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Playing hooky #greiff_life #lambonthelam (at Cinema Paradiso)

A last round of wandering for a while

I started graduate school on Monday...so needless to say, new large adventures are going to have to wait a bit. I did, however, have one last big hurrah before returning to Ann Arbor for a new phase. For lack of a better thing to do, I decided to go south.

After a few days in Atlanta with family, I headed to Missouri to the Mid-West Regional Rainbow Gathering. As I mentioned in a previous post, rainbow gatherings are a completely unique experience for those of us in the "real world". I arrived at "Welcome Home", which was a parking lot a few miles before main camp. Setting up my tent, wandering around, I was immediately greeted by friendly invitations for coffee, snacks and candy.

This gathering was roughly 40-50, ranging in age from 1 to about 70 years old...largely populated by people who have self-selected out of society and were making their way to Montana to the national gathering starting around now. At night, we shared music and stories of travel and wandering. During the day, occasional swimming, hiking and preparation/consumption of food.

After about five days, camp broke. Taking care to un-dig the firepit, pick up trash and otherwise leave the space as close to perfect as we could, I took two fantastic people and a wonderful doggy to Springfield before continuing south into Texas.

#lambonthelam #lamb-on-the-lam #lamb on the lam #photography #david lamb

Gorgeous flower in El Salvador

#flower #red flower #el salvador #lambonthelam #lamb on the lam #lamb-on-the-lam #david lamb #photography #original photography

Random Travel Advice: Hitchhiking

I don't pretend to be an expert hitchhiker, nor am I going to regurgitate the hoards of information available online. Hitch Wiki, one of the many online resources, lists information for hitching in almost every country, and the legal status in all 50 States. Particularly helpful is their US Map, which color codes your options.

Some people claim that hitchhiking is less safe than it was "back then". It's a known truth, of course, that "back then", there were no thieves, murderers, serial killers, kidnappers, rapists, drunk drivers or anything else even remotely dangerous. "Back then" was a safer time with more honest people. On all of that, I say bullshit. Thieves, drunks, rapists, murderers...all of them...have existed since the beginning of time. While they are a strain on my belief that people are inherently good, I still hold that these people are, and have always been, the minority. The vast number of people around you are not out to get you.

The reason why there is more crime than before is simple. There are more people alive now than have ever existed before. Speaking strictly numbers, it is statically possible that the same number of murders will occur this decade than have EVER OCCURRED IN HISTORY EVER...I've not researched this, but this does seem farfetched. If you have data to refute this assumption, please comment below.

I really like Cuba's take on hitchhiking. Because owning a car is a privileged position, hitchhiking is not only common, but in some cases compulsory. Government vehicles that have an open seat are obligated to pick up hitchers. Other countries have varying degrees of acceptance, but this is by far my favorite.

Yes, there are risks with hitchhiking...just like there are risks driving, walking down the street, swimming, drinking water, skydiving, running, owning a pet, being married...we take risks as humans. I feel comfortable assuming most risks inherent with hitchhiking, but I still won't put myself in a situation where I don't feel safe. Before you get in the car or pick somebody up, you should look them in the eyes, talk to them and do what we as a species have evolved to do - make sudden judgements based on rational and irrational reasoning as to whether at that moment, you trust them. ANY reason that makes you uncomfortable, move on. It's better to be accused of some secret bias than it is to feel unsafe or be dead.

In the end, it's all a cost-benefits analysis. As a driver, I'll pick up hitchhikers because they tend to be interesting people. Somebody with a backpack is not likely to want to take my stuff or murder me. They're more likely to be a hippy looking for a free ride somewhere and the worst they'll do to you is smell bad. If somebody looks dangerous, rational bias or not, I'll just drive past them...as inclusive and non-judgmental as I claim to be. As a hitchhiker, I've had a free ride in a taxi, ridden behind a young bull, sat atop a mound of coconuts in a boat, ridden on a ferry with a group of American tourists, ridden in the back of a truck to a trailhead, hitched from the airport, ridden around isolated islands and crossed 300km in one go. So far, I've never felt unsafe and I appear to still be alive.

Find an experienced friend you trust and try it some day. It's a new way to see the world.