Modern Living: Hitchhiking by Air

Early this year, word seeped through the underground that the hippest new way to travel was overground—hitchhiking on the steadily growing fleet of 80,000 or so private American aircraft that are in service at any given time. Pilots of noncommercial planes found themselves confronted increasingly often by earnest youngsters holding signs that read "Boston," "Twin Cities," or simply "West" or "Europe"—and often the hitchhikers made it to their destinations. As a way of travel, hitchhiking by air is both adventurous and free, and has become popular enough to be declared illegal in Denver....