I started hitchhiking in junior high, on those mornings when I missed the last city bus to school and my baritone horn made bicycling a difficult option. Since then, I've hitched short and long distances in the US and Europe, met all types, and arrived at all sorts of destinations.
I was glad to see Leath Tonino's description of a five-day hitchhiking trip around Vermont in Seven Days. I've never hitched without a destination in mind, as he did, but some of my most magical experiences have come from unexpected intermediate destinations on longer trips.
I think Tonino captures the freedom and magic of hitchhiking, as well as its uncertainty. My experience of hitchhiking is alternating feelings of impotence--as I watch car after car drive by me--and omnipotence--as a car stops and a friendly driver takes me to or towards my destination. I look at my thumb and think, This little sucker can take me just about anywhere!
Trusting each other enough to ask strangers for rides and to give rides to strangers will be an important part of adapting to scarce and expensive oil. And hitchhiking--or at least carpooling, by whatever means--is one of key strategies that the International Energy Agency recommends for countries to use in Saving Oil in a Hurry.