The Road Hosea 6:5: "Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth."
This video is from Derek Johnson’s Telegram – RattleTrap 1776. “47 US Code 606 applies everywhere when 45 is a Wartime President” –Derek Johnson. President Trump and the U.S. Military are in control.
The lady in the video (Jane Hill) hosting the BBC News program says this: “That is absolutely not the sort of story we don’t want to be bringing you on a very big sporting weekend . . .” The sentence has a double negative: “not” and “don’t”. “Not” and “don’t” cancel each other out. What she is actually saying: “That is absolutely the sort of story we want to be bringing you on a very big sporting weekend . . .” Looks like the Lord put the words in her mouth and she didn’t even know it. Reminds me of this scripture:
II Peter 2:16: “But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”
*[The left-wing media cult (or the Joseph Goebbels Memorial Left-Wing Propaganda Network): ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, BBC, TheNew York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, etc.]
“Shortly, the public will be unable to reason or think for themselves. They’ll only be able to parrot the information they’ve been given on the previous night’s news.”
— Zbigniew Brzezinski, 1972
“The average newspaper, especially of the better sort, has the intelligence of a hillbilly evangelist, the courage of a rat, the fairness of a prohibitionist boob-jumper, the information of a high school janitor, the taste of a designer of celluloid valentines, and the honor of a police-station lawyer.”
–H. L. Mencken
“In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interest, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States and sufficient number of them to control generally the policy of the daily press….They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers.
“An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature considered vital to the interests of the purchasers.”
–U.S. Congressman Oscar Callaway, 1917
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
–George Orwell
“Truth doesn’t need defending as it defends itself. A lie requires the stifling of truth to exist.”
–Unknown
“The trust in media, in newspapers and television, is hitting an all time low. People don’t trust us. They don’t believe us, and it makes me wonder if this job —as I’m currently doing it— is effective, but if it’s doing more harm than good.”
–Katy Tur, NBC, July 17, 2022
This is a play on Isaiah 14:12-15:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Farcebook, son of the CIA? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst lie to the nations?
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will censor Christians, I will censor conservatives, I will give new meaning to “fact checker”.
I will ascend above the heights of social media, I will be like Jack Dorsey.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to nothing, thou shalt go bankrupt.
In the past ten days, I hitchhiked from northern California through eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, western Montana and then through eastern Idaho. Today I hitchhiked from Idaho Falls and ended up in Jackson, Wyoming. I was at my friends’ place in Jackson and noticed a copy of the Jackson Hole Daily newspaper in their kitchen. I read the first two paragraphs of this front page story and thought it was very prophetic:
Jackson Hole Daily
March 23, 2015
Fire is small, season is early
By Mark Huffman
“A brushfire Sunday was small enough to be called minor, but early enough in the season to be an ominous taste of what might be ahead.
“With Jackson Hole coming out of a warm and dry winter, the fire burned dead grass and seared sagebrush and leafless aspens at a construction site on NW Ridge Road, in the Skyline Ranch subdivision. During many winters the area would have been under snow, but it’s clear now.”
Tim Shey has spent the last 16 years hitchhiking
around the Mountain West, occasionally passing
through Teton Valley. Using his thumb to solicit
a ride, he’s ended up with a few tickets and even landed
in a Wyoming jail cell. It was only for a half hour, but
still, it drained what was left in his light wallet. But Shey
can walk along the state’s roads a little more freely as the
Cowboy State has recently tweaked a state law, making
the practice of hitchhiking legal.
Gov. Matt Mead signed the bill last week, which was
introduced by Alta, Wyo., Sen. Leland Christensen.
“It’s about reducing the weight of government on the
backs of citizens,” said Christensen.
But in Idaho, thumbing is still illegal.
Idaho code prohibits a pedestrian from
standing on a highway to solicit a ride.
Often a report of a suspicious person
appears in the Teton County Idaho
Sheriff’s log, but occasionally it’s
simply someone seeking a ride.
