Category Archives: hitchhiking

BLINDED BY THE SUN – KATHMANDU – NEPAL – 1995

In 1995 I traveled with a lapsed Catholic nun from Lhasa to Shigatse. After several days Dorothy returned to Lhasa. We woke at dawn and breakfasted on Momos or dumpling and butter tea. I wanted to get an early start and Dorothy accompanied me to the southern edge of town. The Asia Friendship Highway ran […]

SOUTH OF MATZATLAN 1975

A drifter stand on Route 15 The Sonoran Desert
 All around Bobby BeBadd Hot Asphalt Under his feet
 The sun parching his Gringo skin Skag soothing his soul
 But Bobby wants
Water
 Shade
 A cold cerveza
 More Culiacan heroin
 And Mazatlan.
 A coastal city.
 THe magic of its name.
 Mazatlan.
 Old Aztec magic.
 Nahuatal for abundant […]

Clicketty Clack

In May 1971 my friend Peter Gorr and I hitchhiked from Boston on I-90 to Utica and then headed north to Old Forge in the Adirondacks. The day got late and night fell on a silent road in the Mountain No traffic either way. We called our friends to pick us up. Standing some twenty […]

VERMONT WINTAH 1973

Vermont Wintah 1973 A blizzard buried Montreal The temp was arctic. Minus zero. I was staying with two New Zealanders Across the street From the Winston Churchill Pub Only forty feet Going out for beer was a gamble. Life, death or frozen limbs. The snow was chest high. More storms on the way A day […]

135 IN THE SHADE from BACK AND FORTH a hitchhiking novel by Peter Nolan Smith

Two days later Sean and AK swam one last time at Moonlight Beach. After packing their bags, they hugged their host, Helen, then got into the Benz with Victor and Cuchillo. Victor drove the Mercedes convertible on the San Diego Freeway. AK was in the passenger seat and Victor’s boyfriend sat in the rear with […]