Daily Prompt January 13, 2026

 January 13, 2026January 13, 2026

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Ah, yes, road trips!

I was Blessed to have been a teenager in the sixties.

Why do I state “Blessed”?

Because with the “peace, love and hippie dope” era came a somewhat safe practice that I wouldn’t and no one else should even consider partaking of in these times.

I am referring to “hitchhiking”.

Something only a fool or someone with a “suicidal death wish” would consider doing in this time of man.

In my youth I was a runaway street urchin.

I was twelve years old when I left my biological father’s home.

Never to return!

My now deceased older brother and I were screwed up by being bounced from one home to another.

Never together in the same foster homes.

Our rebellious defiance of “the man, the establishment” and the desire to explore the world and the popular psychedelic drugs combined with the magnetic attraction of hippie culture made it almost an impossibility to live with our Father, an Angel of a stepmother and our younger half brother and sister.

I knew that if I were to stay with these “strangers” in their strange land I would be destined to become a negative influence upon my younger siblings.

My solution was to become “man”.

So, my older brother and I flung our waist long hair over our shoulders, walked out the door and joined “The Awarehouse”.

Saint John, New Brunswick’s one and only and very short lived “hippie commune”.

The commune was not welcomed by our fellow Saint Johners and we were run out of town.

Because I thought he was crazy and he knew I was nuts,

My brother and I and decided to part ways.

So I decided to hitchhike to Toronto.

A place where real hippies were living hippie lives.

A three day journey that changed my life forever.

It awakened my inner “Siddhartha”.

That three day trip brings back memories of the peace and love that can never be forgotten or repeated.

Hippies looked out for each other with the same intensity I was to experience much later in life during my “biker” years.

“True Brotherhood”

It may have been the LSD, or the influence I absorbed from the numerous beautiful souls who gave me a lift as fas as they were travelling, but whatever it was I knew that my journey into life had finally begun.

I am positive that not one single person who picked me up believed my outrageous story about my twelve year old arse hitchhiking to visit my ailing Mother.

I didn’t believe me!

The hours of walking along the Trans Canada Highway between rides opened my eyes to the beauty of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.

I can still smell the boreal forest.

I can still recall the magnificent sunrises and sunsets.

To this very moment I recall my mind’s shock and awe as the much older hippie in his 67 Mustang, my final lift, passed through Montreal and onto the 401 Freeway.

The multiple lanes and high volume of vehicles amazed my country bumpkin mind and birthed a want for more.

A wanderlust that has lasted to this day.

The most memorable thing about the whole affair was the long, meaningful conversations exchanged with each kind soul who gave me a ride.

“DEEP THOUGHTS” describe it best.

Definitely the most peaceful and memorable period of my life.

Never to be duplicated or relived.

Forever remembered.

The smells, the talks, the views and the “vibes” changed my DNA.

For the following decade I was at peace with my demons.

They were always there, churning deep within my subconscious, but they had become trapped by the beauty of that journey across the universe of my reality and the maturity the wonderful experience instilled within me.

The greatest time of my life.

A time I often reflect upon.6

A time I miss evermore.