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Being an argumentative bastard can really get you places.   Don‘t get me started on religion..!
Its really helpful as a traveler to be a talker, isn’t it? A lot of people who pick up hitchhikers are looking for some company, or have something to get off their chests, and need a good listener.

(Photo: me acting the goat at Confest. I don’t hitchhike looking like this, obviously…)

Riding back from ConFest at new year ’12 / ’13, i found myself on the side of a quiet road at sunset, and only about 50km from my sister’s house, where i’d left my truck.  
I usually pack it in when it starts to get dark, but i was so close, so i thought id keep trying for a bit.

It was getting seriously dark and i was about to scout round for a place to roll out my swag, when a friendly fella in a prado pulled up.
He said he was going about 20 kms down the road, and although i was disappointed he wouldnt be going very close to my destination, i was grateful to be going somewhere anyway.

he was a smartly dressed man in his 60’s or 70’s, and very talkative.   he asked me a lot of questions about where id been and about hitching.  we talked about confest, and i said i was always amazed at how much new age mumbo jumbo got bantered around.  we got onto the subject of alternative medicine, and 5 minutes later we were deep in a passionate, but friendly debate.  He was a big fan of Alt med, very suspicious of vaccination, and completely convinced that modern medicine was a corporate conspiracy.  

The debate was getting pretty intense, with me throwing statistics at him about infant mortality pre-vaccination, and the principles of evidence based medicine, and i was starting to feel like it was time to agree to disagree, but i noticed that his turn off was coming up, and my hitchers instinct told me to step the argument up a notch.  
I raised the subject of homeopathy.  He was a big fan.  Homeopathy saved his wifes life, he claimed.   I had him.   “you know homeopathic pills are just sugar” i said, “they’re placebos”.  His turn off appeared in the headlights, and he paused in his rebuttal of my last point just long enough to ask me if i would like him to take me all the way to my destination.   Well, if it’s not out of your way, i replied…   No problem he said, I’m enjoying this argument!

He drove me another 40 mins down the road, arguing all the way, right to my sister’s front door.  We didn’t find any common ground on the subject of alternative medicine, but we did shake hands warmly as i climbed out of the car.  
“You’re a stubborn bugger”, he said, grinned at me, and turned around to drive back the way he’d come to his own destination.

 

Jerry Cans - Tin Can Bay, Australia
Easter Confest 2013 - Moulamein, Australia