Christmas past

I remember one time many years ago. It was on a Christmas day and I was hitchhiking through Colorado, south on I-25 to be exact. The day was blustery and there was a biting wind. I couldn't wait to get a ride so I could get warm. There I was standing at the top of the onramp with my thumb out. No one was using that entrance. We're talking several hours by now.

Just like now it was illegal to thumb a ride on the shoulder of the internet. Cold as I was I didn't care. I hoofed it down the onramp and began walking backward and stuck my thumb out. Everyone passed by including the state patrol cars. They even waved at me as they passed letting me know they noticed me.

By now my toes were beginning to become numb and I figured I could die from exposure if I didn't do something. Crossing the freeway I got on the other side. There I stuck my thumb out and soon had a ride all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming. I think it was getting toward sunset when they picked me up. To this day I can't remember who it was that picked me.

I've had many Christmas' without a roof overhead. Many of them have been spent in truck stops. So much of my life I've spent by myself. I was an incessant vagabond with no roots anywhere. Yes, it is possible to be that way. Of course starting 1998 I didn't live that way anymore. That Christmas hitchhiking on the highway sticks out in my mind though out of all of them though.

Oh, I do love my life now so don't get me wrong. It's just I'll never forget that day so many years ago.