Sheriff Tony Liford said if someone reports a suspicious person
and it’s a hitchhiker, they’ll check to make sure there
aren’t any outstanding warrants. If there aren’t any, the
person is usually given a warning that hitchhiking is
illegal. Liford said he doesn’t remember citing anyone
for hitchhiking and many times, if the person is going
the same direction as the deputy they’ll be given a ride.
Still, the law is fine the way it is, Liford said, because it
gives his officers the discretion to check on or remove
someone if necessary.
“We’re not running around out there looking for
hitchhikers so we can hammer them,” said Liford.
“That doesn’t happen.”
And usually, most people hitchhiking in Teton Valley,
Liford said he knows who they are.
There’s one regular hitchhiker at
Broulim’s who often gets picked
up by the same people.
Liford said
if he sees the guy and he’s on his way to
Victor, he’d sometimes just gives him
a ride himself.
Liford said there are very few hitchhikers
who are transient. Plus, people
tend to get picked up here pretty quickly.
Hitchhiking has long been common
practice in both Teton County Wyoming
and Idaho for recreationalists. Skiers, hikers,
skaters and bikers on Teton Pass and Ski Hill Road
have long used the practice to get back to their cars
or a destination at the top.
Christensen said seeing so many people hitchhike
in the Tetons was part of the reason he
wanted to change the law.
“I had the opportunity to make it correct and
I had great support around the state,” he said.
What was interesting, Christensen said, was
once he brought up hitchhiking, was just how
many legislators had their own experiences
hitchhiking and many of them did it
extensively, he said.
For a state that cherishes personal freedom, Christensen
said he thinks the law was passed when hitchhiking
came into disfavor across the US. He said as far as he
could tell, there seemed to be a real push against it on a
national level because of fears people associated with it.
And hitchhiking is directly tied to freedom for Shey.
“Freedom of movement, freedom to explore,” he said.
“Freedom to find a job someplace else.”
Now that it’s legal, Christensen said it doesn’t mean
it’s always a great idea. He said people should use
great caution when giving someone a ride or asking
for a ride. Liford echoes that sentiment.
“It’s not a safe practice,” said Liford. “I wouldn’t
want people by themselves and in particular
women, to pick up just anyone. When you pull
up to the pass and see someone with skis and
a dog, you know them, it’s probably fine. But
if you get a transient and it’s their only way of
transportation. Ehh. It might not be a good idea.”
Which state is the easiest to
get a ride?
That’s a good question. Maybe
Montana or Oregon. The friendliest
people I have ever met were
from Nebraska and Texas.
Which is the hardest?
I’m not sure. The toughest city to
hitchhike out of was Las Vegas back in 2005.
The friendliest city by far was Salt Lake City.
Any tricks that work for getting people to pull over?
There is probably a psychology to hitchhiking.
If you are under 40, you could probably pass
for a college student: stay clean cut, shave,
wear a shirt that says University of Kansas or
something, don’t wear sunglasses, don’t chew
tobacco and then spit on the floor of the
car you are riding in (I picked this kid up
in California, when I had my pickup years
ago, he was chewing tobacco and spit on
the floor; I let him off at the next town).
Me? No tricks. I put my faith in Jesus
Christ and He protects me. I have
never carried a weapon. Many
people have told me that I was
the first hitchhiker that they had
ever picked up. Maybe the Lord
wanted me to redeem the tarnished
image of hitchhiking in the
United States.
How do you keep from looking “suspicious”?
Just be yourself. And if you are
a criminal, you will just be your
suspicious self, get arrested and
end up in jail where you belong.
Any advice for people looking for a ride using their thumb?
For long distance hitchhiking, have a backpack,
a sleeping bag, some clothes, maybe a tent
and some other things.
Anything else you want to add?
