Beau Nobles had been in Cottonwood for about a week last Wednesday afternoon.
His home isn’t here, however. Or perhaps it is since you could argue that Nobles could call the American road his home.
Nobles is actually from Missouri and while he often calls the Show Me State home, he said he felt the need to hit the road once again.
“Back where I’m from it’s still snowing,” Nobles said.
The weather was a part of it.
Nobles was enjoying the sunny afternoon to relax a bit on the sidewalk outside the Cottonwood Journal Extra, taking a moment to sit down and grab some lunch out of a carton of Chinese noodles.
He’s got a big backpack strapped on filled with the essentials he needs to get around.
Until the day before, Nobles said he had carried a guitar around with him.
“I’d play here and there, busking where I could,” Nobles said.
He had to say goodbye to his traveling companion.
“It’s seen a lot of weather,” Nobles said. “It was also getting a little rusty.”
Nobles said he hitchhiked out to the Sedona area from Missouri; he had been there before but felt like returning.
Nobles had never been to Cottonwood, however, and caught a ride to come down and check it out.
“I’ll probably stay here until the end of April,” Nobles said.
Nobles said he’s made plenty of these hitchhiking trips around the country.
“I’ve been doing it for a few years,” Nobles said. “My first one was in 2011 when I was 20.”
Once it gets even warmer, Nobles said he wants to go to Colorado and then perhaps Oregon.
Nobles said sometime it can be difficult to find a ride on our modern American highways, but more often than not he gets where he’s going.
Phoenix, for instance, is a terrible place to try and hitchhike, Nobles said.
However, “there are a lot of good and helpful people out there,” Nobles added.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, April 22, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
