It's June 3, 1972. Rosemary is 21, and me, I'm 23. Five months earlier, we tied the knot on New Year’s Day in San Francisco and now we're ready to embark on our first adventure as a married couple. We had plane tickets from San Francisco to New York, but we longed to experience the heart of America up close—the sights, sounds, and landscapes that can’t be seen from 30,000 feet. A cross-country road trip sounded perfect, but owning a car—or even affording the petrol for one—was out of the question. Still, we couldn’t resist the dream of witnessing Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, Florida, Niagara Falls, and visiting friends scattered across Phoenix, Ohio, and West Virginia. So, we made a bold decision: we would hitchhike. We promised ourselves we’d be cautious, presentable, and resourceful—Rosemary even packed a steam iron in her backpack to keep us looking tidy. If a ride pulled up and the driver looked like the next Charles Manson, we’d simply decline with a polite "No, thank you." We never worried about guns, the scorching sun, druggies, or reckless drivers. Naive? Perhaps. But somehow, we survived the journey—and we lived to tell the tale.
3 - 4 June San Francisco - Yosemite Valley - Lone Pine 401 miles (80 by bus)
Hitching a ride on a freeway ramp in the city was not an option so we took a bus to Manteca. 16-year-old Carrie gave us our first ride. We were hitching in front of her house. She backed her car out, spotted the Yosemite sign and told us to get in. In arush, we left our Qantas travel bag on the footpath but didn't realise it until we were five miles down the road. Carrie took us back to her house. Turns out her brother saw the bag and was about to explore the contents when we turned up. Good thing. The bag contained our passports and $100 in cash. Carrie then took us 10 miles to the small town of Oakdale. 15 minutes later we got our second ride to Knight’s Ferry, 46 miles. Our third ride took us the rest of the way, 75 miles. We checked into the Yosemite campground and erected the tent for the first time. It was way too small.
We found that if just one of us lay on our back, we could both fit. No lamp, so once it got dark, we slept. One thing I did though was read the warning about bears. “Do not leave food in bags in or outside the tent. Lock food items in your car.” We left our bags on the adjacent camp table to our tent. In the early hours, I was woken by a rustling noise. I stuck my head out of the tent to seek two very large bears trying to open our bags. Being a trained soldier, I whispered “shoo.” And they did! Rosemary said I dreamt it. We had a restful day and enjoyed Yosemite.
It took two rides to get to the Toga Pass and three more to Lone Pine. We crossed the border into Nevada and left the high country and its magnificent sequoia pines to the arid desert of Nevada. Bears were the highlight of the day. We saw two bears with three cubs going through rubbish bins. A man left his car to photograph the bears but found himself between Mama Bear and her cubs. The man made it back to his car. Just. The small campground at Lone Pine was on dry, hard rocky ground. The caretaker didn’t charge us. As we nodded off to sleep, two motorhomes pulled up, one on either side.
5 - 9 June Lone Pine - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon. 602 miles
We made Las Vegas by mid-afternoon. Paid $16 for a hotel room. Outrageous! It took four rides through the Mojave Desert (passing the turn-off to Death Valley) and Bristow. The ride from Mojave to Bristow was in a semi-trailer. A good day was overshadowed by losing $5 in a ‘slot machine.’ We walked the Strip and saw a free show.
We filled up on a buffet breakfast and caught a city bus to get us on the road to the Hoover Dam. It took two rides to get there, 20 miles. Our second ride came via David, a USAF serviceman. We inspected the dam from the tourist vantage points. David looked at his watch and said I’ve got time to take you further. Which he did, but his generosity did us no favour. Kingman, Arizona, was still 107 miles. 15 minutes after leaving the Dam, David looked at his watch and announced that he should be getting back. It was early afternoon and the day's heat had set in. We had no water and found ourselves in the desert with cars flying past us at 70 miles an hour. Our only company was a mountain goat peering down on us from atop a large boulder. We got lucky when a car travelling in the opposite direction blew a tyre. Driving the car was a college professor. He and his family were relocating to California. They
somehow squeezed us in and took us back to the Dam. Starting over, we got a ride all the way to Kingman. This palce was a step into the past, a classic Western town. It had a raised planked sidewalk. We checked into a hotel that looked just lie what you see in a Western movie. There were old men asleep in chairs in the foyer and another who was deranged.
Six bucks bought us a room where the only thing clean was the sheets. We went out for a hamburger and picked up a bus schedule. We were heading for the Grand Canyon. We saw there was a bus leaving for Flagstaff at 10 pm. We decided that we’d be on it. Flagstaff was 146 miles. We arrived at 1:10 am in the morning and managed to get a hotel room.
The Grand Canyon is awesome, breath-taking. From the rim, we could see the Colorado River flowing 5,000 Below. It was hot, nearly 90o. We could see tracks winding down to the river and mules carrying tourists down and back up. Rosemary was exhausted, not having slept a wink on the bus last night. We read that the roundtrip walking trail to the river and back was 15 miles. Although it was much cooler today, a hike was out of the question. Rosemary was showing signs of not enjoying the camping experience.