I have hitchhiked through the Driggs-Victor-
Jackson neighborhood many times over the
years. Met a lot of great people there. The
last time I hitchhiked through Fremont County,
Wyo. (Sept-Oct 2012), this deputy sheriff told
me that, if he saw me on the highway again, he
would take me to jail in Lander. The last time I
hitchhiked was November 1st of 2012. Maybe
my hitchhiking days are done.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
–Winston Churchill
“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”
–Joseph Stalin
“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting an inexperienced man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”
–From the newspaper Prager Zeitung, Czech Republic, April 28, 2010
“Scruffy progressive protesters locked themselves together across railroad tracks, blocked traffic and shouted profanities at police on Tuesday in a coordinated ‘West Coast Port Shutdown.’ Truckers lost wages. Shippers lost business. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement calls ‘victory.'”
–Michelle Malkin
“The smaller the mind, the greater the conceit.”
–Aesop
“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government—lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”
–Patrick Henry
[Compiled by Gail Brooks, Carrie Depaoli & Paul J. Etzler]
Here is an article about pro-abortionist Reverend Mary Erickson of the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson, Wyoming. Mary Erickson is one of the more prominent Baal Worshipers in Jackson.
Planet Jackson Hole
NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
By Jake Nichols
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Jackson, Wyoming
Hail Mary! Reverend Mary Erickson
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Faced with a perceived threat, Reverend Mary Erickson was compelled to act. As a mother of two kids, she felt immediate maternal instincts to protect impressionable children from the graphic imagery used by anti-abortionists which included militant members of Operation Save America. Her day job as an assistant priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church had given her the experience she needed to rally others, to organize the fears and aspirations of a group and direct them for good. Her vocation taught her hate is always fought best with love.
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Jackson Hole United was formed in the face of the second coming of right-to-life protesters, including Pastor Mark Holick and his church along with OSA volunteers. Intimidated by a recent State Supreme Court ruling in the pro-lifers’ favor, Town of Jackson officials allowed their special events permit with some restrictions. It was obvious someone needed to step in and step up. It was Erickson, and others, who answered the call and provided Jacksonites with a quiet leadership that brought cohesiveness to a fractured community.
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When OSA brought its repugnant revival to the town square during Elk Fest, its shock-and-awe campaign was met with civility, compassion, and love. Red-shirted proponents of fire and brimstone were calmed by the soothing ‘blue’ band of tight-knit locals who refused to let their town be hijacked. It was inconceivable that any one person or group could unite such a disparate clutch of citizens, yet here were 2,297 believers dedicated to a movement bigger than Facebook, each ready to pledge an allegiance to their kids and their community.
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And the good reverend tended her flock with grace.
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“I don’t think I anticipated it having as big an impact as it did. I think it was one of those perfect storm kind of things. The situation met the need,” Erickson says. “I like the fact that we allowed it to be what it needed to be, we agreed that it had to happen and grow organically.”
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Still, Erickson acknowledged any inclusive group was going to have its own internal strife. There would be divisiveness. There had to be. JHU is made up of pro-lifers, pro-choicers, political lefts and rights, religious followers and the secular-minded. Each JHU member brought his or her own beliefs and baggage, and that was OK as long as members remembered the golden rule. When their emotions ran raw, when fear and hatred provoked rash rhetoric, they needed to be coaxed back on the path.
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“We did have a lot of that on the Facebook side of things. [JH Weekly] was a target of that,” Erickson says. “My sense is to step in when things get ugly and remind people what we are about. It’s OK to disagree but not to get ugly. We may come from different places and backgrounds, but we should all be coming from a place of compassion and understanding. We respect our right for free speech and JH United is an open site intentionally. But we have a mission and goal. We don’t want to shut people up, we just want them to express themselves in a respectful way.”
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Erickson admitted she continues to be somewhat surprised by how quickly the group came together and how it has now grown bigger than the issue it was born of. During the wildfire that threatened Jackson, anger occasionally surfaced again, nearly unraveling the threads of community. Some JHU members took up refuge in their safe place. The recent school shooting at Sandy Hook was another example of how horrid the world can be and once again a pacificator was needed to pilot our disquiet into calmer waters. Erickson, a gifted writer, penned an eloquent piece on the JHU Facebook page.
