Episode 58
Hitchhiking Across the USA with Jonathan Wiest
I met Jonathan Wiest in a dysfunctional Spanish class in Mexico city, soon after he hitchhiked from the Texas border to Vancouver with $500 and a sign reading "north and west." We talk about what he found — conspiracy theories, roadside prayers, a truck named "Murdered," and a lot of friendly people stuck in an unfriendly country.
Follow Jonathan on Instagram @jonathqn.w
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Thank you for listening, please do it again, but in a Nazi costume.
Onefjef is produced, edited & hosted by Jef Taylor.
Transcript
If you do it again, you should wear L- you should play up the German
Speaker:thing, like wear lederhosen and shit
Speaker:or whatever.
Speaker:Or dress in a Nazi outfit, either one.
Speaker:Either one.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And both would work probably.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of the- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I hitchhiked across the US in a Nazi outfit.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:That'd be a story right there.
Speaker:In six days.
Speaker:Right, right, right, right.
Speaker:Would've been quicker, but yeah, I don't know.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:This is episode 58 of onefjef.
Speaker:onefjef
Speaker:to podcast.
Speaker:Hello, my friends.
Speaker:Hola, mis amigos.
Speaker:How are you?
Speaker:¿Qué onda?
Speaker:The word onda in Spanish means wave or vibe, and I like that.
Speaker:Me gusta la buena onda.
Speaker:As always, I hope you're thriving, and I think you are.
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I am, too.
Speaker:Now that the oral surgery is over or, uh, mostly over, I have to go
Speaker:tomorrow to get the stitches out, which also sounds horrible, but after
Speaker:what I've been through, it's not.
Speaker:Hopefully.
Speaker:Hopefully.
Speaker:I've started eating some solid foods again, which is exciting
Speaker:because I have been hungry.
Speaker:Hungry
Speaker:I did have a Dairy Queen Blizzard for the first time, uh, since
Speaker:I was a kid a few days ago, and it honestly wasn't that good.
Speaker:All the toppings were, like, on the top, and I thought the whole Blizzard
Speaker:thing was that it was blended up, right?
Speaker:Like a blizzard.
Speaker:Was that me?
Speaker:Maybe I misremembered it, or maybe it's just not in Mexico
Speaker:Anyway, I ate it all because I was hungry, remember?
Speaker:But I digress.
Speaker:I have a guest on the podcast today, and that guest is Jonathan Wiest.
Speaker:Oh, Jonathan Wiest.
Speaker:What a wonderful quest.
Speaker:A German on wheels heading straight to the West.
Speaker:He hitchhiked up
Speaker:You might remember Jonathan from the voice messages he sent earlier this summer as
Speaker:he hitchhiked across the United States.
Speaker:I played them on the podcast here.
Speaker:And today, Jonathan is on the podcast to talk about this hitchhiking adventure of
Speaker:his, which is quite a ride, pun intended.
Speaker:So buckle up.
Speaker:Hmm, not that one.
Speaker:He had some truly incredible interactions with Americans of all sorts on his
Speaker:journey, and I think you're gonna enjoy hearing about it, whether
Speaker:you're from the United States or not.
Speaker:Before we get to that, might I take a moment to politely ask
Speaker:you to please support the podcast by joining the Patreon page?
Speaker:Yes, I might.
Speaker:Please go to patreon.com/onefjef and sign up either as a paid member or as a free
Speaker:member, and I will be eternally grateful.
Speaker:I'll be more grateful for the paid member, obviously, but, you know.
Speaker:Patreon.com/onefjef.
Speaker:Muchas gracias.
Speaker:As always, thank you for listening.
Speaker:Thank you for being here.
Speaker:Here's Jonathan Wiest talking about going back to his homeland
Speaker:I touched European soil again in Paris on the 25th.
Speaker:I started in Paris and I will end in Paris again, which is nice September?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then I will hitchhike or take the bus to Berlin Which is like 16
Speaker:hours by bus, hitchhiking, but I have family on my way there, so let's see.
Speaker:But I'm, I, I, I don't know about hitchhiking.
Speaker:I have too much luggage.
Speaker:I bought so many, so much stuff, stuff here in thrifts,
Speaker:in thrift stores in Canada.
Speaker:Right, moderately more difficult to hitchhike when you have all that luggage.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Well, thanks for coming on the old podcast.
Speaker:Yeah, cheers.
Speaker:I'm very excited, actually.
Speaker:It's my first interview or ish thing, iffy thing I ever had in my life.
Speaker:Oh, really?
Speaker:Not even a job interview.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:But… Well, don't, um, don't fuck it up, man.
Speaker:No, I, I, I, I won't.
Speaker:You can count on me.
Speaker:So Jonathan Wiest, uh, we met in Spanish class in one of the most unhinged
Speaker:Spanish classes I think either one of us has taken- Yeah … in our lives.
Speaker:With Andrea.
Speaker:Um, with Andrea, the crazy woman from Austin, and then there was
Speaker:an autistic chi- man in there who, uh, held up the works.
Speaker:And then there was, uh, yeah, it was a whole cavalcade, and I remember,
Speaker:um, I think it was the day we became friends, y- we were both laughing
Speaker:hysterically at whatever was going on in the fucking class at the time.
Speaker:Who knows what?
Speaker:I f- it was one day that was particularly unhinged, and you just looked at me.
Speaker:You just looked.
Speaker:You just, like, looked over at me.
Speaker:Help me.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And then afterwards you were like, "I think we're the only two
Speaker:sane people in that whole class."
Speaker:Yeah, kind of.
Speaker:Anyway, that's how we met, and then, like about a week later, you got
Speaker:on a bus from Mexico City, and, uh, was it 24 hours, 25 hours to- Yeah
Speaker:Laredo?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, 24, 20 f- I don't know, but more than 20.
Speaker:And I think it, I don't know, almost 30.
Speaker:I, it took me a long time to, the bus finally crossed the border.
Speaker:So then you get to Laredo, Texas, and you, well, you're, you decided to, what,
Speaker:hitchhike from, uh… I mean, tell me.
Speaker:Tell me what your, what your plan was here.
Speaker:Well, I never actually intended to go up north.
Speaker:I wanted to travel through South America, but halfway through I realized,
Speaker:actually in Bolivia, uh, one of the only places who, which isn't super
Speaker:Americanized, but I think the US never really got a hood, a foothold in Bolivia.
Speaker:I realized if I want to understand South America, the current state of
Speaker:South America, I need to go up and cross the border into the US eventually.
Speaker:And then from there on, my plans evolved and I figured… And I also
Speaker:knew I have family in Vancouver, and I could technically earn money here
Speaker:in Vancouver and extend my trip.
Speaker:Um, and I had no apartment back home.
Speaker:It kinda all s- it was a good fit, and then I decided, yeah, okay, fuck
Speaker:it, I'm gonna hitchhike through the US because I thought, well, I knew…
Speaker:Well, the US is a pretty car-centered place, and I wanted to get a snapshot
Speaker:of the US, and I figured every person has to- go through a gas truck from
Speaker:every social background, from every socioeconomic background you can imagine.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:And therefore I decided, okay, fuck it, I will hitchhike through the US.
Speaker:No money on accommodation, transportation, so I get… I wanted it all.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then why my plan was originally, what I figured is I, I had two options.
Speaker:I could take a bus from Mexico City to California and then go up the West Coast.
Speaker:Straight shot, that would've been the obvious from, like, would've been, I
Speaker:don't know, only three states, though.
Speaker:Yeah, but that's not the Unit- that's not the United States, though.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That would've been, like, the quickest route.
