drawl: "Hey y'all who's got their ears on, anyone going east to West Virginia tonight, common back now y'all." The CB idea, which seemed like a good one at first turned into a game of listening to the ridiculous conversations and accents from the CB conversations and putting in our two cents where we felt worthy. The idea didn't get us a ride but it was pure entertainment.
It looked like the night was over, but Lloyd came through with the mother of all offers. He pointed across the street to a dented, green Geo. 'That car's there is mine, I paid $50 bucks for it and don't give a damn what happens to it. It's got a full tank of gas, you guys are free to take it.' That was awesome! Besides, having a full tank of gas fit within our rule of not being allowed to pay for any transportation. We sealed the deal on the hood, packed our bags and got in.
Trail Of Crimes Across America
Fiddy: To add excitement to the travel I came up with the idea of breaking silly laws in the different states we're visiting. Harmless things, such as making faces to dogs, barefoot driving and other illegal activities we've found at a Web site called Dumblaws.com [6]
Scotty found out, for example, that it is illegal to sing in a bathtub in Pennsylvania. Shortly after he read that, he heard some noise from the upstairs bathroom...it sounded like Hanson.
In the state of Oklahoma it is illegal to make what would be considered "ugly faces" at dogs. So that's what we did, and you can check the photos on our Web site.
In the garden state of New Jersey, it is illegal to frown at a police officer. We applaud this law for obvious reasons of respect. After all, New Jersey's state motto is: "I wouldn't worry about it, just throw it in the river." However, this law requires clarification because not all frowns are considered to be illegal.
For example, Scotty frowned at a local police officer. This rebellious action landed Scotty a stiff penalty.
Apart from breaking the law, other interesting things we've done include visiting the Pentagon. We met a girl in Washington DC through somebody who gave us a ride. She lived in the same building as him. We chatted with her and learned she worked there. We asked her for a tour and next thing we knew is that we were inside the Pentagon having a guided tour. It was pretty crazy!
The other moment that comes to mind is when we went to a Football game in Florida State University and there were like 80,000 people in the Stadium. We've never seen an event that big before. It was all thanks to a girl who contacted us, gave us a ride, invited us to the game and gave us a place to stay.
You Are Doing What?
Fiddy: People's reactions vary from "what a good idea" to "it's the craziest thing I've ever heard of." That's why Scotty says we're mastering the business of "blowing minds away."
Sometimes we get phone calls from people who just want to express how great they think our idea is. They just call, tell us they love the idea and hang up. Problem is they call sometimes at three or four in the morning!
Scottie: We've experienced some other bizarre experiences. One night we were walking down Bourbon street, New Orleans, when out of nowhere a police horse that had been scared by who knows what comes roaring around the corner kicking all over the place. Fiddy didn't see it coming and the horse just knocked him from behind. Imagine? Being kicked by a horse in the French Quarters in New Orleans? People were chasing it down the street and, because I grew up in a ranch, I knew what to do, so I ran after this horse, wrangled it down and broke his spirit.
Other bizarre experience was when we were offered a Donkey to get to Alaska! The truth is that we are open to any offer we get. We choose the one that accommodates our interest better.
Fiddy: This experience is proving to be amazing. I feel like a pioneer and Scotty feels more like a pilgrim. After the trip is over I don't know what we'll do. I'm thinking of going to a trade school to become a carpenter and Scotty is planning to move to Manitoba.
For now our focus is to achieve our goal. If we can't make it by the deadline, we'd never be able to show our faces in public again. We'll be in disgrace, feeling like clowns. We'll lose all communication with everyone we know and probably go to live in some country where nobody knows us. We hope, though, that we can avoid such a humiliating experience and go back to Canada saying: "Mission Accomplished."