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“I’ve had a lot of people tell me that [JHU] has continued to be a reminder for them to try to get back to that place of understanding and compassion for one another,” Erickson says. “The fact that this group has continued to grow shows the need in this world today for all of us to find a way to move back to a civil place when we are hurt or our emotions run high. If we can do that as a community then maybe we can have an effect globally.
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“I don’t think it is over, I just don’t know where it’s going. There’s too much need for it in today’s world.”
Brutal deathdance;
My eyes weep blood.
Pharisees smile like vipers,
They laugh and mock their venom:
Blind snakes leading
The deaf and dumb multitude.
Where are my friends?
The landscape is dry and desolate.
They have stretched my shredded body
On this humiliating tree.
The hands that healed
And the feet that brought good news
They have pierced
With their fierce hatred.
The man-made whip
That opened up my back
Preaches from a proper pulpit.
They sit in comfort:
That vacant-eyed congregation.
The respected, demon-possessed reverend
Forks his tongue
Scratching itchy ears
While Cain bludgeons
Abel into silence.
My flesh in tattered pieces
Clots red and cold and sticks
To the rough-hewn timber
That props up my limp, vertical carcase
Between heaven and earth.
My life drips and puddles
Below my feet,
As I gaze down dizzily
On merciless eyes and dagger teeth.
The chapter-and-versed wolves
Jeer and taunt me.
Their sheepwool clothing
Is stained black with the furious violence
Of their heart of stone.
They worship me in lip service,
But I confess,
I never knew them
(Though they are my creation).
My tongue tastes like ashes:
It sticks to the roof of my mouth.
I am so thirsty.
This famine is too much for me.
The bulls of Bashan have bled me white.
Papa, into your hands
I commend my Spirit.
Ethos
February/March 1997
Iowa State University
Genesis 49: 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
CHEYENNE [19 December 2012] — Tim Shey has hitchhiked across Wyoming dozens of times.
The former Jackson resident says it’s a useful way to meet new people, share his Christian faith with fellow travelers and easily find employment.
“If you’re single and unemployed, all you have to do is throw on a backpack, hit the road, and you are bound to find work eventually,” he said. “And it’s a great way to see the country.”
But by doing so, Shey and many travelers like himself have broken the law, since hitchhiking is illegal in Wyoming.
A state lawmaker is now trying to change that by introducing legislation to legalize hitchhiking in the state.
Sen. Leland Christensen, R-Alta, is sponsoring Senate File 29, which will be considered during the upcoming legislative session that begins Jan. 8.
Christensen, who spent 20 years as a deputy with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office, said the current law is doing little good.
“In our community, here in the western part of the state, and really around the entire state, people hitchhike because they need to do it, because it’s a convenience or for economic means,” he said. “It seems like one of those laws that had some good intentions, but all it does is single out some folks, usually those new to the community, who some might not like the look of or feel of.”
He said many people are surprised to find out that Wyoming prohibits hitchhiking.
Christensen added that during his experience as a deputy, the law was rarely enforced. If it was enforced, he said it was not enforced consistently.
Sgt. Stephen Townsend, a spokesman for the Wyoming Highway Patrol, said the state has issued 21 citations for hitchhiking so far this year.
He added the Wyoming Highway Patrol has no comment, as of now, on the proposed law change.
He said Wyoming is one of only a handful of states that ban the practice.
In the more than 30 years he has been hitchhiking, he said he has only been cited once. And that one time was in Wyoming.
“I think making hitchhiking illegal in a place like Santa Monica (Calif.) makes sense because of all the traffic,” Shey said. “But Wyoming is such a sparsely populated state that there isn’t that problem.”
He added that hitchhiking is much safer than most people realize.
Christensen agreed that many people have misconceptions about hitchhiking from horror movies or urban legends.
He said hitchhiking is relatively safe for the driver and the hitchhiker.