Speaker:I thought of that for a second, but actually I'd never really thought of that.
Speaker:And after, after I… Well, I decided, okay, I want to, I
Speaker:wanted to see Bible Belt America.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The real America, they say.
Speaker:The real America, they say, yeah.
Speaker:I, but I honestly, I didn't really plan anything.
Speaker:I had, um, a mattress, a, like a sleeping mattress I bought for two US
Speaker:dollars in Bolivia, a sleeping bag.
Speaker:That was, that was about it.
Speaker:I had 500 euros in my bank account.
Speaker:Um, I couldn't, even if I wanted to, I couldn't have, I didn't have the
Speaker:ability to afford places to stay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Well, a fucking motel in the US is $100, so.
Speaker:No, it's crazy.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You had been, have you been to the States before?
Speaker:I've been once.
Speaker:I've been, my m- um, four years ago I did an, well, I visited my family in Vancouver
Speaker:for, uh, a couple months, and my aunt took me to a wedding of far away descendants
Speaker:of mine to Temecula, California.
Speaker:But that wasn't- Oh, right … that was short in and out.
Speaker:But even- Right … back then I was really, really happy when I was in
Speaker:my plane on my way back to Vancouver.
Speaker:Really happy.
Speaker:So what did you, what were your, uh, what were you expecting?
Speaker:Like, what were, what was your, I guess, expectation before you went,
Speaker:before you started hitchhiking?
Speaker:Were there any preconceived ideas that you had in your head about how this is
Speaker:gonna be, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Were you scared?
Speaker:Were you worried?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Good, it's a good question, actually.
Speaker:What, like, I knew that the USA is gonna be a fucking … Everybody warned me.
Speaker:W- the e- everybody thought I'm naive.
Speaker:Everybody said, "Don't do that." Yeah.
Speaker:And when I did- I didn't say don't do that.
Speaker:I just said be careful.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So I, I, I had to … I wouldn't say that I was anxious.
Speaker:I had respect.
Speaker:I had respect of what was going on in the US.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I was assuming something really bad.
Speaker:And in the end it turned out to be even worse.
Speaker:But I was expecting confused people.
Speaker:I was expecting a, a country … I wasn't expecting the best, honestly.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Which probably was for my own good.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Honestly, I had no clue.
Speaker:I had no clue where I was going, so I couldn't really … I didn't
Speaker:s- I didn't spend much time.
Speaker:I wanted, I wanted to understand where I'm going.
Speaker:Though I was biased, I was biased.
Speaker:I, I really- Of course.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Everybody's biased, right.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:So you get to Laredo.
Speaker:Mm. You get to Laredo, Texas.
Speaker:And, uh, g- walk me through it.
Speaker:What, uh … Where do you stay your first night when you,
Speaker:when you get to Laredo, Texas?
Speaker:Uh, well, I went across the border and then into Laredo.
Speaker:Um, found myself a guest, guest stop.
Speaker:I actually, the beginning was fairly good, honestly.
Speaker:Like, I had, people were surprised.
Speaker:Most of, most of them never saw a hitchhiker- Uh-huh … down in
Speaker:Laredo in their life, especially a person who's trying to go all
Speaker:the way to fucking Vancouver.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:People paid for drinks.
Speaker:I earned some money that day.
Speaker:Didn't really got a ride, and then I had my first ride in the US.
Speaker:With, uh, you know, it was a construction guy who actually…
Speaker:It was a crazy first ride.
Speaker:It was, like, a, a Texan guy who off- even offered me to work at his
Speaker:farm for a couple- … uh, days.
Speaker:He eventually never did.
Speaker:He just pulled over to a gas station and kicked me out because he called
Speaker:his wife and his wife said no.
Speaker:His wife got scared.
Speaker:So I ended up sleeping in the back of a gas station the f- uh, on my first night.
Speaker:Oh, Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Um, around about, I don't know, 60 miles from, away from the border, so I made,
Speaker:I made some miles only with one ride.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I had my first beer in the US, which that guy offered me.
Speaker:He just, we just threw it out of the window.
Speaker:Was kinda, uh, cowboy style- Yeah … I would say.
Speaker:Does he?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, no, but that was my first day.
Speaker:Wow, just drinking and driving.
Speaker:Drinking and- First day in America … drinking and driving
Speaker:in a broken truck, riding, riding, and listening to country music.
Speaker:I, I- Of course.
Speaker:Of course … I, I got, I got, I got the real America my first ride, I guess.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:You, you really did get a certain part- … of America on that first ride right there.
Speaker:You got- Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I, I don't know if we want to go through, like, it, like, moment by moment,
Speaker:but do you want to tell me, like, just a, I guess, a general kind of highlights
Speaker:from the trip as you went through it?
Speaker:Or, like, lowlights even, the worst parts, the best parts,
Speaker:whatever it was as you went along?
Speaker:N- I, I, I would start with lowlights.
Speaker:There have been- Okay.
Speaker:… highlights.
Speaker:There have been highlights for sure, but mainly this was, uh, the entire
Speaker:trip basically was a long realization of that, that the US is more of a
Speaker:shithole than I even thought it is.
Speaker:So my, my, my lowlights, I, on multiple occasions I had goosebumps because people,
Speaker:uh, w- I remember one, one time actually, I tried to remember the details of it the
Speaker:other day and write it down even because it was such a impactful moment I had.
Speaker:I got dropped off in Oklahoma at a gas station, at a Valerio gas
Speaker:station, in the middle of litt- literally, literally bumshit nowhere.
Speaker:It was the woods.
Speaker:There was nothing besides this gas station.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And it was a rundown place run by an Indian guy, and I ended up talking to him.
Speaker:A- and he was super surprised with me being there and with me actually…
Speaker:I don't know, we had a chat, but what stuck, stuck, stuck with me, he, he
Speaker:was explaining how he experiences the B- Bible Belt America daily.
Speaker:I was just passing by.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he said, he literally said to me, I still get, I, I have goosebumps right now.
Speaker:It was, I don't know if I can express the intensity of the sentence.
Speaker:Mm. But he was, he was saying to me, "You know, this is like fascism.
Speaker:You know you are German." And while I was standing there with him, we had
Speaker:multiple racist encounters towards him, and I was st- I was, the entire setting,
Speaker:this gas station in nowhere, an Indian guy working there, coming over from
Speaker:India, hoping for a better future And he obviously, like he w- he, he was
Speaker:obviously fooled by, um- Right, right
Speaker:and, and, i- like it was, it was a, I don't, I, I don't know if I
Speaker:can … It, it was sup- it was a very, I don't know- I get the gist.
Speaker:It was … Yeah.
Speaker:I get the gist.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He was, he was from India, though.
Speaker:He wasn't like Native American.
Speaker:No, yeah.
Speaker:He was from India.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He was from India.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was very, yeah.
Speaker:That was a low light.
Speaker:What was another low light?
Speaker:But you liked the Indian guy.
Speaker:Like you, you seemed to connect with the guy at least, with
Speaker:the people- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, we had a nice cha- chat- Right … be- before the on- like the
Speaker:two days before that, I only spoke to people who believe in conspiracies,
Speaker:conspiracies theories and didn't really had a clue what was going on.
Speaker:He actually had.
Speaker:I, I wanna know how many people believe in, in conspiracy theories and it
Speaker:just- What kind of conspiracy theories did you hear when you were on the,
Speaker:like what were the craziest ones?
Speaker:Oh, everything.
Speaker:P- I, I, I realized something.
Speaker:People tend to actually have knowledge, but they can't connect the dots.