10 - 13 June Grand Canyon - Phoenix - Tuscon - Las Cruces, New Mexico 616 miles
We hitched a ride to Flagstaff, but the woman was a terrible driver. The experience further drained Rosemary’s enthusiasm. It took two more rides to get to Phoenix. Rosemary’s cousin Richard worked there for computer giant, Honeywell. We stayed the night with him and Colleen. They had an air-conditioned apartment with a swimming pool. What luxury!
Each Sunday, Richard went horse riding at 7 am. We joined him. $2 each for an hour on horseback riding rfee range was a bargain. Rosemary has done very little riding, but she’s a natural. We cantered around in the desert and had a great time. But by nine, it was 110o. We rested for the rest of the day.
Early next morning,Richard drove us out to the city limits on his way to work. Our first ride saw us to Tucson. We waited two hours for our next ride.
A couple in a small Japanese ute offered us a lift if we were happy to sit in the back. There were hessian bags to sit on. We pulled out our sleeping bag to soften the ride. The wind kept us cool, but our
arms and legs got badly burned. They dropped us off in the small town of Willcox. It took us three more rides to get to Las Cruces. Too hot to camp, we got a motel room and stayed two nights. Rosemary was so badly burned; she could barely walk.
14 June Las Cruces - El Paso - Abilene - Dallas 680 miles
Wednesday morning. I had my thumb out at 7 am. Two easy rides got us to El Paso but from there, drivers weren’t giving us a second look. Fortunately, at about 8:30 am, a semi-trailer stopped. The Seattle-based driver, Hank, was on his last trip before retiring. He took us all the way to Dallas and even bought us lunch in Abilene. Rosemary was able to lay in the cabin's bunk, a welcome relief. Her legs were still very sore. Hank dropped us off near a motel.
A group of young people crowded around the recep-tion area. The evangelist Billy Graham was hosting a Christian Youth Convention. A kid of about 18 approached us and with gushing enthusiasm asked, “Are you here for Jesus?”
We spent the following day walking around Dallas and picked up our first mail. It seemed that every major US city had more than its share of chanting Hare Krishnas.
16 - 21 June 1972 Dallas - Shreveport - New Orleans - Mobile - Destin, Florida. 757 miles
It took four rides to get to Shreveport, Louisianna, and from there we got a ride to Alexandria with yet another USAF serviceman, Peter, who invited us to sleep at his place. We accepted the offer but felt uncomfortable when he took us for a drive to his dope stash in a nearby forest. We weren't immune to America's marijuana scene but managed to keep clear of it. As foreign hitchhikers in the deep South, we felt vulnerable.
A good ride the next morning got us to New Orleans. After getting dropped off, we walked almost two miles to the campground, arriving hot and exhaus-ted. The drive through Louisiana was an eye-opener. We travelled through bayou country and saw an armadillo and a snake on the road. Birdlife was prolific, wild geese, vultures, and cardinals. We hired a car for the day. We visited the French Quar-ter, the Garden District, and the local swamps.
The next day we caught a bus to get out of town. Three rides got us to Mobile, Alabama, where we got a motel
room. We took a break in Pensacola, whichclaims to have the whitest sand in the world. The humidity was oppressive. We stayed in the Destin campground for two nights. This area is known as the Florida panhandle. We are getting sick of sleeping in our tiny tent. I doubt that we'll camp much more.
22 - 29 June Destin - Orlando - Miami Beach - Cape Canaveral - Atlanta 1,425 miles
Destin to Orlando, a crazy day. The first ride was with a 'good ole southern boy from Mississippi, straight out of the movies. Bib and brace denim overalls, white tee shirt, a straw hat and cowboy boots. bloke driving a clapped-out Corvair. He was driving us to a bar for an early morning drink. Thirty minutes late he pulled up in a car park at his drinking hole and got angry when we wouldn't join. The second was with a naval officer who enjoyed his R&R in Sydney, He saw us get in the Corvair, didn't like what he saw, and followed us. He saw the Corvair guy menace us, drove up and called out to get in.
Next was the worst driver so far. It unsettled both of us. We counted three near head-on collisions. It was nearly dark when we arrived in Orlando, so we took a room at a motel for $10 that even a street girl would turn up her nose.
Our luck changed in the morning. A furniture salesman picked us up and took us right to the outskirts of Miami. We got to the outskirts of Miami and then caught a local bus the rest of the way. We picked up our mail and found an old but clean hotel room one block from the beach. $8 a night - a bargain. The next day marked three weeks and my 24th birthday. Our four nights in Miami Beach were great. We just may have been the only Gentiles in the city. Pretty sure we were the only ones under 65.
We took a Greyhound bus to Melbourne, Florida, and another to the Kennedy Space Centre. We stayed at Cocoa Beach dreaming of Jeanie.
