hitchhiking?

[indra]

Who is Ivan Milat?

link

 

[starsgoblue]

"It is believed that the murders may have inspired parts of the 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek."~ That movie so grossed me out I had to turn it off before it was even a quarter of the way done.

 

[Angela Harlem]

The end ramble claimed it was based on a few of our more notorious murderers, him easily being one of them - if not even the main one. His psychotic family are still free, too, sadly.

 

[fly so high!]

Ivan milat lived just up the road from me, in Eaglevale I think with his sister .......we all used to see him ride around on his bike and around the local shops.

My cousin used to work with Milat's youngest brother, the brother (which my cousin thinks he was a cool guy....except he would take it hard if anyone mentioned or joked about Milat!To be expected) has oficially disowned his family but still keeps the name....you would think he would change it by depol or something, the poor guy sees no member of his family now.

BTW.........DO NOT HITCH HIKE....BAD IDEA!

 

[upabove]

Remember the part where the original poster said:

Well, that was my opinion, I didn't state it as fact. I just think that people who chose to do "risky" things that most people wouldn't due are automatically labeled as dumb. Sometimes they are dumb, sometimes not.

Someone in the thread asked if I were male. Yes, I am. American bred.

I found hitching in Europe to be more dangerous for me, personally, because I spoke no languages besides English. So it was pretty hard at times to communicate.

I don't think there are a huge number of people driving around, looking to pickup hitchers to murder and rape. I could be wrong, but I just haven't personally seen it. I'd say the stigma is more on the hitcher themselves. Why do people stop to pickup a complete stranger? I can't really say. I've never given a ride to a hitcher in my car.

There were only a handful of times that females gave me a ride. They were all hippy type girls, even though I look like a pretty straight laced dude. Short hair, and keep the face clean.

I'm a white guy. From what I recall, about 85% of my rides were 25-55 year old men, 10% Mexicans, and the rest a mix of females and other minorities. I had one ride given by a family of five in a mini-van. It was odd for us all! I never was asked for cash, sexual favors, or anything of the like.

My standard offer was money for gas. If they refused, I'd offer to buy them a meal. If they refused that, I'd just leave some cash in the passenger door. We're all just people; I wish we weren't so afraid of everyone else these days.

I'm pretty settled in now in life (at least I think, who knows what happens tomorrow!) and I don't see hitching around again.

I know the starter of this thread is just concerned for their brother, so the intentions are in the right place. I'm not trying to advocate hitching to a stranger, just sharing what little I've learned about it.

Cheers!

Edit:

But if you feel comfortable with being able to judge someone's character and the situation in a brief few minutes and feel comfortable going with them, more power to you. Hitchhike away. I do understand the romanticized notion of traveling that way. [/B]

Well, I simply explained to any potential ride that I was just working my way across the states. I had a big enough bank account to stay in motels in whatever town I ended up in, so it wasn't like I was a bum living on the side of the road. I showered and shaved at regular intervals. I wasn't hitching because I had to depend on it...I just wanted to do it.

Rational? Sometimes I really don't care to be.

Hmm....actually all this talk is starting to spark an interest in me again. What with the advances in wireless networks, it would probably be a cool blogging experience. Probably been done though....