Speaker:They lack, uh, they lack critical thinking to a huge extent, and that just fill the
Speaker:voids with s- stories which are- Yeah, yeah, yeah … which never have really
Speaker:have been que- questioned or fact checked.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:There have been, I heard conspiracy theories about 9/11- Sure,
Speaker:yeah … that this was a planned event.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Pretty classical stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The aliens.
Speaker:But people just literally lost touch to reality to some extent.
Speaker:Like they literally- For sure … did.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:I would say if you are educated to some extent, it takes s- some time to acquire
Speaker:this much knowledge and, but, but history is just n- numbers and there's, it's more.
Speaker:You need to be able to wrap your mi- mind around it to actually understand the
Speaker:influence, influence those events have.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I think that s- I think that some people like have a certain amount of knowledge
Speaker:and then find the conspiracy theory more comforting than perhaps something else.
Speaker:Because if it's all a conspiracy, then the reason they're getting
Speaker:fucked is a conspiracy, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The reason their life sucks is a conspiracy.
Speaker:So it's much easier to lean into these things than it is to actually deal
Speaker:with the reality of maybe it's you.
Speaker:No, that's true.
Speaker:People also lack a huge, like they lack structural understanding of things,
Speaker:and that they, that this may is the cause for their hardship and not- Yeah
Speaker:the fact that they, that they ain't working hard enough.
Speaker:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker:Why did you get dropped off … Were you, so you're just in a, you're like
Speaker:getting a ride from somebody, and you, he was just like, "I'm gonna drop you off
Speaker:in the middle of nowhere in Oklahoma"?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No, yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:It was, it was a truck driver, one of the only trucks I took.
Speaker:He actually- He believed in hella conspiracies as well.
Speaker:I can't remember the details, but- Sure, sure, sure … I, I got in his truck, I
Speaker:said I'm German, and straight to Hitler.
Speaker:That was kinda the vibe.
Speaker:Well, you know, welcome to-
Speaker:Um … welcome to the United States of America.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And he eventually, halfway through, figured, uh, he needs to turn right,
Speaker:and then I said, "Drop me off wherever."
Speaker:And he did.
Speaker:Ah, I see.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:He literally did drop me off wherever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's in the woods in Oklahoma on Highway, on, on I-35.
Speaker:No idea.
Speaker:Um, close to the border to T- Texas.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It was, uh, um… No, it wasn't.
Speaker:The, bad vibes, this place.
Speaker:Y- yeah, yeah.
Speaker:So how did you go about trying to get rides?
Speaker:You just walk up to people at a gas station and say- Uh, well, I,
Speaker:I had, I had different strategies.
Speaker:So in, in the beginning I thought, talking about what I n- how I perceived
Speaker:the US beforehand, I was, I was already aware that people probably are afraid
Speaker:of me, considering that everybody carries a gun and they haven't seen
Speaker:a hitchhiker in years, and, you know.
Speaker:So I- Mm-hmm … I figured I go to gas stations, give people a minute, and try
Speaker:to talk them into taking me somewhere.
Speaker:Um, worked fine in Texas.
Speaker:I did that basically all the way through, but, uh, through Texas,
Speaker:but past Texas I realized actually letting people decide on their own
Speaker:whether they want to stop or whether they don't, I have a more, a bigger
Speaker:chance, and also it's very exhausting.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Talking to people, you get d- you get, I don't know, you get very weird comments
Speaker:and stop, you stop believing in, in, in, in, in, I don't know, humanity.
Speaker:I don't fucking know.
Speaker:Uh-huh.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:You get, it's a very, it's a, it's like literally rejection therapy
Speaker:for hours if you get unlucky.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:S- but it also worked better, and after a while figured the best
Speaker:thing, so if anybody ever wants to go hitchhiking, go somewhere where there's
Speaker:a streetlight and put a, make up a sign with just an approximate direction.
Speaker:People within that minute saying, like, the, the human curiosity will win.
Speaker:They will roll down their window and at least ask you Or have a chat with you.
Speaker:Doesn't mean that they pick you up, but- Right … I had the best, it w- w- worked
Speaker:the best after I discovered that the street lights, they have the power to stop
Speaker:or don't or to roll down their window.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And you just try to look nice and presentable.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I- And y- … I paid a good amount of time in the US, and
Speaker:money too, to look presentable.
Speaker:I washed my clothes, cleaned my teeth, dressed up as good as I can
Speaker:because I didn't want to, to get mis- mistaken for a homeless person.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So y- you just held a sign up?
Speaker:It was just a sign?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I still have it in my diary.
Speaker:I, I basically all I did, I have two words in my diary.
Speaker:It's north and west.
Speaker:That's all I did.
Speaker:North and west, and I think once I did a certain city because
Speaker:I needed to go somewhere.
Speaker:But besides I, north and west, that's what… But I only
Speaker:went north and west highways.
Speaker:It's e- ev- everything, like, I don't know, the entire fucking
Speaker:w- USA is designed in squares, so north and west works everywhere.
Speaker:In that area for sure, essentially, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:W- um, d- you said most people gave you money and didn't actually give you a ride.
Speaker:Yeah, most people … Well, as I said, I entered the US with 500 U- Yeah
Speaker:U- like, I don't know, in US, maybe 600 US dollars.
Speaker:Right, must've been.
Speaker:I left, I left the USA with more than I started.
Speaker:Like, I, I did the math.
Speaker:People must have spent- Total in America … more than $2,500
Speaker:on me.
Speaker:In cash alone I got 700.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:600. Well, well done.
Speaker:Like, some t- like, some days I earned, like, I think on average
Speaker:I earned, like, 70 bucks a day.
Speaker:Wow, well done.
Speaker:Some days … Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Maybe you can do, I mean, you're making more money maybe doing that
Speaker:than doing, uh- My, my- … at the restaurant … my dishwasher shift.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:Actually, I thought about this a couple of times.
Speaker:Maybe I should quit and go back.
Speaker:Professional hitchhiker, right.
Speaker:Just, just go all around the country pretending to hitchhike
Speaker:and keep getting money.
Speaker:And presenting a good story.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:Be like, "I got, I got a million dollars." I got a mil- yeah.
Speaker:Put it on Instagram or TikTok.
Speaker:From dishwasher, from dishwasher to trumper, yeah, hitchhiker.
Speaker:Yeah, put a TikTok or something.
Speaker:Mm. Um, was anybody mean to you?
Speaker:Or people, like, yelling at you or no?
Speaker:Yes?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:More passive aggressive.
Speaker:The other day I asked somebody, "Yo," talking somebody into
Speaker:taking me, "Yo," um, whatever.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Told him a quick story, give him a quick, "Yo, I'm a bl- a little,"
Speaker:I usually just said, "Yo, I'm a little German kiddo trying to go
Speaker:from blah, blah, blah to Vancouver."
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Uh, and I've, I'm coming from Sao Paulo.
Speaker:I try to b- uh, exaggerate a bit in a short amount of time and present
Speaker:them, I don't know, try to make it interesting- Yeah, yeah … that they
Speaker:get a, that, that they benefit from taking me eventually as well, too.
Speaker:Right, to get a story.
Speaker:Yeah, and this guy was like, "Yeah, well, give me a second.
Speaker:I go and buy something and think about it." And then he went out, walked
Speaker:past me, and just looked back to me and was like, "Nah, you may murder
Speaker:me." He, but, but this also sums up, the people were generally scared.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:People insulted me sometimes.
Speaker:They didn't really know what was going on.
Speaker:But in general, I got w- or to, to be honest, I don't
Speaker:wanna only shit talk the USA.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I had worse experiences here in Canada and in Germany.
