When I was in my early teens, I ended up going on a month long hitchhiking trip that finished by going from Santa Barbara to Eugene. At the time (late 80s) I t

When I was in my early teens, I ended up going on a month long hitchhiking trip that finished by going from Santa Barbara to Eugene. At the time (late 80s) I thought of California as a kind of harsh, materialistic, bourgeouis place and Oregon as more tolerant and enlightened. Heading up I-5 we had no trouble getting rides. Stick your thumb out and someone is stopping in five minutes. That happened right up to the Oregon border and then it stopped cold. We spent two nights sleeping at a rest stop until we got a ride north with some Mexican guys in a pickup. Moral of the story is your mileage may vary, I guess.