Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on traveling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape or on the journey of a lifetime. And that's really what I want to talk to you about today. The last podcast of the week on Saturday, the 12th of March 2022, it will be 100 years

since the great Jack Kerouac was born. He, of course, is the author of On the Road. He's one of

the beat generation. Indeed, it said that he actually coined the term

for the radical young people in the 1950s who began the transformation of America,

the hippie movement and all that stuff. But I want to talk about Jack Kerouac,

the hitchhiker, because look, I have a terrible confession to make until this week. I haven't

actually read on the road. But like so many people, I knew about it and I knew that it was a hitchhiker's Bible.

Indeed, my friend Chris and I decided that we would hitchhike across America simply to follow in his

tire tracks. And so we did, sort of.

We were slightly more successful than young Jack Kerouac.

He'd hit upon one long red line called Route 6

that led from the tip of Cape Cod,

clear to Ili, Ely Nevada, and then dip down to Los Angeles.

And he wanted to go to the promised land of California.

And he thought that would be the way to go.

In fact, on day one, he gave up about 40 miles from Manhattan and hitchback.

And then he got a bus as far as Chicago.

Now, when Chris and I hitched across America,

and by the way, two guys pitching across America,

no, it's not a great idea, We got as far as Colorado, surprisingly,

including one incredible lift from Lincoln in, I'm going to say Nebraska, yeah, one of those states,

all the way through to Boulder, Colorado. Basically, hitch a lift at the start of the day, 8 o'clock in the morning,

...