Texas

From Hitchwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

<map lat='31.541089879585808' lng='-99.2724609375' zoom='5' view='0' float='right'/> Texas is a state of the United States of America.

Texans can often be individualists, meaning they will often see your lack of a vehicle as a personal failure. However, in addition to having an individualist culture, Texans also tend to be notoriously friendly and laid-back. "Southern Hospitality" lives, if you're willing to engage your rides regardless of their accents, their political ideologies, or whatever nonsense may be pasted on their bumpers.

Texas is a massive state, with many of its residents having migrated from other states. Thus it is impossible to state anything "typical" of it. Additionally, there are many immigrants from Mexico, from whom you will receive many rides. The casual kindness of Mexicans can often be your salvation, and they'll just throw you in the back of the pickup without a second thought - maybe this is because hitchhiking is common in Mexico. Waits can be long in rural areas, and in some parts of the state (such as West Texas), the distance between towns and the high speed limit can mean very long waits. However, in more populous rural areas, short hop rides are fairly available, and lifts from old ladies and volunteer fire chiefs are not uncommon.

Law

It is not illegal to hitchhike in Texas. In fact it is one of the few states where you can actually stand right on the side of the Interstate with your thumb out. Out of perhaps a dozen police encounters in Texas, they have never once tried to tell me not to hitchhike and have always offered to give me a ride--sometimes without even checking my I.D.

Experiences

El Paso -> L.A. in a 53' beautiful RV with a phenomenal guy who left asleep in his vehicle with the keys in the ignition overnight in San Diego, after crossing the whole of Texas with unlicensed drivers (who tend, in my experience, to be either excellent or terrible drivers) and a near-three day wait in Laredo. What an awful place. - k
This whole article was writen with a huge liberal bias. I have had nothing but good luck from east Texas to Arlington. So far, I've had someone give me $100 (who was an obvious 'redneck' [probably a republican too!]) and someone else buy me dinner and give me $40. I've had tons of hop rides and everyone has been very nice (yes conservative, but very nice!) - anonymous
I got a ride from Texas City (near Galveston) to Houston by a used-car salesman. He let me off near I-10 and gave me $75. It took all night to get to San Antonio, mostly due to reluctant truck-drivers, but Texas isn't too bad of a place to hitch! - anonymous
Texas always gets a bad rap. I always had a good time, met plenty of friendly people, though i did more freight riding here then hitching. East Texas has a lot of hippies and was better for hitch than West Texas. - samson
I have hitched through every part of Texas at least once and have to say it is one of the top 3 easiest states to hitchhike in the whole country. In Texas hill country and the panhandle, wait times for rides are usually very minimal. - Thewindandrain 0:06:33, 6 March 2012 (CET)

Cities


trash:Texas