Hitchhiker/hitchhikee

For the purposes of this post the use of the words hiker/hikee falls into the same word relationship as employer/employee and the word hikee has no connection with the urban dictionary definition.  

 Hitchhiking adventures for Ms Soup have been very tame and few and far between; the following two sum it all up.

Hitch-hikees.

 A group of five young girls, most in their early twenties decide one summer to plan a girls’ weekend away.  How very, very adventurous they were; the destination a popular beach holiday town, about 100 miles away.  There was a catch.  No one had a car.  The return journey was organised; the only way to get there was a combination of cadging a lift and hitch hiking.  Two of this group cadged a lift with a carpenter who worked in their town Monday to Friday and then drove to his home town of Bairnsdale each weekend.   There was one definite snag with this arrangement; Bairnsdale was quite a few miles short of the weekend destination.

Undaunted, they decided to hitch hike the last few miles.  It is unclear whether parents were apprised of their daughters' plans to stand on the side of the road thumbing a lift.  It is highly likely those small details might have been glossed over and more emphasis placed on the safety of the already arranged lifts and the respectability of their hotel accommodation.

The carpenter’s car vanished into the distance and the pair stood helpless with laughter at their audacity and the realisation that the moment of truth had arrived.  The helpless laughter lasted while quite a few prospective lifts passed by; finally it dawned on the pair that finding a ride was a serious matter and being doubled up with hysterical laughter was not going to find them a ride.   A car which actually pulled over and stopped wiped the last of the laughter off their faces. The moment of decision.  Go or stay?

 Without a second thought they grabbed their bags and piled into the station wagon and in short order learned the driver lived in their holiday town destination and his brother was a policeman who had been stationed some time back in their home town.  The hitch-hikees sat back and relaxed, chattered non-stop and in no time at all were deposited at the front door of the very respectable hotel.

Hitch-hiking adventure number one accomplished, safe and sound.

Hitch-hikers.

Time passes.

Three of the original group were away on another girls’ weekend.  Now they have a car, albeit a very small one.  The destination is far eastern Victoria with a quick foray over the border into the alpine country of New South Wales. 

A good time was had by all.

On the return journey along a back gravel road leading down to the main highway they find not one, but two hitch-hikers standing together by a car, looked forlorn and a little sheepish. One of them held an empty petrol can.

Masters of the quick decision,the three decided the numbers were in their favour and, with some minor adjustments and a hasty re-arrangement of baggage, all five squashed into the car.  The back seat passengers, the shortest fellow crammed in between the two girls, were the real sardines but for the two men it was preferable to waiting for another vehicle on a road rarely used by anyone other than locals.

When the highway and civilization arrived there was relief all round; the hitch-hikers climbed out in front of a garage and stretched their cramped limbs and the very small car with its merry band of girls, laughing and making unkind remarks about dim-wits who ran out of petrol in the bush back-blocks, went speeding on its way homeward.

Another hitch-hiking adventure accomplished safe and sound.