“There seems to be a lot of people across the country who have faith in it,” he said. “Anytime you are mixing pedestrians with traffic, there will be some risk, but that goes the same today for riding a bicycle or walking.
“So there is an element of caution for both the person doing the soliciting and the person picking them up, and that’s where common sense plays into it.”
Christensen added that the state law would still prohibit people from panhandling or soliciting employment or business from vehicles on a highway.
Shey said repealing the hitchhiking ban could make the state more appealing to travelers.
He said the state is already attractive to hitchhikers who want to visit Teton Pass, Yellowstone or are just passing through on journeys east or west.
“I wouldn’t think of them as tramps,” he said. “These are tourists who will want to spend money in the state.”
Should a president lead citizens in a national prayer of repentance?
Uganda’s Christian president believes so.
The Ugandan newssite New Vision reports President Yoweri Museveni celebrated Uganda’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain at the National Jubilee Prayers event by publicly repenting of his personal sin and the sins of the nation.
“I stand here today to close the evil past, and especially in the last 50 years of our national leadership history and at the threshold of a new dispensation in the life of this nation. I stand here on my own behalf and on behalf of my predecessors to repent. We ask for your forgiveness,” Museveni prayed.
“We confess these sins, which have greatly hampered our national cohesion and delayed our political, social and economic transformation. We confess sins of idolatry and witchcraft which are rampant in our land. We confess sins of shedding innocent blood, sins of political hypocrisy, dishonesty, intrigue and betrayal,” Museveni said.
“Forgive us of sins of pride, tribalism and sectarianism; sins of laziness, indifference and irresponsibility; sins of corruption and bribery that have eroded our national resources; sins of sexual immorality, drunkenness and debauchery; sins of unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred and revenge; sins of injustice, oppression and exploitation; sins of rebellion, insubordination, strife and conflict,” Museveni prayed.
Next, the president dedicated Uganda to God.
“We want to dedicate this nation to you so that you will be our God and guide. We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice to fulfill what the Bible says in Psalm 33:12: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. A people you have chosen as your own,” Museveni prayed.
Massachusetts pastor and activist Rev. Scott Lively believes Museveni is a model for other national leaders.
“The Museveni prayer is a model for all Christian leaders in the world. The leaders of the West have declined in proportion to their degree of rejection of God,” Lively said.
Lively also believes Uganda will rise as a major African power as America continues to decline. He uses Britain as an example.
“Britain was at its height as a world power when it honored God as the Ugandan president has just done. America’s greatness has similarly diminished as we have shifted from a Christian to a secular-humanist country. But watch now for Uganda to be blessed by God for their desire to be His,” Lively said.
Lively added that Museveni is definitely drawing a contrast between Uganda and the West.
“This incident is also important as a contrast to the picture being painted of Uganda by the godless left of a backwards, violent and savage culture intent on murdering homosexuals,” Lively said.
“On the contrary, Museveni is calmly and confidently setting the course of his nation by the guidance of the Bible, in a way that also shows great courage and resolve,” Lively said.
Homosexual activist groups have criticized the government of Uganda and Museveni for passing laws criminalizing homosexual behavior. A current bill before the Ugandan Parliament increases the jail sentences for homosexual acts and includes criminal penalties for those who encourage or promote homosexuality.
The government of Uganda could not be reached for comment on this story.
Lively said he didn’t agree with the death penalty provision but supports the nation’s strong stance against homosexual behavior.
While Museveni is being held as a model for Christian leaders, Dave Daubenmire, PT Salt Ministries’ president and founder and social commentator, said the problem for Western nations goes deeper than the political leaders.
The problem in the United States, he said, is the pastors.
“Sadly, I think our lack of repentance is the fault of the pulpit. Individual Christians are so awash in sin that they think politicians are merely better at sin than they are,” Daubenmire said.
“There is no fear of the Lord and we are getting essentially a two-kingdom message. We hear that the devil is the god of this world and that Jesus will even the score later,” Daubenmire said. “The problem is that most Christians are convinced that this world is in control of Satan and therefore are not interested in applying the kingdom principles for which Christ died.”