Speaker:Like, I, I, I, like, in, like, the middle finger I got more often in Germany
Speaker:and in Italy than I got in the USA.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:So people ignored me.
Speaker:People were scared.
Speaker:People were, but not mean, but al- also- I wouldn't, uh … It was,
Speaker:um, I made it through the years in 18 days because I'm a white man.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:And that, like, people picked me up because of that.
Speaker:If I would've been anything else- Right, right … I would've had a
Speaker:very, very different story to tell.
Speaker:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker:So- Yeah … people, people … Actually, I … People
Speaker:pulled over and prayed for me.
Speaker:People- Did they, like, lay hands on you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They, they laid- One, one day a kid in Ok- in Oklahoma, that was a thing.
Speaker:Multiple people said, like, "Yo, can I pray for you?" I was like, "Oh, yeah,"
Speaker:and they probably went home and did so.
Speaker:But one time, like, the, uh, the kid actually pulled over, put
Speaker:his hand, hand on my shoulder and went on for a good minutes.
Speaker:Like, he was asking to send good Christians my way, and actually five
Speaker:minutes later, two people pulled over and I earned 40 bucks each.
Speaker:Or th- Wow … I don't know, let it be 20, but it was a good amount of money I
Speaker:earned th- through him praying for me.
Speaker:And other people- It was Jesus, yeah … seeing it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Praise the Lord.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What, what was the longest ride somebody gave you?
Speaker:Oh, Kim.
Speaker:Well, Kim was awesome.
Speaker:Kim was so awesome.
Speaker:Um, um, I think she picked, might have picked me up shortly, like
Speaker:6- 60 miles, like in the Dakotas- Mm-hmm … by, by Sioux Falls.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And she took me all the way to Idaho.
Speaker:That's a long way.
Speaker:All the way to Idaho, yeah.
Speaker:I, I, yeah.
Speaker:To d- Devil's Dunes, Idaho, where she … I spent the f- I
Speaker:spent the 4th of July with her.
Speaker:She took me, she invited me For the 4th of July riding her side-by-sides
Speaker:in the biggest dunes you can legally ride with a side-by-side.
Speaker:In the USA.
Speaker:That's some shit you ca- definitely can't do in Euro- we don't got the space.
Speaker:We don't got space like that.
Speaker:Well, like a dune buggy.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:You're talking about.
Speaker:Yeah, a dune buggy.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:A dune buggy.
Speaker:A, a 120,000 US dollar toy.
Speaker:Well, that's fun.
Speaker:Yeah, that's, that was fun.
Speaker:She was- Well- And she, we had a very, very interesting, interesting time.
Speaker:I spent four days with her, I think.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And she picked me up.
Speaker:I fall asleep in her truck right away because I was super tired.
Speaker:I often I didn't really slept sometimes.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Not for like for, I didn't sleep for two days because it was either too dangerous,
Speaker:or I didn't find a spot, or it was, there was a thunderstorm or whatever.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But I was super tired at that, that day.
Speaker:I don't remember why.
Speaker:I think I saw some thunderstorm in the night before.
Speaker:And I just fall asleep.
Speaker:We didn't really had a talk.
Speaker:She pick… Oh, this, ha, ha, it, it makes it even better.
Speaker:You know, I was sitting at the entrance to I-90, which is the highway which
Speaker:goes from New York up until Seattle.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And somewhere in no man's land, there was only a gas station relatively
Speaker:close by, but I didn't want to talk.
Speaker:I was too tired, so I just- Mm … sat at this entrance.
Speaker:And then she pulled up in a Ford F-350- … with the biggest wheels you can get.
Speaker:I think this car is illegal in Germany.
Speaker:I- I've never saw that in Germany.
Speaker:With a, with a trailer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And in that trailer was, like, a, a full-on apartment, plus
Speaker:her fucking side-by-side.
Speaker:It was huge.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the license plate says, said, "Murdered," and she had a cat and
Speaker:Brody, uh, her little dog in the front.
Speaker:Everything had a name.
Speaker:The car was obviously called Murdered.
Speaker:The trailer had a name.
Speaker:The buggy had a name.
Speaker:It was a crazy lady, but she brought me all the way to Idaho, all the way.
Speaker:How old?
Speaker:How old was she?
Speaker:70, 70 something.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:70 something, and she was, she was going, like, apparently
Speaker:she goes there f- quite often.
Speaker:Her husband died recently, and she just wanted to get a day off
Speaker:of her kids who basically live off her credit card, she told me.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:She, she's an, she was annoyed by her kids.
Speaker:But I don't know.
Speaker:I, I had an, I had a blast with Kim.
Speaker:It was, it was very interesting.
Speaker:It was, I don't know.
Speaker:And she let you stay at her house?
Speaker:In her c- trailer, yeah.
Speaker:Like always, I had the best chance in the US with middle-aged woman-
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah … who took me under the, her wing, and she did so.
Speaker:Well, well, I, I d- don't say no.
Speaker:She paid for everything.
Speaker:She even p- offered me to pay for a flight from Idaho to Vancouver.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:But I think she was touched by me.
Speaker:We were talking a lot about the, the world, what I think about
Speaker:the world, how I view the world.
Speaker:And for her, I think that was interesting because her world seemed to
Speaker:be kind of small, like- I'm sure it is
Speaker:for most, for most Americans.
Speaker:And I st- told her stuff she never heard before.
Speaker:Mm. When I left, she told me, "Yo…" I actually wrote her a letter when I left.
Speaker:I forgot to ask for her contact.
Speaker:I will never see this lady again probably.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and I have, I don't know, maybe I find the letter somewhere.
Speaker:I, I think I copied it- Yeah
Speaker:because I found it funny that I'm writing a 70-year-old a letter.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I wanted to give her something back for paying.
Speaker:She paid for everything for four days.
Speaker:But she, she, she said, "Yo, you're such a, one of the most neat," I think
Speaker:you say neat, "kids I ever met in my life." And then she started to cry.
Speaker:Oh, my.
Speaker:We said goodbye, and then I hit the road again.
Speaker:But it was very, very intense.
Speaker:Very intense, loads of- Well, that, well, that's- Yeah … a positive
Speaker:experience- Yeah, that's- … in the United States of America … yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:That was, yeah, period.
Speaker:Yeah, I, you know, I, what I think what she saw in me, she saw in me
Speaker:the independent, or I don't know.
Speaker:I don't wanna- Yeah, yeah … talk about me- You're probably right, yeah
Speaker:… about me like that, but she saw in me something her kids definitely were not,
Speaker:and for that she admired me, or f- or something she was not even, I think.
Speaker:Or maybe she was just a, you know, a lonely person and wanted
Speaker:to hang out with somebody- Yeah
Speaker:and thought, you know.
Speaker:I mean, maybe it's just as simple as that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh.
Speaker:No, but w- what- whatever it was, it was a very… I won't forget her, and
Speaker:I think she won't forget me either.
Speaker:It was a very interesting four days.
Speaker:It was very- That's like a- Yeah … it's like a mo- it's like
Speaker:a movie in itself right there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well- Was that the high- was that the highlight?
Speaker:Was that, like, one of the- Yeah.
Speaker:I, I think that was the highlight.
Speaker:I, well, I got super lucky in, on my last week.
Speaker:I stayed with Kim for four days.
Speaker:Uh-huh.
Speaker:And then f- after Kim, I got a, uh, a ride, I don't know, to Bozeman,
Speaker:Montana, or close by, then another one.
