Getting out of Bozeman

It was the middle seventies when I was hitch-hiking my way across the USA. Didn't have any trouble getting to Bozeman, but it was a helluva time getting out. Couple of Billy-Bobs in a old pickup picked me up just past Helena. The passenger side guy stepped out so I could squeeze in the middle. That's always a little unnerving. The lads seemed a bit jacked on something, plus they were passing a hash-pipe back and forth. I'm sitting in the middle, so I just figure, when in Rome... Billy-Bob driving is giving her pretty good. Scary good. Ninety miles an hour on roads where a false move means a 900 foot plunge into the river below. I'm concerned, but the cardinal rule of hitch-hiking is you don't give the good samaritan who picked you up driving tips. Suddenly we pull to a stop on the side of the road, right behind another pickup. The driver reaches across and pulls a handgun out of the glove box. Buddy to my right explains, "we're just doing some business and he wants some protection." Alrighty then. I'm just catching a lift with these dudes. Deal done, we head on down the highway at 90mph. At the Bozeman turn-off they tell me I'm better off staying on the highway if I want to make it to Chicago, and before I had a chance to reflect, they left me under an overpass on the Interstate. That turned out to be my home for the next three days. You couldn't hitch a ride out of Bozeman to save your soul. Just before noon on day 3 an old bald guy in a Chrysler New Yorker pulled over. Praise the Lord! We weren't ten minutes down the highway and the dude was already rubbing my leg. Well, I really wanted to get the fuck out of Bozeman, so I let him rub my thigh a little longer than I otherwise would have, but at least I got out of Bozeman. Ten minutes with my thumb out and I'm sitting on the passenger side of a brand new Ford pickup. There's a young hispanic dude behind the wheel. His very pregnant girlfriend is sitting between us. He's working in a silver mine and they're just coming back from a medical appointment in Bozeman. When I tell them it took me three days to get a ride out of Bozeman, they tell me nobody picks up hitch-hikers around Bozeman because there's been a spate of random killings wherein hitch-hikers were victims but also possible perps...