Daubenmire quoted Matthew 28:18, in which Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
Christians, Daubenmire said, are exhorted later in the same chapter to go and make disciples of all nations.
“We are to teach them and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “All power in heaven and in earth belongs to Jesus. Unfortunately, most Christians don’t have the foggiest idea that He rules and reigns here and now, and that the kingdom principles that He taught us bring victory over evil wherever they are applied.”
He added that Christians too often play with sin.
“Since we do not hate sin anymore, we don’t demand repentance,” Daubenmire said.
He quoted British 17th century statesman Edmund Burke, who said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Daubenmire said that in America, “good men have yielded power to evil men.”
“Evil rules when evil men make the rules,” he said.
Yesterday I hitchhiked from Jackson to Riverton, Wyoming. I was watching TV at my friend’s place yesterday afternoon and I saw an interview on C-SPAN. This editor from The Washington Post was talking with Jane Smiley. Dr. Smiley was my professor for three days during the fall semester of 1989 at Iowa State University. Dr. Susan Carlson was pregnant, so several professors from the English Department filled in for her just before and after she gave birth.
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Jane Smiley used to teach creative writing at Iowa State from 1981 to 1996. She has had a number of books published. In 1992, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel A Thousand Acres. This book was later made into a film; the film was released in 1997.
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In the C-SPAN interview, the Post editor and Jane Smiley were discussing her most recent book, THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer. Dr. Atanasoff was a physics professor at Iowa State in the 1930s and 40s. He helped invent the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. This was the first automatic electronic digital computer.
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If I remember right, Jane Smiley’s favorite short story was “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka.
“If you don’t have patience, don’t hitchhike,” Tim Shey said.
He’s speaking from his experience of using the mode of travel for sixteen years and his ventures have brought him through Teton Valley on more than one occasion. He’s slept in junk cars in Victor and grassy spots in Driggs, sheet rocked a house in Tetonia, and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.
His roaming follows inspiration, providence, and the compass of circumstance.
“I just knew God inspired me to hit the road,” he explained.
He felt the nudge in 1996 but he never thought he would still be standing with his thumb out on the highway 16 years and two books later.
Shey, a native of Iowa, started hitchhiking in Ireland and parts of the United Kingdom in the early 1980s. In 1995, he finished his degree in English at the Iowa State University and then hitched his way through the Western US. In between, he worked in the lumber and construction businesses and then hit the road for a solid nine months in 1999. During that hitching stint, a lady at a gas station in Texas asked him when she would get to read his book. She wasn’t the first to ask. When he returned to Iowa, he wrote 200 pages in ten days.
“I just wanted to get it done,” he said.
Over the years and between his travels, Shey touched up the manuscript and it appeared online and in CD form until Publish America put out the bound pages of High Plains Drifter. He stopped wondering why he got a degree in English.
“I guess all those English papers were good practice,” he said.
But the heart of his story is his Christian faith. As he travels, he both shares what he believes and lives it.
“It’s an act of faith, you can’t plan it like this,” he said.
The connections, reconnections, and happenstances he experiences lay beyond his control. A ride can lead to a conversation, a job or a friend, places he has returned to work or visit such as a cow-calf operation in California or the home of friends in Teton Valley.
He formed a strong connection with Jeremy Aughenbaugh of Jackson, Wyo in 2003 when one of Aughenbaugh’s roommates gave Shey a ride from Dubois, Wyo. They then invited the hitchhiker to stay with them for a few days. The two bonded through their common Christian faith and Shey has consistently returned to visit his friend since.
“He definitely wasn’t what I expected a hitchhiker to look like,” Aughenbaugh said. ”[He’s] clean cut, he seemed like he was on a mission.”
Aughenbaugh doesn’t put Shey in the category of a wander beaten down by life trying to figure out where to go. He has a purpose.
“His life is a sermon,” Aughenbaugh said.
