Best hitch hike EVER!

For starters I'm using a french keyboard to type this, just so you know it probably took an hour to type this.

The other day I left Mont-de-Marsan to head to Barcelona to meet up with Jessie. Since she wasn't going to be there for another two weeks I got the crazy idea to walk there. After first relising that that would be a really long walk I decided I would hitch a ride to the coast of France and walk the coast there. It started with me getting dropped of at an intersection just out of town to make it easier on me to get a ride. Well After a short while I decided i would start walking to the next small town and try my luck there. about 5 minutes of walking it started to rain. Since there are hardly shoulders on the roads here I was walking through tall grass and my shoes started to get soaked. I finally came up to a small pull off area where a few trucks had pulled over to see if I could get a ride from any of them. I had no luck with the truck drivers so I made my sign and waited for a ride. Only after &à minutes or so of waiting, in the rain mind you, someone finally pulled over to give me a ride. He didn't speak much English as did mostly everyone else I had found but I was able to let him know where I needed to go and where I wanted dropped off.

A short ride later I was dropped off at the toll both to the main motorway and waited for my next ride. relitively fast another car pulled over to give me a ride. I hoped in and he spoke very good English so we had a conversation until he dropped me off at the next service station along the motorway.

I grabbed a bite to eat and went searching the parking lot for my third ride of the day. I had found a car with the last two numbers of the place I needed to go so i waited for them to come out so I could ask for a ride. Before they could a guy stopping for some coffee asked where it was I needed to go. While he was getting what he stopped for I sat on a wall enjoying the myself as I tend to do while waiting. He came back out and off we went. He spoke a little English and said he spoke better german, but that wasn't going to help matters so we talked about the language differents of the worlds languages. He was able to get me the service station just before Touluse.

I went inside to get some more cardboard to write my sign on. After waiting for them to bring me some I went outside to find a good spot to stand. I wasn't even able to write my next sign when a car full of french girls came to a screaching hault (their brakes needed replaced) and asked if I wanted a ride. I put my bag in the middle of the back seat and jumped on in. They were going to a Kite Surfing Compitision just north of where I was aiming for that day so I went as far as they were going.

I climbed a flight of stairs to the top of the area to get a better view of where I had been let off and found a trail going along the water. Figuring I had nothing to loose at that point I decided to follow it and see where it lead me to. I came across an old man that spoke a little English and told me that the trail I was on did in fact lead to the next town along the coast, so I thought that I would go ahead and keep on walking till I found the next town. The scenery was stunning with picture perfect views of the coast and distant mountains. I walked past a light house and down some stairs leading me through a neighbourhood where I found the main road leading in the direction of Canet-Plage. I walked about a kilometer before the final car of the day stopped to give me a ride. I was never able to figure out where he was going but he ended up calling his sister to get directions to the address I had and ended up droping me off at the door.

I have been staying there for the past couple of days now since the weather hadn't been acting very nice and plan on continueing south to Barcelona tomorrow. I have been staying with a young guy that is the son of a friend Dylan's dad knew and hooked me up with a place to stay. He doesn't speak much english at all but we have been getting along just fine. His sister had been here the night I got in and she spoke better English but she was going somewhere the next day and so it was just me qnd Jean-Loup. We went a few kilometers down the coast the other day to check out some of the south coast and it was pretty nice. The other night his sister and dad came back and we went out to get some dinner at a local pizza place. The weather hadn't been to nice this morning so I negotiated another nights stay. So tomorrow it looks like the weather will clear up and I will be able to continue on my way.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jessie soon and hope our two week adventure together goes as planned. It will be nice to finally go home after three months of having nothing planned traveling in Europe. But then I will also have to come back to the "real world" find a job and quite possably a place to live. But I will be able to buy a new bike and begain training for the bike tour Dad and I will do this summer. And I will finally be able to ride my motorcycle, YAY!!!