We do not normally pick up hitch hikers. This is primarily due to the difficulty of pulling over a 56' long train. We know there are dangers picking up hitch hikers, but those are minimal especially in the areas we travel. But, while leaving Yellowstone NP we saw 2 young guys hitch hiking and there was a ton of room to pull over and we had just pulled out and were not up to speed. So we stopped.
We met David and Daniel. Two students from Germany on a 2 month break trying to see as much of the USA as possible. Seemed like nice guys and we took them to what we thought was their next stop. They got out and we fixed ourselves some lunch. About 30 minutes later we pulled out and see them hitch hiking again. We stop. We misunderstood where they were going and dropped them off too soon. So off the 4 us go toward Grand Tetons NP. They were staying in a campground in the park. We were having a problem with the water pump on the Jeep and were headed toward Jackson. We dropped them off and said good bye again.
We got to Jackson and got the Jeep fixed and head back to Grand Tetons NP. We were not staying in the park but just north of it. As we were touring thru the park we noticed that one of the brake lights on the Jeep was not working. We stopped at one of the stations to replace it and while I was working on it I hear "Hey, Bob, how are you?" I turned around and it was David and Daniel. We meet again. After a few laughs and catching up we found out they were headed the same way. So we gave them a ride. We also learned that they were headed to Idaho Falls in 2 days. We were going to Idaho Falls in 3 days but our plans might change. So we traded phone #s for texting. This was kind of silly since most of the time in a National Park you have no cell service at all. Sometimes near one of the lodges you might get a weak signal but it is very iffy.
We our plans did change, luckily we were able to set a time and place to meet and the 4 of us were off to Idaho Falls. Their purpose was to catch a bus to Las Vegas. Our purpose was to stop for about 2 weeks and catch up on all the things we were unable to do with out internet. We had another great ride with fun conversation with the guys. We got into the campground and set up. Then we were headed to the Greyhound station.
Now in today's technology you just do a Google search for the station in Idaho Falls. We go to the greyhound web site and put in Idaho Falls. 3 locations came up. Idaho Falls is not big enough to have 3 stations, so we plugged the first one into the GPS and off we went. It was an empty field that had never been a bus station. No worries, we plug in location 2. We found what used to be a bus station but no more. Location 3 was a industrial park with no bus station. So we finally broke down and called the 800 number. The lady gave us an address and off we went. Drove right by it because there is no sign, it is part of a gas station and the street numbers do not match up. But we found it and we are all hysterical about the search. Our new friends are thinking "what kind of country is this?" The guys bought tickets but the bus did not leave until late that night.
We took them out to dinner at Olive Garden. We normally do not go to chain restaurants but there were not a lot of choices near us. Turns out it was a great choice because of the endless salad and bread sticks. These guys were hungry! So we not only had our entrees, but we went thru 4 baskets of bread sticks and 2 big bowls of salad.
During our time together we learned we all liked beer and these guys had not had any good beer since they got to the USA. So being the great guy I am I offered to take them for some good beer. I also learned that they wanted to know more about baseball. Wow, beer and baseball, I'm a happy boy! What ever it takes to keep positive relations with our foreign allies!
Because my brewery finding app only found 1 in Idaho Falls and I knew it would not have a TV for baseball we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Now I had never been to a BWW but new they would have TVs and a variety of beer. Diana decided to avoid all the noise and late night and she stayed at the RV. We walked in the door of BWW and a guy comes from the other side of the place and greets my new friends. Turns out they had met in Yellowstone and did some hiking together. A very small world. After a few minutes of chatting he went back to his group and we got seated.
I selected some beers to try and we asked that one of the 1,000 TVs be put on the Twins game. They actually liked the beer! The food was good but alas the Twins game was not on. In fact they did not seem able to find any baseball game on...Really, com'on man. The best they could do was ESPN baseball tonight. You just can't teach baseball from highlights. After a while I asked about getting them to the bus station and they said their friend was willing to take them. Great, now I don't have to stay up until midnight. After awhile we went over and joined their friend and his group and had some different beers. The guys decided that US beer is not so bad if you get craft beer instead of national beers. Break through!!!
Later that evening we all said good bye and I headed home. What a great experience and you can bet if the circumstances are right, we'll pick up more hitch hikers.
