On The Road - 2

Have you ever been to Los Banos?

If you have been to a Mexican restaurant, You'll remember the sign Banos from The Bathrooms. Los banos itself is a city, However the part of it that Interstate 5 runs through (below)



Is nothing. Imagine before that truck, is a freeway ramp. Up this ramp you expect there to be civilization ... That's why it is there.
-WRONG-
There are 2 buildings on this ramp. 1 - A shell gas station (Not one of those traveler ones either, small one, Where they connect the bathroom key to a spare tire so you can't take it) 2 - a plywood fruit stand. Ending up in Las Banos was a fun experience. By this time, Shaun and I had picked up a third (I like to hitch in 3s) guy named Light (yes, his name was light), We where supposed to be going to L.A. to meet a friend at the LA Modeling agency, who was going to give us a ride to Arkansas (Thats a story for later). So we're hitching down and a guy in a white van picks us up about 50mi north of Banos, We get about half way and he says he needs gas. So we pull up to a TA (This is a big travel fuel stop), and just start talking to people. These nice guys who where on business from japan see us and start chatting, tell us about them and vice versa, We explained our situation and almost simultaneously they bust out their credit cards and ask which car. So they fill the tank, Must have been 30 gallons or so ... and this guy drives us 25mi to los banos, gets a call from his dealer and says he has to go pick something up he's leaving us here, he'll be back (he never came back...I guess drugs'll do that).
The only place to sleep around here is a vineyard right next to the freeway, so we crash there, wake up with the sun and start holding out our thumbs.

After about 6 or 7 hours, C.H.P (california highway patrol) pulls up, doesn't even step out of the car. Get's on the PA and starts yelling "Turn around with your backs to me, hands up" as we are raising them we hear - "Don't move, hands up" ... so we are there just standing for a minute (maybe not even a whole minute) that feels like forever, it's hot, we're irritated, and now we're in 'the position'. Cop get's out asks for our ID's (Which I didn't carry at the time), Runs our names (Clean!) ... And informs us we can not hitchhike on the road, or ramp we have to try the gas station (That's 1/2 of the local structures!).
So we tell him how we ended up there, ask if he can let us slide; "Nope, If my supervisor or colleagues drive past, I already called you in." (understandable) we ask how far to the next rest stop. 8 miles ... At this time my backpack (Huge hiking pack) weighs about 80LBS and Shaun and Light had close to or over that. So we ask for a ride ... Cop says "no .. uh ... well ... I dunno.", Looks around ... Scopes down the road at all 3 cars, and finally says "all right." So we load us 3 (And all our stuff) into his cruiser, He drives us down the road (Nice guy) to the rest stop, get's out when we do ... and just before he gets in his car, he takes out his wallet and gives us $12 (The entirety of his wallet) ... we says our good byes and sit down trying to get our next ride.

This rest stop was a god send, After the cop left, the vending machine guy comes to change out the products (2 days before expiration if you can believe it.) see's us hanging around, and bestows the contents unto us. We had cookies,candy, and chips for days. This rest stop also led to a 200-mile ride, But that (much like LA) is another story.