Speaker:Oh, that was, that was … I, there were a lot of the p- uh, you know what
Speaker:were highlights were people, as always.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:People, they w- p- I don't only want to, like, maybe I started this off false,
Speaker:but- … but p- like, g- generally speaking, people in the US are so
Speaker:nice, but- Mm-hmm … they're, they, they only, like, they just g- they
Speaker:just tend to be confused quite often.
Speaker:But I don't, I don't even, I don't even, I don't even wanna judge sometimes
Speaker:because they have no point of reference.
Speaker:They have no, there's so little being offered to, to them.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Did you find out what Kim's politics were?
Speaker:Did you talk about politics while you were- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:We did.
Speaker:We, in the beginning, that was basically all we talked about, to be honest.
Speaker:She was saying weird stuff about masculinity and, uh, the
Speaker:relationship between man and woman.
Speaker:Um-
Speaker:She w- like stuff, like the entertain stuff, men becoming weak- Yeah,
Speaker:yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah … and- Right … all Donald Trump man-
Speaker:manosphere bullshit, Donald Trump stuff.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:Donald Trump stuff, like they have to be tough again and where are
Speaker:the muscles- Mm-hmm … and I don't know, just a very, I don't know.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:As if there's not more to masculinity than that.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But, and also when we went through, like, native land, um- Mm-hmm … she also made
Speaker:comments where I definitely got the ick.
Speaker:She, she was able to have a conversation, was able to be
Speaker:convinced by the stronger argument.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Most people probably never have offered her- For sure.
Speaker:For sure … and yeah, no.
Speaker:At least she was open to listening, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's one of the most important stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, she was, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, she was v- she was very open.
Speaker:She was very open.
Speaker:And then where did you go after Kim?
Speaker:After Kim, huh, I stayed close to the, the Kardashians.
Speaker:The fuck.
Speaker:That was also crazy.
Speaker:Also middle-aged woman.
Speaker:So American.
Speaker:So American.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:In, in Coeur d'Alene Lake, Idaho.
Speaker:Um, I went back into Montana to get back to I-90 because I figured that's
Speaker:my best and quickest chance, and I- Yeah
Speaker:at this point I was like, "Yo, I, I'm done. I want to go to Vancouver."
Speaker:My sister was waiting for me.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Right, right, right.
Speaker:And then another woman picked me up, also middle-aged, in her 50s.
Speaker:She said she never picked up a hitchhiker in her life before, and
Speaker:she was like, after n- like it was an hour and a half the way she was about
Speaker:to take me, um, towards, uh, Seattle.
Speaker:Uh, not Seattle.
Speaker:Uh, Washington.
Speaker:And halfway through she invited me to stay at her place, and it ended
Speaker:up being a four-story building.
Speaker:I had an entire floor for myself.
Speaker:Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Uh, w- uh, with her binoculars I was able to look in the Kardashians' backyard.
Speaker:She, but she lived there on her own.
Speaker:She was definitely, uh, lonely.
Speaker:And rich and lonely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Rich and lonely.
Speaker:Rich and, rich and lonely.
Speaker:She s- she said, uh, she's, since she's 50 she's trying to do stuff differently.
Speaker:The next day I also got a place to stay, which was my last day
Speaker:in the US, which also sums up, I think, my entire experience.
Speaker:Like, it sums up the state of the US, USA- Ah
Speaker:currently right now quite well, and it also draws an interesting line between
Speaker:the US and Canada also, considering the trade war which just broke out, and
Speaker:where Canada and the US kinda stand.
Speaker:I, I, I tr- I told this story to people who were asking what's the
Speaker:difference or wh- how was the USA like.
Speaker:So, so my last night in the USA I spent
Speaker:I got picked up by a man in North Bend, Washington, who was drunk.
Speaker:The first thing he did, he offered me a Jäger shot, and we had a chat.
Speaker:In the car.
Speaker:And he was … In the car.
Speaker:In the car.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:In the car, in his pickup truck.
Speaker:Also I think a Ford F350.
Speaker:I had luck with those.
Speaker:Well, that's nice.
Speaker:He's Germ- a German liquor or
Speaker:Jäger, I suppose.
Speaker:Yeah, German liquor.
Speaker:It's very considered, yeah I was like, "Ha ha, German kiddo." Funny.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:And we had a chat.
Speaker:We had a blast.
Speaker:He was on his way to pick, uh, to help his son out who locked himself out of the
Speaker:car, and then we went, we went to his son.
Speaker:We had a chat.
Speaker:I just stayed, sticked with him.
Speaker:I kinda got along with his son and his friends as well.
Speaker:Um, it was kinda funny.
Speaker:We had another couple drinks, and then this guy was like, "Yo." It was about
Speaker:to … The sun was about to go down, and I was, "Yo, I'm probably gonna just gonna
Speaker:sleep here in the woods." And then he was like, "No, you can come to my place.
Speaker:I'm just gonna text my wife that we are coming, no problem at all." Ah.
Speaker:He took me to his place.
Speaker:His wife never saw the message And was very surprised when
Speaker:I walked through the door.
Speaker:They had three kids.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Kids between 15 and I think 18.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And his wife was an illegal alien.
Speaker:You say alien?
Speaker:Yeah, whatever.
Speaker:Yeah, illegal immigrant, whatever, yeah.
Speaker:Illegal immigrant.
Speaker:She was definitely illegal in the US.
Speaker:Uh, it was a very s- we had a chat, we talked about a lot of things.
Speaker:It was a very surreal setting in general.
Speaker:All, all her three kids has had both passports.
Speaker:Um, in the, in the … You have to imagine on their TVs there were videos of a
Speaker:person walking through Mexico City 24/7.
Speaker:This woman hasn't been, haven't been back to, to Mexico in years, and years.
Speaker:She can't, if she ever goes, goes back.
Speaker:She has a Mex- Like the thing is she appl- she, when she applied for her American
Speaker:citizenship or some paper, she made a minor mistake on accident, typed in
Speaker:something wrong, therefore she can never get a permit or whatever in the US ever.
Speaker:She had three immigration lawyers.
Speaker:They said no chance.
Speaker:F- Some, uh, some, some weird s- bureaucratic shit, but she, she's
Speaker:screwed and, and considering she has a life, she has three kids in the USA.
Speaker:They were super fun.
Speaker:They were super nice.
Speaker:Super nice.
Speaker:They, I skated with, with, uh, their, with her son in the garage at night, took
Speaker:him to the skate park the next morning.
Speaker:Um, to his, her daughter and her other daughter interrogated me till like 2:00.
Speaker:Uh, they were like literally standing in the doorframe and we were up till
:00 and they've been asking about, I don't know, how is Germany like?
:How do the houses look like?
:Right.
:Right.
:How was your trip?
:They were just super curious and- One of the nicest people I met in the US.
:Huh.
:Uh, a- um, and the next morning, um, I was about to hit the road again,
:and then they said, "We, oh, you know what? We were gonna drive you up." And
:I was like … And they told me this night before, she never went further
:than Bellingham because she's afraid of border patrol, of ICE, et cetera.
:Right, right.
:We, we understand, and- For sure
:I was like, "No, you don't.
:You just don't." And they were like, "Yes, we will.
:We need to because her mom is about to die in Mexico, and she wants to
:say goodbye." And they took me up to Peace Arch to afterwards go check out
:the area whether she can go back to Mexico, fly back up to Canada, cross
:back into the USA through the woods.
:They had m- multiple guns in their car as well.
:They're both trained to, in case … Not in case, because ICE sometimes-
:Right … walks down highways.
:Right.
:They, they … Her husband said, "I, she ain't going nowhere." A family
:member of her has been detained a cou- like seven, eight months ago, and they
:never heard from her again in her life.
