The 80-Mile Hitchhike: When Freedom Met Foolishness (Part of the “Traveling While Black Gen X” series)

In 1987, I was just 18 — a college freshman at the University of Tampa and a brand-new Army Reservist trying to earn a $4,000 bonus. What should’ve been a routine weekend drill turned into one of the wildest, most dangerous journeys of my life.

No car. No money. No phone. Just a uniform, a highway, and the belief that I could walk 80 miles from Orlando back to Tampa — because, at that age, I thought I was invincible.

In this episode, I share how that long, dark walk down I-4 became a defining lesson about freedom, faith, and foolishness. From begging for food at a gas station to crawling under a resort fence just to use a phone, to being rescued by a kind Black couple at night — this story is about more than survival.

It’s about what it truly meant to be Black Gen X — the first generation told we were “free to move,” yet still learning that freedom didn’t always mean safety.

🎧 Tune in as I unpack how one night on a Florida highway revealed what Traveling While Black Gen X really felt like — equal parts courage, ignorance, and grace.

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