#2 My 5-Day, Jimmy Buffett Hitching Adventure in 1978: Dramatic AND Cinematic! (Part 1)

By now, you have likely read about my references to my 3-concert, 5-day hitchhiking adventure when I was a 20-year-old sophomore at Boston College that changed the direction of my life.

Briefly, that journey was inspired after seeing Jimmy Buffett perform just 9 days earlier in Boston from the front row, surrounded by 19 of my friends and fellow fans, while shooting photos the whole time.

Here is the very first photo I shot that memorable night in Boston. This is likely Jimmy’s first song of the concert, “Son of a Son of a Sailor.” Look at the joy on that face. This was absolutely a storyteller who enjoyed performing for us fans. It remains as one of my all-time favorite photos of Jimmy that I shot over several years.

In fact, I chose this photo to print multiple 8x10” glossies to take with me on my hitching journey, with the goal to have Jimmy autograph it. It was a very simple goal, but at the time, I wasn’t aware of how impactful that goal would be in transforming my life.

My journey started on Saturday, March 18, 1978, in Boston, with my first day’s destination about 450 miles away in Buffalo, NY, followed by Columbus, OH where Jimmy was scheduled to play two nights later, and then Cincinnati, two days after that.

It was truly a dramatic adventure full of highs and lows. None of the highs, nor any of the lows, were comparable to being the team’s hero in winning the Super Bowl, nor the zero whose error lost your team the World Series.

Instead, it was a private, coming-of-age, 5-day adventure that was nearly aborted on Day 1 during a brief encounter on the interstate with a State Trooper in New York.

Later that evening, after several rides by trusting and generous motorists, I was front row again, wearing my custom-made, “A1A” yellow shirt, shooting more photos.

Above is a replica of that shirt – such an easy design, but if I still had the original (which I don’t), it would now be 45 years old. I had the above replica shirt printed prior to a concert a few years ago in an effort to relive the magic of prior decades.

That first day hitching from Boston to Buffalo and finding a front row seat, set the stage for a series of “lows” that kept descending and “highs” that kept ascending, until the climax on Day 5 in Cincinnati.

Along the way, I made friends with a wide range of characters, each unique in his or her own way. I never ran afoul of the law, and I enjoyed a very high level of trust and generosity from complete strangers.

To give you an idea of the wide range of situations I encountered, on my first night, I was able to sleep in a friend of a friend’s spare bedroom. That capped off a wonderful first day and went as planned.

During my two nights in Columbus, all my friends-of-friends had left Ohio State University for Easter break. Instead, I was forced to find kind-hearted strangers who welcomed me into their homes. These started as temporary “lows,” but evolved into momentary “highs.”

On my fourth night, after a rainy, gloomy day roaming around Cincinnati, I stayed at the downtown YMCA. It was nothing more than a room with a bed, a common bathroom (and shower), and a common room full of “hungry, hard-luck heroes tryin’ to just stay alive” watching tv in silence. I was the youngest guest at that YMCA that night and far from being hungry or hard luck. It was simply super-cheap at just $6.73 for the night.

All this will eventually be shared in my memoir, but I wanted to post all this now to show how the journey was an up-and-down learning experience for me – truly a dramatic sequence of events.

When I connected a few days later with my girlfriend at the time (now wife of 38 years), and my college buddy, Chip, I told them about my journey in detail, as the whole adventure was still fresh on my mind.

I continued to tell my full dramatic tale to other friends. I knew I had a story that was worthy of being shared to a wide audience.

It didn’t take long for me to envision my adventure as a feature film in the classic three-part format.

Part 1: the introduction – being front row to see Jimmy perform in Boston, along with the clearly stated objective - to meet Jimmy and have him autograph two of the photos I shot in Boston.

Part 2: the bulk of the adventure - a series of ups and downs, including the concerts in Buffalo and Columbus, drifting around in unknown cities with streets that didn’t have names.

Part 3: the dramatic conclusion – an opportunity to meet Jimmy and how that glorious moment came about.

In my mind, my true story would also have multiple positive themes:

TRUST: Required to get into a stranger’s car or in the alternative, pulling over to pick up a long-haired, bearded dude on the side of the road.

GENEROSITY: Courtesies extended along the way by people I didn’t know, a combination of lodging, meals, and OTHER unmentionables. I returned favors with the only thing I could offer – my photos of Jimmy in Boston from a few weeks earlier.

INTUITION: Like a “Cowboy in the Jungle,” I rolled with the punches, played all of my hunches, and made the best of whatever came my way.

As you read, I have wanted to share my story for 45 years...

NEXT UP: #3 My 5-Day, Jimmy Buffett Hitching Adventure in 1978: Dramatic AND Cinematic! (Part 2)