Fantastic story about hitchhiking and inherent risks. I uses to hitchhike a lot when I lived in very rural areas, where nearest shop was 6 miles ago, buses further etc. I always met great people and had interesting conversations. They were a mixture between local and foreigners touring around. There are good peoole out there as well as bad. Had I ever had a strong feeling not to get in a car I wouldn't bit always felt safe. However many don't pick up hitchhikers anymore, as they are picking up random strangers. I wouldn't particularly recommend it, especially doing it alone, but thankfully I was always safe.