Shey predicates, according to Aughenbaugh by getting into chance conversations in his travels and letting people “on the perfect timing” that he attributes to the action of God. Take Saturday for instance. Shey had been trying to head south out, but met with little luck, a calm inner movement told him to try the other way. He quickly caught a north-bound ride and found himself where help was needed—helping Aughenbaugh build a Habitat for Humanity house.
“If I run into a brick wall, I say I’m going in another direction,” Shey said. “I hitchhike by faith. God protects me.”
In all his years of accepting the help of strangers and doing what popular opinion considers a good way to get killed, he has only felt endangered once.
On his way through New Mexico, Shey picked up a ride from two men. The trip ended at the trailer park where they lived. Outside the car, Shey continued his conversation with the driver, Apache. While they talked, Shey could see the other man flanking him. Then he pulled out a knife and lunged toward the hitchhiker. Shey jumped back.
“What are you guys trying to do rob me?” he said.
Apache called his friend an idiot and told him to put the knife away.
“That was the only time somebody pulled a knife on me and it was not that big of a deal,” Shey said.
Apache sent Shey on his way with a fist full of cash and even his blundering attacker gave him a dollar as he left.
On the other hand, he has also been offered a ride with the stipulation “sir, if you don’t kill me.”
“I think I‘m on the road to redeem the image of the hitchhiker,” he said.
According to Shey it’s five times more likely for the hitchhiker to be killed than for someone bumming a ride to be the murder.
He admits to getting tired of hitchhiking, but for feels that for now it’s his calling.
And if you’re driving, don’t miss the opportunity to give Shey a ride. He might write you into his next book.
The Victor library carries Shey’s first collection of recollections as well as his more recently published volume of tales, The First Time I Rode a Freight Train and Other Hitchhiking Stories.
The powerful play goes on
By David Stein Teton Valley News
July 21, 2016
Excerpt:
“Last night, LaPriel and I were driving home. We were just outside Newdale, Idaho about 25 miles from our farm, when we passed a hitchhiker.
“I only caught a glimpse of him as we were driving by at 65 miles per hour. He appeared to be fiftyish, clean shaven and standing with a large hiker’s backpack.
“I slowed and asked LaPriel if we should pick him up. She didn’t say no.
“I rarely pick up hitchhikers. More often in Mexico than in the U.S.
“My son and I had once stood hitchhiking with our backpacks outside Gardiner, Montana after finishing a three-day hike through Yellowstone National Park. I had wrongly assumed there would be a taxi or shuttle service in Gardiner at the conclusion of our hike.
“Fortunately, a guy from Cincinnati stopped and drove us back to our car. He had recognized the Cincinnati Reds jacket my son was wearing and decided he should help.
“Perhaps it was that memory that prompted me to pick up this hitchhiker. I slowed and turned our car around and drove past the man with the backpack. We decided he looked safe so we turned around again and picked him up.
“His name is Tim Shey. He said he has been hitchhiking full time for twenty years. He earns money working side jobs: landscaping, construction, working on farms.
“When he is close to running out of money, he buys a loaf of bread and starts looking for work. No peanut butter. Just bread. He said he is sick of peanut butter.
“Tim doesn’t have a tent. Just two sleeping bags. He sleeps in places where he won’t be bothered. He said he travels full time so he can share his Christian faith.
“I asked him what has changed about hitchhiking in the past twenty years. ‘For me, nothing,’ he said, ‘but, there are less people doing it.’
“‘How long does it take to get a ride?’ I asked.
“‘It depends,’ he said. ‘Sometimes five minutes. Sometimes and hour. If no one has stopped in an hour, I start walking.’
“He said when you are in your twenties, there is no better way to figure out what you want to do with your life then by hitchhiking across the country. Especially because of the random people you meet, and you see what they are doing for a living and how they like it.
“We dropped Tim at the gas station in Tetonia. He planned to stay at the city park and hitchhike to Jackson, Wyoming the next day.”
The Road 