.....seeing as how a fellow Michigander brought up eastern Kentucky. Back in the spring of 1975 I was returning to Michigan after spending a couple months hanging out in Ft. Lauderdale. In downtown Lexington, as I drove I-75 north, a car chugged up beside me and a longhaired country boy rolled down the passenger side window and yelled a question to me..."Can you give a fella a ride to Michigan?". I could and so pulled over. He and some other back-packer dude jumped out of the first car and into my Olds and away we went. The back-packer was only going to Cincinnati, but the Kentucky fella went all the way up to near the Ohio/Michigan border with me. That was too long ago to remember his name, but I remember he was from the hills of far-east Ky. He was a fisher and hunter and we swapped stories as we drove north. He had a brother working up in Detroit and had gone north to work with his brother to make enough money to buy himself a vehicle. He did just that, and bought an old VW bug with his cash. He then headed on towards home but the first Ohio Trooper that saw him made him park the car until it had plates on it! He'd hitched back home, bought plates for the bug, and was hitching back north with them when I picked him up. He figured that bug was the ideal mountain hunt/fishmobile and was ecstatic to have finally had one of his very own. I have thought of that guy many times over the last 43 years, and wondered how he made out. I'm throwing the story out here in the wild hope that someone from eastern Kentucky is here on Tman and remembers a relative that once had to hitch a ride back north nearly to Michigan to retrieve his VW beetle. The guy would be in his early to mid 60's now, and may even have told his story a few times.

Hope you get to reconnect with him.

Hope you connect. He obviously made an impression.

Reminds me of my 1st Sgt.Ball(Green Beret) who was not only hard on me, but knew more about me at age 18 then I did myself. After many years gone by. I think I have located him in Arizona. Sarge

That is a long shot.

Would make a cool ending to your story.

Stranger things have happened.

Better chance finding him here I would think:
https://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/ ,,surely you already belong here, heck, even I belong here.

Excellent story, I'm glad my post sparked it. I'll keep my eyes peeled for a long haired fella driving an old bug while I'm down there!

Based on his stories, I'm guessing he'd be the guy chasing the trout hatchery truck.

The guy paid, in 1975, something like $15 or $20 per month rent on the coal company house he lived in!