This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Up next, we have the voice of Thomas Weller,

aka the San Diego Highwayman. Thomas is

nationally recognized for doing something he simply calls playing on the freeway. But what he does

is truly much more. Here's Thomas with the story of why he decided he would dedicate much of his

life to helping people,

specifically stranded motorists on the side of the road.

Well, it was 1964, and I was out against my mother's wishes, Tom catting around in a snowstorm

one night, and I'm coming home about, oh, 1, 2 o'clock in the morning.

It was a blizzard, and it was a two-lane highway, and I was blown off the road into a snowbank and my 58 Chevy

X police car, and the top was white, and the back end, bottom was black.

That's all you could see of the car was the black trunk sticking out of the snowbank.

And I'd been there for a number of hours and I was freezing cold and a

fellow in a pickup came along only person that came by that night and he stopped and he

pulled me out with a chain and I said thank you and I tried to pay him. He wouldn't take any money.

What he said was,

passing on when you have a chance.

And I never even got his name.

I didn't really understand that he'd probably save my life until about two years later,

1966.

That's when I started doing what I do and have done ever since.

...