:And her, her brother apparently did already From California, went to Mexico,
:said goodbye, and then crossed back into the USA from through the Canadian border.
:Because they, she has a Mex- a Mexican passport.
:If she would live in Mexico, they can go, she can go wherever.
:She can visit every country on planet Earth, but not- Yeah
:the USA.
:Not the US, yeah.
:And maybe this is a little detour here, but also I just want to add now, I, I
:say this after, but yeah, they drove me up there, and then I walked across
:the border into Canada, and the first person who says hi to me in Canada,
:the border officer, was a cute little gay guy with an LGBTQ patch on his arm.
:And that was for me like, "Yo, okay.
:I made it.
:I'm safe now.
:This is…" Yeah.
:Yeah, I get it.
:And, yeah.
:I get it.
:No, and I, I don't know.
:She can go everywhere with her Mexican passport besides the fucking USA.
:And the USA, this is what, what annoys me so much, and they, like, the US
:thinks of themselves as the center of the world, but if you actually
:travel through it, you realize they're the most alienated country on Earth.
:I'm closer to everyone than a US American citizen is, is to anyone.
:They… You, it's, it's, it's so, it's, it's the, the lifestyle, the way of
:living, the, the fact that everything that the people take so many things for granted
:and believe in things and have no point of reference is so unique to the USA.
:It's, it's, it's, I don't know, it's so alienated to, to the rest.
:Right.
:Well, to be fair though, I would say that you experienced a part of America
:that is definitely that vibe, right?
:Yeah, yeah.
:Like, if you, had you, had you gone to big cities, you'd have an entirely
:different experience, because I think- Yeah, if I would have went- Yeah … to
:West Coast, I would, I would have told a very different story, yeah.
:Right, or just even big cities, 'cause I think- Yeah … big cities, it's like two
:different Americas at this point, right?
:Yeah.
:We've got the big cities, and we've got the, you know.
:Um, yeah, but interesting.
:I mean, I think that the choice to not go through the big cities was probably
:a good choice in the end, because you really got to see a side of America that
:I think that many people never get to see, 'cause I think 90% of the people in the
:United States live in the coasts, right?
:No.
:Um, so yeah, yeah.
:Interesting.
:No, but definitely this part is very alienated.
:That was a real, a crazy realization.
:Yeah, for sure.
:But nice, again, though, very nice people.
:Yeah, yeah.
:Right, right.
:It's like the outsiders were the people that were the nicest, you know?
:Um, what about the, you told me there was a Native Americans you
:met and went to, like, a Native American ceremony at one point.
:What was that?
:Uh, no, that was, that was… Oh, actually, I don't know why I
:started off with, with the downside.
:I had so many highlights.
:That was a- I, I was gonna say … that was a huge highlight, actually.
:Um, so I was stuck in, in, uh, uh, Oklahoma City- uh, on
:I-90, and a woman picked me up from the Muscogee Creek Nation.
:Mm-hmm.
:And she was just driving me up the road to the next more fortunate gas station.
:She was cool as fuck.
:I think her name was Ashley.
:Mm-hmm.
:Ashley, if you hear this, you're a queen.
:Queen.
:Um- Um, she just drove me up the road and was like, "Yo, I'm going
:to, um, Musco- like a nation festival or whatever, uh, in a couple hours.
:I'm just gonna need to pick up my kids, and if you're still here, you
:can come with, with, with us." And a couple hours I was still there.
:I didn't go to ride.
:Honestly, I didn't even try it.
:I wanted to go with her.
:Right.
:Um, it w- it was northwest, was the only time I went west.
:I did a detour for that.
:I went west from, like I left I-90 for the first time on that day.
:Uh-huh.
:In the direction of Missis- Miss- Springfield.
:Springfield, where The Simpsons are.
:Missouri.
:Missouri, yeah, Missouri.
:Yeah.
:Springfield, Missouri, where The Simpsons are from.
:Eh, there's arguments about where they're actually.
:Ah.
:So it's like, there's like, there's like 20 Springfields in the United States.
:Ah, shit.
:So nobody actually knows.
:That's why they picked the name, because it's a very generic American city name.
:Oh, smart.
:Little trivia for you there.
:Ah, I didn't know that.
:Interesting.
:Yeah.
:So yeah, she picked me up, uh, with her four, or no, three crazy daughters.
:Like, the entire girls gang pulled up, also a cousin of theirs, and
:then we went to another house and picked up another cousin in the
:huge G- in her huge G- GMC truck.
:And I was expecting, like in my mind considering I, I never encountered, I
:never was on a reservation before, a US reservation in my life before that point.
:Mm-hmm.
:I was expecting something, something else.
:But we ended up on, on Muscogee land, and this festival ended up being a
:very typical American fair, like one of those you imagine, like I imagine
:from the kids movies I used to see or like Stranger Things or whatever.
:Like with roller coasters, a rodeo.
:Right.
:A baseball match, a football game.
:Like a, like a fair.
:Like a fair, yeah.
:Yeah.
:And it was, it was, it was… I rode the rollercoaster.
:I don't, I don't know, it was super fun.
:It was, I was just part of the family for the day with her daughters.
:I don't know, they were like between like 6 and 14 I think.
:Mm. It was super fun.
:It was super fun.
:She just- Invited me to her life for a day, and then she dropped me off at a
:gas station in the middle of nowhere.
:And, but for a day I was part of… It was super fun.
:It was- That's fun.
:Yeah, it was nice.
:You get, like, these little glimpses of people's lives,
:and then you just kind of- Yeah
:yeah, yeah.
:Yeah.
:No, it was, it was… I was very surprised that she took me.
:Um, like, she was so chill.
:Like, with her daughters, I'm like a young man.
:It's kind of, you know, you don't expect.
:Sure, sure, sure.
:But she was like, "Hell yeah, you cool. I'm cool. You can come." And then it
:was, it was… I, I felt like if those…
:At the end of the days, her kids felt like my cousins, and she like my aunt.
:Oh.
:Oh, that's wonderful.
:It was super cute.
:It's, again, the, like, outsiders that are the most welcoming it seems like
:to me.
:Yeah.
:Yeah, yeah.
:Yeah.
:Were, were, did you ever feel like you were in danger at any point?
:Honestly?
:Yeah.
:No, not really See, that's good Like, not a thing, like, no.
:Uh-uh.
:Like, you never got in, you're never in a car and you're like, "Oh, boy. I should
:not be in this car right now." No, no.
:I was c- careful, but I wasn't particular.
:Like, I … There's a couple of times actually secretly
:put my knife in my pocket.
:Mm-hmm.
:I did that because I was like- Yep … yo.
:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
:But, but no matter how sketchy the person looked, in the end
:of the day it was a nice person.
:Sure.
:But also, I'm a young white man.
:Right.
:Right.
:Yeah.
:And you're German.
:I feel like people- I am … probably treated you
:differently because you're German.
:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
:That was … I got that.
:But at, at least for me, it was … I haven't encountered
:anything super sketchy, no.
:Well, see, that's nice.
:Mm-hmm.
:If you do it again you should wear, you should play up the German thing, like
:wear lederhosen and shit or whatever.
:Like sausages in your hands and shit.
:You'd probably make tons of money.
:No.
:Or dress in a Nazi outfit.
:Either one.
:Either one.
:Yeah, yeah.
:Both would work probably.
:Yeah.
:One of the- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
:You get different, you get different rides, but yeah.
:Uh-huh.
:Yeah.
:Yeah, you could change clothes every other day and see what you got.
:There's a book in there for that one.
:Yeah.
:I hitchhiked across the US in a Nazi outfit.
:Oh.