It took seven rides to get to Lake City (with no lake in sight). We got dropped off on a freeway near a ramp on the outskirts of Jacksonville. There was a gas station behind us about 500 yards away. Three cop cars were filling up, two black and whites, and a green and white highway patrol car. A cop pointed us out to the highway patrolman who then jumped in his car and turned on his flashing lights. We shit ourselves. He pulled up and asked where we were going. "Atlanta," we replied. "Well, you'll never get a ride here," he said. "You should hitch from the bottom of the ramp where drivers can get a good look at you." He smiled and wished us good luck. His advice was spot on. We got picked up almost straight away by a well-dressed driver in his thirties who thought he needed to show us he had a gun. There were more complications. Rosemary had back pain, no doubt caused by getting in and out of 2-door cars, and the heat was taking its toll. We booked into a motel. Over dinner, we agreed that tomorrow would be our last day of hitchhiking.
Three good rides the next day got us to Atlanta early afternoon. Yet another driver showed us his gun. It was time to quit.
29 - 30 June Atlanta - Manchester - Cincinatti - Columbus, Ohio 915 miles
We had heard about “Drive Away System” cars where you drive a person’s car to a destination, paying only for fuel and with an agreed number of days to complete the trip. We found the DAS Atlanta office and two hours later we were driving an air-conditioned Austin America (a Morris 1100 in Australia) to Buffalo, New York. They gave us seven days and 1,300 miles to deliver. It would have been five, but they don't count Sundays or Public Holidays. We drove into the night enjoying our independence. At about 11 pm and after 187 miles, the car overheated near Manchester, Tennessee. The fault was mine. I checked the water when we refuelled and didn’t put the cap back on properly. We found a campground in a nearby forest. It rained and our bedding got wet.
With careful planning, we could visit Bob's parents and Ted on the way to Buffalo. I had met Bob and Ted in Vietnam. Both were US Army air traf
fic controllers in Vung Tau. We became close friends. Both are now discharged and had returned to college. Bob in Alamosa, Colorado, and Ted in Fairmont, West Virginia. We overnighted in Columbus.
1 - 3 Jul Columbus - Wooster - Wheeling - Fairmont, West Virgina. 287 miles
Wooster, 80 miles from Columbus, is a college town where Bob’s dad is the Police Chief. Bob's brother is also a Wooster cop. On arrival at Wooster, we noticed two horse-drawn buggies coming toward us. The families in the buggies were dressed in olden-day clothes. We assumed they were going to a July 4 parade. Turns out they were Amish. We had never heard of the Amish but saw lots later. We were greeted warmly by Bob's parents who they gave up their bed for us. His Dad gave us a tour of the town and then barbequed steaks for dinner. We enjoyed being fussed over. Conveniently, Ted lived just over 200 miles from Wooster. He was studying in Fairmont, West Virginia. Ted worked in part-time radio before joining the Army so it came as no surprise, when we called, that he was doing a shift on WAJR in nearby Morgantown. He was about to go on-air when we arrived at 7:30 pm. The trip from Wooster was a highlight. We enjoyed driving on the backroads and crossing the Ohio River (a big one) at Wheeling, West Virginia. In 1969, Neil Sedaka had a hit of that name while, ironically written when he was living in Australia. We spent the next day with Ted in Fairmont. It rained most of the day.
We had dinner at Fanny Farkle’s house. Not sure if Farkle was her real name. Fanny probably wasn't either. These are strange times.
4 - 8 July Fairmont - Pittsburgh - Buffalo- Niagara Falls - Albany - New York 311 miles
We drove through Pittsburgh without stopping for a look. Super industrial. We then drove along the Lake Erie shoreline. We delivered the car in Buffalo with five miles to spare on our mileage allowance. We broke a revision mirror going through a car wash and were penalised $25. That hurt! We checked into a motel. The next morning, we hitched a ride to Niagara Falls, 20 miles away. Like most tourists saw the foot of the falls on board the famous “Maid of the Mist”. Niagara Falls Campground was OK. We saw more Amish people who, like us, were on holiday. We stayed a second day and just relaxed, writing letters and postcards.
We took the bus back to Buffalo and went to the Drive Away System office to see if we could get a car to drive to New York City. Ahead of us in the queue was a Swedish couple. No cars for New York but there was one, a commercial van, for Albany, the state capital. The Swedes took it but offered to take us if we were happy to sit on the floor. We weren’t but we did. The 290-mile trip was very uncomfortable. On the plus side, the Swedes paid for a delicious meal at a Chinese restaurant.
We caught a bus for the 200 miles to New York City and took a room at the Times Hotel in the heart of Broadway. It was old and had long seen better days. The desk clerk wanted $18.50 but we got him down to $13.50 a night for four nights.
We took an all-day tour of New York. Wonderful day. We saw the World Trade Centre under construction. The towers are huge. We collected a cheque for $610 from the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. We were forced to leave our accommodation in San Francisco so the city could build a nursing home. This was compensation. What a bonus! A highlight was going to the top of the Empire State Building. The picture shows the top of the Chrysler Building in the background. We shopped at Macey’s and in the evening attended a musical, Two Gentlemen of Verona, $18 each. On our last day, we attended a matinee of Grease, $11 each. It was disappointing (the show was later cancelled and re-written and was a huge hit). Our Air Lingus flight to Shannon took at 10.45 pm we departed the USA for Ireland.
For photography enthusiasts, all the photos were taken in 1872 from dusty and scratched 35 mm slides. I used Luminar Neo for the restoration.
