Rajam Roose, South Island, New Zealand.

About the Author, Rajam Roose

Growing up in North Alabama, there was plenty of space for being outdoors, hiking and many rivers for rafting. These early experiences in the outdoors gave me a great love and appreciation of the natural world.

At fourteen years of age, my rebellious nature sent me to a wilderness school for 18 months where I lived with other teens in cabins that we designed and built ourselves. There was no radio or TV and we had minimum contact with the rest of society.

In my twentieth year, I was personally introduced to hitchhiking when my roommate's friend, who was hitchhiking around the country, stayed with us for a few days. Hearing his stories confirmed my inner suspicions that I would really enjoy hitchhiking. I tried a short 100 mile hitching trip and loved it so much that I used this avenue to make my dream of traveling finally became a reality.

The adventures and experiences I had were so incredible I immediately put them to paper where they languished for years before being noticed by a freelance editor (who discovered my stories on the once popular hitchhiker forum, Digihitch). He was instrumental in helping to polish the stories into a book.

Later, I spent sixteen years in the massage profession followed by ten years as the sole founder and organizer of the San Diego Pain Summit. I currently reside in San Diego and have spent time working a half acre property into a native habitat supporting native plants and wildlife.

I don’t hitchhike any longer but still enjoy traveling to new places!