:That'd be a story right there.
:In six days.
:Right, right, right, right.
:Would have been quicker than, yeah.
:Uh, I feel like you might not have gotten quite as many rides
:in the Nazi outfit, but you know.
:Yeah.
:Who knows?
:You never know.
:What was the, if you can remember, what was the … Was there anything
:that was like the, the weirdest, the most memorable shit that happened?
:Or y- or was it already one of, like, was it Kim, the sand dunes?
:Was it something else?
:What you got there?
:You eating some Cheetos?
:Mm. I need to eat one thing.
:I just found chips, very old chips, two months old.
:No.
:No, you're good.
:I'm just curious.
:Yeah.
:Mm. It's good for audio.
:Mm-hmm.
:Some ASMR.
:Gives it, gives it a li- lift- Sometimes … yeah, lift and lift and, yeah.
:Well, you sing in your podcast sometimes.
:I, I have sung in my podcast, yeah.
:It, it's not all the time.
:And I like the effect.
:No, and what was my … Oh, I saw the weirdest shit.
:Like, I didn't only spend time with close to the Kardashians, I also slept like
:in the woods of Missouri with, and had breakfast with a- Ex-fentanyl junkie.
:That was very interesting.
:Ah.
:But that was also a highlight for me.
:That was one of the biggest highlights, this guy.
:Huh.
:He was… I, I, I slept on, like, some abandoned train tracks in the
:woods, and in the morning I woke up and there was, like, thick black smoke
:coming out of the wood- woods next to me, and I was like Yo, and before the
:day, the evening before when I entered the woods, I already saw that some
:people apparently burned stuff there.
:Right.
:I figured copper to get money and to, like… Yeah, yeah.
:And I was right about my assumption because I went there.
:On my way I found, like, a foot, like, a foot-long knife, picked it up.
:First I thought for my security . Yeah.
:But, uh, I ended up seeing, like, a man burning old mattresses in the woods
:to get copper out of it, and I figured it was probably his knife, offered
:him his knife, and we had a chat.
:I gave him a joint I got the day before.
:Mm-hmm.
:And we literally sat down in the woods, smoked.
:He smoked a joint, I smoked a cigarette, and we had a chat
:about life, and then we went on.
:I invited him for breakfast.
:We had a sandwich.
:He had crazy stories to tell, but not particularly crazy.
:For a Midwest comparison, he was an ex- Somebody's coughing
:some up behind you there.
:Yeah, like my uncle.
:Yeah.
:Um.
:Um, um- Was he homeless, the guy?
:Yeah, he, he was.
:He, he- Wow … left Colorado to get as far as away from the place.
:He got addicted to, to, for- Ah, I see … to, on synthetic opioids.
:Yeah.
:He actually, he went to jail multiple times.
:He got addicted to fentanyl, or, like, to severe strong
:opioids in jail because- Mm-hmm
:they sedated him, and he left prison with a prescription for opioids.
:Mm. And it fucked over his life.
:He almost died a couple of times.
:He has kids.
:C- He isn't allowed to see them.
:Um, his wife is on drugs, too, and they left together for Missouri, and they're
:trying to… They, I think they, they leveled up from streets to a, to, like,
:an old camper, like a trailer, a thing.
:Mm-hmm.
:I think they bought o- off the money they, they earned burning
:copper, and she is a prostitute.
:Wow.
:Um- Wow.
:He was super honest.
:His name… I don't know.
:I… Jef was his name.
:I think.
:Was it really?
:Yeah.
:With two F?
:Yeah.
:Two Fs, though.
:Yeah.
:Not the Y. I don't, I don't know.
:Yeah.
:Yeah.
:Probably, I think, two Fs.
:For sure.
:Yeah, yeah.
:And no, that was, that was very touching.
:He's been clean for two years.
:Pray, pray that- Wow … he's gonna stay clean for longer.
:But what, what stuck with me was the fact that he, like most of the
:people in the US, still thought that it's his fault, and if he works
:hard enough, he can make it one day.
:Hmm.
:It's probably the best, it's for the best for him that he
:thinks that way, but he- Sure.
:For sure … but just the fact that he left prison with
:a prescription for opioids.
:Yeah.
:It's like they want him to go back to prison.
:Yeah.
:I was like- Yeah, yeah, yeah … "Yo, yo, okay." But no, but I don't know.
:It was just the fact I s- that, that we sat there, smoked a joint and a cigarette,
:and were just talking about life, and we ended up talking about those things
:because they were part of his life.
:Sure.
:Um, and that was a reality I got that was very Yeah, no.
:Well, you, you find the people who have been through the most shit are
:usually the most honest and open with other- Yeah … with their story.
:Yeah.
:He was, he was, yeah.
:Yeah.
:It kinda pisses me off though.
:Awesome.
:I just had a fucking tooth extracted from my mouth, and they didn't
:even give me op- opioids here.
:But that guy… I got ibuprofen for Christ sake.
:What am I- Shit.
:Yeah.
:At the very- Hey, shit, you would have done it in the US … very prison, right.
:In prison, yeah, yeah.
:Yeah, yeah.
:Yeah, shit.
:Well, I'm gonna say this, Jonathan.
:Um, at the beginning of this, you started off by saying that you fucking
:hated America and the whole trip, like you had negatives, very negative,
:but then every story you've kind of told since then has been, like,
:heartwarming, lo- lovely stories about experiences interacting with Americans.
:So it's, I would say it's a mix- it's a mixed bag.
:I'm sure there were bad parts, but, you know.
:Yeah.
:You see what I'm saying?
:Yeah.
:Thank you for the, the, I, I realized going through this too, maybe it
:wasn't too bad, and I'm- It's very easy to hate on America right now.
:Yeah.
:Very easy.
:And, and, and, um, yeah, no, but, but you're right.
:Yeah.
:You're right.
:The stories in itself, you know, the, the, no, yeah, you're right.
:Period.
:Thank you.
:I think America as an idea is a really unfortunate thing right now.
:It's not going well, but I think the individual people are actually,
:in general, fairly good, right?
:They're, they're wonderful people.
:You've experienced this yourself.
:Yeah.
:Right.
:Yeah.
:So there's a lesson- There is … of some sort in there.
:I don't know.
:Yeah, there is.
:There, there definitely is.
:Yeah.
:It's if you, yeah, no, I also, I think that was my biggest takeaway from this.
:I don't know, life is outside of your comfort zone.
:Mm-hmm.
:Because if you only live in your comfort zones, zones, you fill those
:voids uninevitably with hate and with conspiracy theories or whatnot, and if
:you actually go out and talk to people, you realize, yo- I ain't that bad Yep.
:Yep And- You're speaking my language, my friend … yeah, and you realize,
:and everybody, I think, I, I not, I only realize, I think the people I
:met through this sometimes we realize this together and we're like, crazy.
:Yeah.
:Yeah.
:Crazy.
:We're both not that bad.
:The guy with the purse hitchhiking through the US and
:the redneck We actually get along.
:Right, the German with the purse . Yeah.
:We actually, we actually get along.
:I wonder if that's why Kim started bringing up masculinity
:to you because you're like- … carrying a purse . No, no.
:She was, no, no, no.
:She was, she, she, she thought, she commented my, my c- my body quite often.
:I'm happy that I'm not her kid.
:But it's like, but po- positively in this case, but it's like, yeah, but yeah.
:You know what I mean.
:So would you do it again?
:Mm. Mm. I will definitely hitchhike wherever I can in the near future.
:I don't, uh, if I would do it again through the US you mean in particular?
:Sure, yeah.
:I don't know.
:Maybe.
