US Nationals and Open

ugh. I've been planning for the past month to go but it seems i will be missing out on this one :(. Hope to see you all another time and good luck to everyone going!

-Sam
 
AvGalen said:
Are you sure that America is really dangerous (facts) or is that just a feeling?
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I wouldn't risk going out in my city in the middle of the night alone. And I don't even live in a very big city! There are just some bad neighborhoods around and there was a huge drug bust a couple months ago.

I've never been there before, but I've heard Atlanta has some rough areas, so I wouldn't if I were you. What would we do without Arnaud on the forums! :p
 
alexc said:
AvGalen said:
Are you sure that America is really dangerous (facts) or is that just a feeling?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't risk going out in my city in the middle of the night alone. And I don't even live in a very big city! There are just some bad neighborhoods around and there was a huge drug bust a couple months ago.

I've never been there before, but I've heard Atlanta has some rough areas, so I wouldn't if I were you. What would we do without Arnaud on the forums! :p
Click to expand...

Hitchhiking inside a city (especially in bad neighborhoods) is not really my idea either. Let me put it this way:
a) Do you ever see hithchhikers on the highway/freeway/interstate/whatever-its-called
b) Do you know someone that has picked up a hitchhiker
c) Have you ever (thought about) hitchhiking yourself
 
If you hitchike, you may end up being arrested, as I don't think pedestrians are allowed on highways. Hitchhiking in the US is really non-existent, except for maybe on small roads in more rural america. I'm almost 100% sure you won't be able to hitchike anywhere near atlanta.
 
Unfortunately, Arnaud, things have changed a lot in the past 25 years here in America. When I was growing up, it was fairly common to hitchhike; I've done it once, and I remember several times when my parents picked hitchhikers up. However, that practice slowly died off so that now, it's almost never done.
 
My father used to hitchhike to work. Nowadays it's unheard of to hitchhike. I'd like to someday, but it's illegal pretty much everywhere in the country (at least as far as I know).
 
It is sad how hitchhiking has become in America. Like Mike said, 25 years ago, it was fine. Now, few people do it. I think it is do to the danger that people think there is to it. Whenever I see a hitchhiker the the direction I'm going, I give them a lift. If I was in that position, I'd want a lift. It is pretty hard to find a ride anymore these days though. I remember my father used to tell me how he hitchhiked to California and back (to Colorado) several times back in the day.

a) Do you ever see hithchhikers on the highway/freeway/interstate/whatever-its-called
b) Do you know someone that has picked up a hitchhiker
c) Have you ever (thought about) hitchhiking yourself
Click to expand...
a) Yes, I still do, but very few. And most that do these days seem to be homeless.
b) Yes
c) Yes, if you have no other resort, you kind of have to try.
 
Like your father, I have a lot of (very positive) hitchhiking experience. The highpoint of this was when I walked to Monaco (5 weeks) and hitchhiked back (4 days). I still remember most of the people (and their stories) that gave me a ride and just thinking about it makes me smile again.

In Europe you don't see many hitchhikers anymore, but when you do it's mostly students or travellers, not homeless people. I guess many people have gotten rich and own their own cars.
 
I'd love to be in that situation and meet people. One of my favorite things to do is go to Waffle House (a breakfast restaurant) in the middle of the night and meet the people there. I've met some truly unique people there. Always amazing.
 
ShadenSmith said:
I'd love to be in that situation and meet people. One of my favorite things to do is go to Waffle House (a breakfast restaurant) in the middle of the night and meet the people there. I've met some truly unique people there. Always amazing.
Click to expand...
I don't know your age, but try getting in the metro/L/"underground" in the middle of the night. I did that a couple of times in Chicago after I escorted my friendly guide to her house and everytime I got nice conversations with people. The cube is a real conversation starter.

In New York (actually more like Manhattan) the experience was very different. Everybody just minds his own business there and they expect you to do the same.

Travelling on the greyhound bus is another way to get to meet others.
 
I'm 16, so a 1 A.M. curfew is set in my city. If you're caught outside past that and under the age of 18, the police can pick you up.

Also, my city (Lexington, Kentucky) doesn't have a metro/underground section. We're a lower-medium sized city, leaving us with a poor bus system, no metro, and mostly suburbs. I live a few miles from downtown, really the only place to see people late at night other than 24 hour restaurants. Someday when I do go to a large city I'd like to try out the metro system though. I've never seen a subway before.
 
In my city, curfew very much does exist. Minors can very easily be picked up for walking after 1 am.

Law enforcement in my city doesn't make much sense though, many of our officers are corrupt. I'm sure it's a small percentage of them that are of course, but enough to notice.

I grew up down the street from a police officer, I went to school with his son. His son would always talk about the whiskey him and his father brewed in their basement and he would sell it at school (very illegal here). That same police officer eventually lost his job for having a myspace and saying very racist things with other police officers, concerning previous arrests that had been made.

Speaking of racist police officers, the police attempted to blame our car wreck on the other party. We were obviously the ones who ran the stop sign, not them. We told them several times but they continued to say they thought the other car did, and then winked. I should note that we are all Caucasian individuals (as were the policemen) and the other car were Mexicans. Here in Kentucky, there is a considerable deal of prejudice against Mexicans. It's quite sad really.
 
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