Yeah, so I'm driving home last weekend, cruising down this long stretch of empty highway under a bright summer sun, and up ahead I see what appears to be a hitchhiker with a pack, hunkered down on the shoulder of the road. Now, I've hitched quite a bit in my earlier years, so I tend to stop for hitchers as long as I don't detect any evil mojo from them, so I stop.

Turns out this guy isn't hitchhiking at all, but is in-line skating (rollerblading?) across the country. He'd been out 8 days already, left Seattle and heading for New York City, figured he'd make it there sometime in September. He was out of water so I gave him a refill from my canteen (we jeep-driving mountain men always have such things laying around) along with a couple Snicker bars, and we chatted for a half-hour or so.

Helge Hjelland is this guys name, he's from Norway. When I asked him what motivated him to skate across the continent, he thought about it for a moment and replied, "Why not?" with a huge grin. "It's not the worst thing I've done," he said with a slight accent. "I once bicycled around the world..."



At which point he told me how he quit his job, sold everything he owned, and made his around-the-world bicycle trip, solo, including a stretch across the sahara desert during which he "came so close so many times" to being killed he swore he "would never do it again". He had a number of interesting stories like that, I could have listened for hours. After awhile he continued on his trek, inviting me to join him in November on a first-descent down the Niger river in Africa ("It's not really difficult", he said with all sincerity.)

So if you are driving around and see a long-haired Norwegian rollerblading down the side of the highway, stop and say hello. Spread the goodwill of the Jeeper.


EVENTYRLYSTEN. Før har Helge Hjelland syklet verden rundt, krysset Nordsjøen i gummibåt og syklet Sahara på tvers. Nå har bergenseren dratt til USA for å krysse hele landet på tvers - på rulleskøyter. Foto: Helge Skodvin

that's pretty cool
And I agree on the hitch hiker thing ... done that many times myself at several places/countries all over the world, so then you're more appreciative of people stopping