:Mm. Mm. Maybe West Coast, on the West Coast when I'm over in Vancouver
:the next time, down to California.
:Great weather.
:But I, I, I got super hooked on whatever I did.
:Like, I think four days after I came to Vancouver I was off to
:my next- … hitchhiking trip.
:I know, you texted me.
:Yeah, yeah.
:I was with…
:I took my, like, my sister and I went to hitchhike across, or
:a bit across Vancouver Island.
:I was off to the next.
:It was like I'm, I'm h- I'm hooked.
:I even thought of, I even thought of hitchhiking from here back east
:to then take a flight to Europe, because I figured it's cheaper.
:It's actually not, so I didn't, and I have too much luggage now.
:Um- Yeah, it's hard to hitchhike with a lot of luggage.
:Yeah … I have a job and I consume a lot now.
:Here we go.
:Yep.
:Yeah.
:There we go.
:Um- Um.
:Well, what was the prettiest part?
:I mean, America's a pretty country- Oh … a lot of places.
:What was the prettiest place you got to?
:Oh.
:The prettiest town I've been to, North Bend.
:Oh.
:Washington.
:The teeny, tiny town before, um, before Seattle, but I'm d-
:it's… Yeah, no, Washington.
:Washington was super pretty.
:Montana.
:Uh-huh, Montana's crazy.
:Montana, Wyoming.
:I went, actually been… I've been here.
:Wyoming is incredible.
:Kim, Kim took me to Yellowstone.
:Yellowstone was obviously- Oh, wow.
:Yeah, yeah, yeah
:amazing.
:But I'm, I just love Northwest, like, America, like Oregon,
:Washington, British Columbia climate.
:It's the, those, like British Columbia in particular and Washington is very similar.
:Right.
:Right.
:Are like in my opinion the prettiest places I've been to in my life.
:Not the jungle in Colombia and Brazil can take that away.
:I don't know, it's the, I find peace in this kind of environment.
:Yeah.
:Yeah.
:Yeah.
:Well, the last question I ask my, ask people, um, on my podcast, which
:is moderately unrelated to what we've talked about here, but also
:kind of related, is, uh, what do you think happens when we die, John?
:Honestly, turn to sh- turn, turn back to dirt Do you think nothing?
:Just this is it?
:Yeah.
:Interesting.
:I, I, I, I, I see the… I wish.
:I, I'm, I'm still discovering my spiritual side.
:Maybe- Ah, yeah.
:All right … but for, for now on I, I, uh… But honestly it's not that bad.
:We get back to hummus and then a tree can live off of our, uh, nutrients.
:So we- Sure, yeah.
:No … so the cycle continues, you know?
:And a- actually, uh, the other day somebody died at work in front of my eyes.
:Wow.
:Well, I made a joke a couple of weeks ago.
:The place I'm working at is a private tennis club.
:Mm-hmm.
:I don't, um… And people basically it's, like, mainly seniors who- Sure … die
:while playing tennis, and I made this joke, and actually a senior, rest in
:peace though, um, but, uh, yeah, he just ate a f- I went out of the kitchen
:ha- to get a drink from the bar.
:He had a burger.
:The next time I went out he was passed out, and I just heard the guy
:say, "He has no pulse no more." So I don't know what he's gonna turn into.
:Maybe more- Maybe he's a cat now.
:Maybe he's a cat.
:Maybe, maybe he's… I wish, I wish more a bird would be amazing.
:I like, I like, I like, I like the thought of being reborn, but I, I just
:don't trust, trust, trust those stories.
:I feel like the closer you get to the, uh, to the end of your life, the easier
:it is to embrace stories like that.
:You know what I mean?
:What… Can I ask you what do you think?
:I don't know, but I, uh, you know, I'm not a religious person.
:I'm more spiritual than anything else, and I don't really have a good answer
:for this 'cause I don't honestly know.
:But I, I, I have trouble believing that it's just nothing, because
:they're learning so many things about consciousness and things like that now.
:Like, that consciousness may exist outside of ourselves, you know?
:And then you hear these stories about people who have, you know,
:died in hospitals- Mm … and then they wake up, and they've, like, were
:outside the hospital floating around.
:There's a lot of stories that give you, that give me pause, right?
:Maybe if it isn't… If this is, if this is, if this is
:it, then that's fine, right?
:That's fine in a way.
:It's not fine, but it's fine.
:Mm. But, you know, who knows?
:With all- Mm … there's so much we don't know about the nature of consciousness
:and the nature of even existence that it wouldn't surprise me if there
:was, you know, something beyond this.
:But maybe that's just my brain rejecting the idea of death, you know?
:No, no, I, I understa- I, I think what I, what I thought after I saw
:this person death, dead- Right … um, was I, I thought this just for
:myself, for me to accept my death eventually because I was like, "Yo,
:what if I get a stroke now?" Right.
:Right.
:Right.
:But, um, I was like, whatever happens after, I actually thought that whatever
:happens after, I don't believe that much happens, but I'm happy that I, that I
:die because I, it, I… The thought of being a, a, alive, like, just clinging to
:life forever, maybe it's nice to accept those stages, even the last stage where
:you come closer to death and- For sure
:just embrace it for yourself and whatever you do.
:Your consciousness, it stays, I believe that, with the people
:you impacted in your life.
:Go out and talk to as many as you can.
:They aren't that dangerous and aren't that scary, and they
:will carry your consciousness- … consciousness, uh, further.
:Uh, well that's a solid way to end right there.
:You nailed it.
:Yeah.
:Uh, Jonathan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, bro.
:Yeah, thank you, bro.
:Yeah, thanks for telling your story.
:Thank you for helping me to realize that it maybe wasn't that bad.
:See?
:Yeah.
:We all, we all learned a valuable lesson.
:Yeah.
:No.
:Uh, and thanks for- I was like- … sending the voice
:memos too from your- Yeah
:from the road.
:Those were great.
:Yeah, no, I have to do something with them.
:I don't know yet.
:I'm, I'm about to forget.
:I got sc- scared when you asked me for the podcast.
:I was like, "Fuck." I mute- You warned me You warned me that I didn't put down
:enough, that I had to- No … write more.
:Eh.
:I, I realized that- I did, I do the same thing myself, so
:I understand the tendency.
:Yeah.
:But maybe- Um- Yeah.
:No, it was nice, kind of, uh, a flashback.
:Thank you.
:And that was Jonathan Wiest talking about his hitchhiking trip and
:the nature of our own existence.
:Jonathan, thank you again for coming on the podcast.
:I'm truly grateful that we met a few months ago in that Spanish class.
:It's weird how that happens sometimes.
:Anyway, you can follow Jonathan on Instagram at Jonath…
:Oh, Jonathan, I forgot.
:J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N period W. I don't know how to pronounce that.
:JonathQNW.
:J-O-N-A-T-H-Q-N dot W. And you can follow the podcast on Instagram at onefjefpod.
:That's O-N-E-F-J-E-F-P-O-D.
:I have no real evidence, like direct evidence to suggest that, like
:rating, subscribing and reviewing, subscribing clearly, but that it helps.
:But I, I, I can only assume.
:I can only assume.
:And based on this assumption of mine, you should do these things.
:God, these fucking mosquitoes in here.
:I'm gonna lose my mind with these
:I'm gonna end with a quote that I may have ended another episode with at some
:point, but I don't think that I have.
:I've certainly mentioned it but I don't think I've ended an episode with it.
:And even if I had, it would be okay, 'cause it's worthwhile to end more
:than one episode with this quote
:How strange it is to be anything at all
:I'll see you next week
:Very good, Jeffrey
